Verendus

GROUP E

Your territory is dominated by a large lake fed by mountain rivers, and there are foothills to the north. A big river flows south from the lake. To the north of the lake is a mountain pass connecting your territory to the north. A smaller pass to the northwest connects your territory to the west. Temperatures range from 5C to 15C in the cool season and 15C to 25C in the warm season. Rainfall varies considerably from year to year.

Name your homeland. Verendus Name your people(s). Verendans Name the prominent geographic features of your homeland. Large lake, rivers, and plains. Populate your homeland. What biota exist in your homeland? Small amphibious creatures, fish, small animals, varied mountainous animals such as mountaingoats, and other What natural resources are available? Water, flora, berries, fish, forests, mining, bee farming? What natural resources are needed?


 * SUBSISTENCE**

1. What pattern(s) of subsistence will your culture follow? foraging horticulture

2. What resources does your territory have to support your subsistence pattern(s)? Lake- allows for fishing and hunting Riverbanks- fertile land and fresh drinking water Mountainous terrain- Good for foraging, hunting, and wide variety of plant life.

3. How do the climate and seasons in your territory affect your subsistence pattern(s)? During the cool season, the Verendus stay in a large group. They create communities and live together, but in the summer, they break off into smaller groups so that it is easier to forage. In smaller groups, it is easier to gather food and hunt which will allow for a large diversity of food in the winter when everyone regroups.

> summer is when horticulture takes places; how do the Verendans forage AND do horticulture?

4. How will your subsistence pattern(s) relate to your population size and location? During the winter, the Verendans live in one large group of about 500 people. During the they break off into smaller groups that are nomadic and stock up for the winter.

5. How will the labour involved in subsistence be distributed among your people? They are gender equal society.

6. What technology do your people use for subsistence purposes? They build nets, baskets, spears, clothing, projectile weapons, etc.

7. What impact does your subsistence have on the environment? It has a small impact because they only take what they need.

8. How do your people clothe themselves? In the summer the attire is light and breezy, generally exposed arms and legs. In the winter, they tend to bundle up with animal skins and furs.

9. What type of shelter(s) do your people live in? In the winter, they live in a large community. There will be around 3 to 4 families in one hut. In the summer, the smaller groups will set up individual, temporary sleeping shelters.

10. Do your people have material goods? What kinds? Where do they come from? They make medicines and art (pottery, beads, baskets). Clothing. They not only make medicine, but creams and foods, which are good for trading.

11. What is your people’s diet? How do they prepare food? What is a typical meal? The diet consists of fish, potatoes, and assorted green vegetables.

12. Are there any celebrations centred on subsistence issues e.g. a harvest celebration? Are there special ceremonial or ritual foods? Spring runoff celebration; mass skinny dipping, the runoff symbolizes the water cleansing like the changing of the seasons.

Note: depending on your choice of subsistence pattern(s), you may have to do some reseearch to fully answer these questions. For example, if you chose ‘horticulture,’ you should know something about how to grow food and/or raise animals. If you chose ‘foraging,’ you should know something about wild foods. And so on.

2. What are the roles of the members of the family in the subsistence system you've chosen? Everybody works, and the same jobs apply to everyone.
 * Is it a nuclear family - They are closest to the Hawaiian family structure
 * Is it an extended family? Who does it include? - It is an extended family and includes the entire Verendan population.
 * Are there households of non-kin? Who can co-habit this way? - They are nomadic so they they will live with whoever joins them from their tribe.

3. Is your descent system unilineal? No they are cognatic and ambilineal.


 * If so, will it be patrilineal or matrilineal?
 * If it is patrilineal, is it also patriarchal?
 * If it is not unilineal, what kind of cognatic system is it?
 * ambilineal

4. Does your population support lineages?
Yes, all trace there heritage back to the Verendae; the first of their race to discover the lake and settle down.


 * If so, how many lineages are there? How many families in each lineage?
 * If so, what are the corporate powers of the lineage?
 * If so, is each lineage associated with a particular skill, occupation, or trait?

no.

 * If so, what lineages belong to what clans?
 * If so, who is the apical ancestor mythological or just forgotten?
 * If so, do your clans have distinct totems? What do they symbolize?
 * If so, do your clans have chiefs?


