Helios

Helios

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.=====

2. What are the roles of the members of the family in the subsistence system you've chosen?
 * Is it a nuclear family
 * Is it an extended family? Who does it include?
 * Are there households of non-kin? Who can co-habit this way?

3. Is your descent system unilineal?


 * 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?


 * 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?


 * 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?

13. Where do the married couple reside after they are married?

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? - GENDER QUESTIONS

1. How is gender identity reflected in differernces in clothing, behaviour, speech, etc.?

2. What are the gender roles of men and women, boys and girls in the domestic sphere and in subsistence labour?

3. What gender roles are apparent in economic activities, political organization, and religion?

4. What gender status differences are there between men and women?

5. What control do women have over divorcing their husbands?