message 0566

• How can the clan-based, spacefaring society of the Hani work?

>From: Lesley Grant <lgrant@maths.tcd.ie>
>Subject: Re: C. J. Cherryh List
>Date: Thu, 23 Sep 93 9:44:45 BST

> >From: seth@cie.uoregon.edu (Seth Scott)
 
> Which ought I to read next?  I know that Nancy posted me a fine list once upon
> a time, but I'm not sure I have it around anymore...

	Well, _Rimrunners_ takes place a year or so after _DS_. It
concerns Sgt. Bet Yeager, a Mazianni trooper who had the ill-luck to
be left behind at Pell when the AFRICA pulled out. It gives a good insight into
Fleet mentality. These people are *not* nice....:-)
   	After that, you might want to try _Merchanter's Luck_, for a
merchanter's look at the War, _40 000 in Gehenna_ for a Union response to
the War, and _Cyteen_ for a Union-uber-alles-we-won-the-War. _Heavy Time_
and _Hellburners_ take place right at the start of the War, and show us
some favourite unpleasant people when they were young and idealistic.

> >From: "Nancy Silberstein" <silbersteinn@a1.mscf.upenn.edu>
 
> Lesley, thanks for the explication of hani kinship webs.  Has that 
> explanation made all clear to me?  No.  Is the problem with your 
> explanation?  No.  Do I see the value of an interest in pre-monarchial 
> Israel?  Definitely.

	Er, yes, I do tend to assume everyone knows what, say, an amphictyony 
is (silly me. At least I didn't put in theories about links with Hebrew
grammar...:-) Don't let me waffle on ad infinitum about things no one else
has any use for!

Amphictyonies and Immune clans:
	The classic form of the amphictyony is that found at Delphi: the
groups in the region declared non-aggression and mutual aid pacts, each
taking care of the central shrine for a set time each year, which they
were also sworn to protect. In ancient Israel, Martin Noth suggested that
the model of the Delphi amphictyony could apply to the shrines first of
Gilgal and then of Shiloh, with each of 12 tribes caring for the central
shrine one month out of the year, and, eventually, the growth of one of
the tribes to the status of permanent, landless, "Immune" guardians of the
shrine. [This theory is no longer accepted in Biblical studies for reasons
which have no place on the list].
	As a classicist, Cherryh is probably using the Delphi amphictyony
as her model, but could likely be aware of Noth's modifications. She has
her amphictyonies based not only around shrines, but also around "crucial
trade routes, shrines, mountain passes, dams -- things which were generally 
the focus of ambition". Access for all to these important places was 
"usually done by declaring the are in question protected". As can be seen,
it is the thing/place that is being protected. Eventually the clan on
whose land the protected place is also becomes protected, as they are the
people with the most experience at managing the place and at making it
available to others: "a clan whose hold over a particular resource must
not change, because of the need of the surrounding clans to have that
resource managed over the long term by a clan with experience and peculiar
skill" [all quotes _Chanur's Venture_, p296]. The Immune clan is not being
protected for its own sake, but for the sake of the amphictyony as a whole
and for the sake of the central focus place/thing, which must not be
subjected to wars or changes over its possession. Also, the Immunes seem
more or less taken out of the greater political arena: they may guard a
"focus of ambition", but they are stopped from rising too high by means
of that guardianship. All their energies go into making sure the Sacred
Foobar is safe and accessible to their neighbours, they can't go on a quest
for world domination based on ownership of the Foobar. The Immune-clan
system protects society by safeguarding the "focus of ambition", allowing
all clans in the region to use it, and by limiting the ambition of the
clan that 'owns' the focus, directing their energies to serving their
amphictyony by allowing all access to the focus.

		Lesley