 * If so, what are the two moieties called?
 * If so, how does an individual inherit his/her moiety?

7. What kinship system does your culture have? (Eskimo, Hawaiian, Iroquois... ?)
Hawaiian

8. Does your culture practise endogamy or exogamy?
Exogamy


 * What specific group is one expected to find a spouse from?
 * outside of the nuclear family

No
 * If so, does it include both polygyny and polyandry or just one?

The spouses are selected by the individual themselves. Also by their characteristics such as physical symmetry, and ability much like north american culture.
 * by the individuals themselves?
 * by the individuals' parents?
 * by supernatural means or by a match-maker?

11. Does the marriage involve bride wealth or dowry or some other arrangement of gift-giving?
No

12. Describe about the wedding ceremony/ritual/celebration.
A big community feast

13. Where do the married couple reside after they are married? In the big hut in the winter, and whatever nomadic tribe in the summer.

Economic System

1. Taking your subsistence into account, what resources are needed and how will they be allocated in your culture? e.g. land tenure, access to raw materials ~ land is communally shared, resources are allocated through redistribution by the chief and spiritual leader. 2. What labour is involved in your subsistence? Who does what? ~Fishing, lumber harvesting, small game hunting, large game, vegetable gathering. Division of labor is equal across gender, however large game is predominantly hunted by the men. 3. Are people compensated for their labour? If so, how? ~ Collective redistribution, as in food. 4. What goods are produced in your culture? Is it through households or occupations? Small-scale handicrafts or large-scale industrialized products? ~ Body care products, eg: lotions, soap, coffee, hemp product such as rope and muscle linament. Mostly through outside labor. 5. What rituals or ceremonies are the basis for generalized reciprocity? balanced reciprocity? What gift giving is involved? ~Trance ritual for transition from kid to adult, celebrating the growth of the body with the growth of the mind in concert with the spirit. ( Herbs induced ) 6. Is there trade within your culture? With another culture? What is the basis of the transaction? (i.e. barter? money? some other medium of exchange?) ~Balanced trade system. 7. Is there any form of redistribution of goods and services? ~within the community 8. If you decide on a market-based economy, describe the allocation of labour, the means of production, the products, who are the consumers, etc. 9. Does your group trade with another group? What is traded? How is trade incorporated into the economic system? ~ Fresh water, fish, coffee, berries, minerals, coal, gems. 10. Is the distribution of wealth equitable in your culture or are there differences in social status, wealth, and prestige? How is wealth achieved? maintained? displayed? ~egalitarian, prestige gained through generosity and skills.

POLITICAL SYSTEM

When considering these following questions, keep in mind the subsistence strategy/strategies and economic system you have developed so far. Population size is also a factor. Later, religion may also be a consideration.

1. What kind of political organization(s) will your culture have?

• uncentralized bands • uncentralized tribes • **centralized chiefdoms** • centralized states

2. If your culture has a leader, how does a person acquire this status? What are his/her responsibilities to the community? The chief will be chosen by spiritual means, and the summer tribe chiefs will be chosen as children by the main chief, **McGuiver**. 3. If your culture has a centralized leader, what is his/her title? What social stratification is in place to support the political system? What bureaucracy and institutions are needed? Chief/Paramount chief.

4. How does a leader maintain influence/authority/power? Can the leader be replaced? If so, how? He/she maintains power and authority both through proper treatment of his community members, and physical presence. As the chief is chosen by spiritual means, he may only be replaced in the event that he/she has disregarded their duties and responsibilities which has affected the community in a negative manner. The new chief in this eventuality will be chosen by spiritual means again, or a prominent member may defeat the derrilect chief in combat and assume temporarily the role of chief.

5. How does your culture deal with conflict and disagreement among its people? (Consider how you answered this in the very first exercise we did). Ask the chief and spiritual leader for advice/guidance, have a community discussion on the matter. When relations break down **completely**, the conflicting persons **may** engage in singular hand-to-hand combat on a platform in the lake. The one who falls in/gets knocked in, or is otherwise unable to continue combat is declared the loser; thereby conflict is resolved for either side.

6. How does your culture make decisions that affect the whole community? The chief and spiritual leader bring options to the gathered community, and for the most part public opinion determines the resolution. However if it is within the realm of one or the others expertise then they will be able to sway the community quite easily in favor of their option.

