Group+H

Helios Helios
 * When you have figured out your culture name, change the link name 'Group H' to the culture's name. ||

You live at the northern end of the continent. Off-shore there are several large uninhabited islands, home to marine birds and mammals. The ocean between the islands and the coast is fairly shallow. Inland the land rises slowly towards the mountains to the south. There is no major river, but there are numerous small creeks running through the southern foothills. These creeks collect into numerous small ponds, bogs, and small lakes. The cool season produces temperatures around 5-10C with a lot of rain, but temperatures rise to 20C during the warm season with little rain.

Name your homeland. Name your people(s). Name the prominent geographic features of your homeland. Populate your homeland. What biota exist in your homeland? What natural resources are available? What natural resources are needed?


 * SUBSISTENCE**

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

foraging pastoralism horticulture agriculture

2. What resources does your territory have to support your subsistence pattern(s)?

3. How do the climate and seasons in your territory affect your subsistence pattern(s)?

4. How will your subsistence pattern(s) relate to your population size and location?

5. How will the labour involved in subsistence be distributed among your people?

6. What technology do your people use for subsistence purposes?

7. What impact does your subsistence have on the environment?

8. How do your people clothe themselves?

9. What type of shelter(s) do your people live in?

10. Do your people have material goods? What kinds? Where do they come from?

11. What is your people’s diet? How do they prepare food? What is a typical meal?

12. Are there any celebrations centred on subsistence issues e.g. a harvest celebration? Are there special ceremonial or ritual foods?

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.

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Bearing your subsistence strategy in mind, consider what kind of kinship system, descent rules, and marriage rules your culture will have. =====

1. Describe the typical family or household unit in your culture:
Our family unit consists of an extended family living under the same roof. We have Grandparents (of the fathers side) Along with Mother and Father and finally 5 or less children of the Mother and Father. There will also be two house-holds for hunting men where they spend two weeks out of a month away from their families. 2. What are the roles of the members of the family in the subsistence system you've chosen? 1. Women work in the fields tending the crops all day. They also do some gathering for the entire tribe. 2. THe elderly make sure the children are getting a well rounded education about what their duties will be when they get older and making sure they learn what their roles in the society will be. 3. Men play a very important role. The majority of men will be hunters whether it be small game or big. They also will help tend to the crobs and make sure there is construction of housing and sheds and fencing for the animals.

3. Is your descent system unilineal? No our descent system is cognatic

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4. Does your population support lineages? There is no real linage in our tribe we will have every person working on either hunting, gathering, tending crops, building, cooking, taking care of children. So there will be no one person higher up than another person. They work on the same level making sure that everyone has equal rights and no one is favoured in the tribe.=====

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5. Does your population support the creation of clans? Yes our population will create a clan when it is big enough right now we have enough resources to keep the tribe in one place all together. When the tribe gets over 5000 people the tribe will break off in 2 or 3 different tribes, which in turn will form a clan. Our tribe is one where everyone is equal and where everyone does something that they are good at and enjoy to help out everyone in the tribe. We do not need a leader.=====


 * 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?


 * What specific group is one expected to find a spouse from?


 * If so, does it include both polygyny and polyandry or just one?


 * by the individuals themselves?
 * by the individuals' parents?
 * by supernatural means or by a match-maker?

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11. Does the marriage involve bride wealth or dowry or some other arrangement of gift-giving? The marriage involves the mans family giving the females family a camel and one other small hunted game animal. In return the male will get the female.=====

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12. Describe about the wedding ceremony/ritual/celebration. Wedding ceremony/ritual/celebration. Will be a small celebration with the extended family of both the male and female that are getting married. There will be a roast of the small hunted game animal that the male gave the females family. The extended family of both sides will have to sing the song of marriage from both tribes and that will mean they are married.=====

13. Where do the married couple reside after they are married? The married couple will reside where ever the male is from.

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 2. What labour is involved in your subsistence? Who does what? 3. Are people compensated for their labour? If so, how? 4. What goods are produced in your culture? Is it through households or occupations? Small-scale handicrafts or large-scale industrialized products? 5. What rituals or ceremonies are the basis for generalized reciprocity? balanced reciprocity? What gift giving is involved? 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?) 7. Is there any form of redistribution of goods and services? 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? 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?

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?

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?

4. How does a leader maintain influence/authority/power? Can the leader be replaced? If so, how?

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).

6. How does your culture make decisions that affect the whole community?

7. How does your culture deal with inappropriate social behaviour and crime?

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).

10. Is there external strife between your culture and another culture? Describe how/why it occurs. How is peace achieved/achievable?


 * RELIGIOUS BELIEF SYSTEM**

1. Does your culture worship a deity or deities?

2. If your culture is monotheistic...

What does God look like? What role does God play in people’s lives?

3. If your culture is polytheistic...

How many gods are there? What do they look like? Do different gods have different responsibilities in the world? e.g. death, fertility, rain

4. Does your culture have ancestor veneration? Is it totemic? How does ancestral veneration work?

5. Does your culture believe in animism or animatism? How does it work?

6. Is there a belief in ghosts and demons? What role do they play? Can they be controlled or used?

7. What is the culture’s mythology?

How did the world begin? How were humans created? What stories explain the existence of things? of culture? What happens to people after death? What moral lesson are taught?

8. How do people 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?

12. Are there rites of passage? If so, what rites are there? e.g. mortuary, marriage, birth

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? 15. Have there been changes in belief? Conflicts? Have these resulted in cults or movements? How have these been handled by the social structure?