message 0543

• How do the Hani clans work?

>From: Lesley Grant <lgrant@maths.tcd.ie>
>Subject: cherryhlist/replies from the past
>Date: Fri, 17 Sep 93 9:10:59 BST

> >From: "Nancy Silberstein" <silbersteinn@a1.mscf.upenn.edu>
 
> I'm trying to internalize hani clan relationships.  Females mate outside 
> the clan but remain to defend their brothers and their "birth" clan in some 
> cases.  Tahy Mahn backs her brother, Kara Mahn, when Kara attempts to take 
> Chanur from Pyanfar's brother, Kohan Chanur.  To help her hold Chanur for 
> him, Pyanfar counts on "Huran and some of the other mates" and "his score of 
> daughters."  "Daughters, mates and...several more half-sisters, who were 
> the most reliable of the lot."  Would Pyanfar have tried to keep Khym in 
> power if she'd been around?  Hilfy definitely would, I gather.  That's why 
> Khyn suddenly capitulated and sent her off on the Pride.
> 

	Women *are* the clan, men are temporary (in childhood and if they
get to be lords) members. While women have the right to a clan name men
don't, necessarily: Hallan thinks his father would kill him, when the mahe
dock supervisor calls him "Meras". Marriage may be a solely upper class
institution, linking families together for alliance and trade. All the
married hani we see are upper class, and their names tell you what clans
they are linked to, ie Hilfy Chanur par (maternal-daughter-of) Faha. Lower
class hani might not marry, but have children with men in Hermitage. 
Appearances notwithstanding, marriage isn't really polygamous: the emphasis
is on a lot of women with one husband, rather than one man with a lot of
wives. Children are members of the clan their mother has married in to
(and maintain the alliance even if their father falls in challenge: Hilfy
is happy she had no kids, to tie her to Sfaura forever). One's loyalty
is ultimately to one's birth clan, as a married woman seems to be a 
representative of her clan's interests in the territory of her husband's clan.
(Kohan's Llun wife stays with him because she's been downworld so long she's
"forgotten she was Llun"). Real power in the clan resides in the lord's
full sisters, who are married off to allied clans, his half sisters, and
his aunts (who may well be the old lord's sisters), who have the most
experience. Adult daughters are also important, but may not be at home, as
they too will be forging alliances with other clans.

			Lesley