7. How does your culture deal with inappropriate social behaviour and crime? For inappropriate social behaviour or crime, the matter is brought before the chief and community as a whole, and personal sanctions may be imposed. These may consist of; rationing of food or water, isolation from group activities, and increased labour expectations. In situations that involve theft, what has been stolen is to be repaid twofold. Social sanctions decided by severity of transgression.

8. What are typical negative social sanctions in your culture? Typical positive social sanctions?

9. Is there internal strife within your culture? Describe how it occurs, why it occurs, and how it is resolved (if it is). The younger generations are in turmoil over whether spiritual culture is as important as it is to the other generations, many are interested in exploring more of the island and even other lands. 10. Is there external strife between your culture and another culture? Describe how/why it occurs. How is peace achieved/achievable? When other cultures impede upon our basin, our foraging boundaries, or our food/resources, strife may arise. The culture of the Verendus is one of hidden warring prowess, and as such when conflict with other cultures arises, the intruding culture is beaten back out of the territory. In opposition to many other cultures, the Verendans do not pursue further fighting after the assailant is driven out of the basin. "We fight to protect our own, with valor, determination, and no quarter! We do not look for fights, we do not seek death, but if it comes we will spill their lifeblood and let the water wash away the residue!"


 * RELIGIOUS BELIEF SYSTEM**

1. Does your culture worship a deity or deities? In a manner of speaking, the Verendus believe in animism, that is to say that everything has a specifc spirit and corresponding power/ability. 2. If your culture is monotheistic...

What does God look like? What role does God play in people’s lives? It is the spiritual icon, the giver of fertility, rain, sustenence, healing, and the natural cleanser.

3. If your culture is polytheistic...

How many gods are there? ~One for each element. What do they look like? ~ Do not have corporeal bodies. Flow like water. Do different gods have different responsibilities in the world? e.g. death, fertility, rain ~ each spirit is responsible for the object it inhabits, water god for the lake and river, weather god for the weather, earth god for the land, etc.

4. Does your culture have ancestor veneration? Is it totemic? How does ancestral veneration work? ~no 5. Does your culture believe in animism or animatism? How does it work? ~animism 6. Is there a belief in ghosts and demons? What role do they play? Can they be controlled or used? ~no 7. What is the culture’s mythology? ~ Verendae is the common ancestor that is believed to be the godchild of the original elemental spirits, it is believed he had special abilities, was the first of the verendans to rain down. ~ the spiritual elements came together and manifested as the physical realm.

How did the world begin? How were humans created? ~ Rained down from the elemental spirits, into the lake, combined with minerals and earth and they grew from organisms in the lake. What stories explain the existence of things? of culture? What happens to people after death? ~ they rejoin the elemental spirits What moral lesson are taught? ~ Respect for nature, and all life, but not to be taken advantage of. 8. How do people worship? ~ Free range for worship on their own? with religious specialists? healers, diviners, mediums, shamans, priests/priestesses? a bit of both? who does what?

10. If there are religious specialists...

how do they become religious specialists? how do they connect with the supernatural world? manipulate it? what is their social status?

11. Is there a belief in magic used? How is it used for good or bad? How do people protect themselves from bad magic? ~ no 12. Are there rites of passage? If so, what rites are there? e.g. mortuary, marriage, birth ~ yes the spring runnoff, and transition to adulthood trance. 13. Are there rites of intensification? If so, for what purposes? e.g. fertility, drought, epidemics

14. How are the rituals in 12 & 13 performed? e.g what offerings, sacrifices, symbols, actions, language, costumes, masks, performances, etc. are involved? By whom? ~ by the individual 15. Have there been changes in belief? Conflicts? Have these resulted in cults or movements? How have these been handled by the social structure? ~ Younger generations want to leave and explore.

GENDER QUESTIONS

1. How is gender identity reflected in differernces in clothing, behaviour, speech, etc.? ~ Gender neutral. 2. What are the gender roles of men and women, boys and girls in the domestic sphere and in subsistence labour? ~ everyone isexpected to do the same amount of work. 3. What gender roles are apparent in economic activities, political organization, and religion? ~ Egalitarian 4. What gender status differences are there between men and women? ~ none 5. What control do women have over divorcing their husbands? ~ control is mutual.