Sumnė

The Sumnė are an ethnicity comprising both semi-sedentary and nomadic hunter-gatherers who spoke Old Sumrë. They are a subset of Nebyetic peoples of the species Homo spargere who lived in the Mӑgalsjo territory of Malomanan during the Sumric Golden Age.

= Ethnonyms = The name Sumnė (Sg: Sumna) is from the verb sumen ("to travel") with -na ("person, human, do-er") suffixed. This is in reference to the nomadic lifestyle of the vast majority of the Sumnė. The name is infact a calque of the earlier Proto-Sumric ethnonym *synnaha (Sg: *synna) which was built from the same morphemes; *syn- ("to travel" - ancestor of sumen) + *na- ("person, human"). If the name hadn't been reformed in Old Sumrë and had been passed down, sound changes would have caused *synnaha to become sunnė (Sg: sunn). Descendants of the Proto-Sumric term survived into its other daughters giving Hajec sin and Old Tuura synawo (Sg: syni). The Proto-Sumric term was loaned into Proto-Jaronic as the root *sén- giving *sénes ("Sumna, speaker of Proto-Sumric") although the descendants of this came to refer to anyone that wasn't a Teranazin.

During the Sumric Golden Age the term Sumnė was used to refer to the Old Sumrë speakers dwelling in Mӑgalsjo but in later times it came to be used as an umbrella term for the various ethnicities that descend from the Sumnė of the golden age. Each modern Sumric language uses its own descendant of Old Sumrë's Sumnė to refer to this: Sefu (Risorese), Sef (Meddió), Chmwun (Chozh), Swo (South Luabian), ícje méar híar

The Mangeodge languages are the exception to this as their terms for the Sumnė are completely unrelated to the Proto-Sumric term. Instead they refer to them with their respective descendant of the Proto-Mangeodge exonym *dawoač meaning "wolf foreigner" (The Sumnė were the first people to domesticate dogs, to the Mangeodge they appeared as strange foreigners with wolves.) which include: dvuas (Romoruzian, Rovianzian), ícje méar híar

= Totems = Every single Sumnė has an associated totem which is important in navigating the spirituality of the Sumnė. The totem is typically an animal but in some rare cases it can be a god or another spirit. The totem is determined before an individual is even born. When a woman was pregnant her family would seek out a shaman who would perform divinations in which he would experience visions, and in these visions the child's totem would be revealed.

=Hrotȯngi vs Aafmürpat= The Sumnė are divided into two main groupings which are Hrotȯngi to refer to the egalitarian fully nomadic people and Aafmürpat to refer to the semisedentary nonegalitarian people. While both groups have their differences, they both recognise their common identity as Sumnė with their shared language and mythology.

Hrotȯngi
The name Hrotȯngi means "footed, with feet", coming from tȯngi which was a very archaic term for "foot" (cf Old Tuura dörgi, Hajec töök & Old Mangeodge tricgevi - all meaning "foot"). This is in reference to how these people are fully nomadic, moving around 12-14 times a year and traveling 30-50km when they do, covering a total yearly range of 420-700km. The Hrotȯngi live in habitats which are quite unforgiving, with a lack of rich and predictable resources. They have a rather low population density, with scattered bands of 15-25 people being the norm, as such their range, known as the Hrotȯngimau territory, covers the vast majority of Mӑgalsjo with various habitats such as marine and humid forests, shores and grasslands, steppes, northerly taiga forest. All major mountain ranges in Mӑgalsjo are within Hrotȯngimau. Hrotȯngi men hunt medium to large game such as giant sloths, mammoths, elk, deer and bison while the women gather herbs, berries and fruits, with women infrequently hunting smaller game, such as hares or other rodents, when the opportunity arises. The Hrotȯngi are egalitarian with no hierarchies present, at most a band will have a single elder man responsible for making decisions but only when the need arises (such as strife or if the group gets quite large and needs management or when interacting with the Aafmürpat).

Community
Warfare is incredibly rare among the Hrotȯngi, with other methods of conflict resolution such as humour to diffuse a tense situation (as such most Škadrinsolks or "laughing shamans" tend to be Hrotȯngi), or song duels where two enemies can peacefully compete, or simply moving camp and travelling away from an enemy. As such they rarely carry weapons and never make them, preferring to carry only tools that are essential for day-day life. This utilitarian view is also present in how they prefer undecorated and plain clothes and tools, thinking that decoration is like "antlers on a sterile stag, slow in the making and quick to be useless". Rather they prefer simple tools and clothing that is quick to make and easy to repair. Ownership of material property as a concept is not important to the Hrotȯngi. To them a person should have only what is needed and no more, a useful ideology when you uproot and move your whole household once a month. The Hrotȯngi also don't accumulate any wealth, rather they accumulate favours among each other. When a hunter brings home a large kill he has a lot of leftover meat after his family has taken its share. preserving the meat takes effort plus it is better to have no stored food to weigh you down when moving campsites so more advantageous use of this extra meat is to give it away to his peers. Not only does he improve his own social standing but by doing this he can either pay off old favours or indebt others to him so that he can recall future favours from them when needed. People who don't participate in sharing are seen as "greedy" and "bad people" and they are punished with little help being offered to them, or in some cases being exiled from a band.

Moving camp is accomplished by dismantling the hut, often made of several layers of hide strewn over a frame made of mammoth tusks, and loading everything onto a dog pulled sleigh. This is an anxious time as people are most at risk of predation or exposure to storms. When a sleigh is attacked by a predator the Hrotȯngi unleash the dogs from their reigns so that they can help ward off predators, or to let them run away and not be an easy target bound by rope. A scene like this is portrayed in The Book of Altasi: "The dogs being all bound by rope to the sledge made them an incredibly easy target. The nomads had tried to chase away the sabre tooths but they failed to do so before a number of their dogs had been mauled. The only thing to be done was to cut the dogs free before the rest died".

Bsamkos
While the Hrotȯngi had no kingdoms or feircly held territories, they did have the bsamkos, a bsamkos was an area with no clear set borders which came along with certain rights, such as the right to hunt certain game or to gather certain plants. Indeed the very word bsamkos itself means "dominion, property, extent of influence, right". A member of a bsamkos was called a bsamkosna roughly meaning "countryman/woman" or "person of the dominion" and each countryman held the rights pertaining to his bsamkos. An individual did not live his whole life within his bsamkos, indeed he may have spent most of his life outside of it, but it was common for a countryman to speak fondly of his bsamkos, wishing that his body be laid to rest there when the time came. A bsamkos was not an inalienable unchangeable right and it was possible for a countryman to have several bsamkoses via various means. Below are listed the various conditions by which a man may be considered a countryman of a bsamkos:


 * 1) If he or she was born there.
 * 2) If his or her mother was born there.
 * 3) If his or her grandparents were born there.
 * 4) If one of his or her immediate family members (parents, siblings, children) died there but not if the relative died fighting a countryman of that bsamkos.
 * 5) If he or she fell gravely sick and was nursed to health there (seen as being "reborn" which qualifies him for #1).
 * 6) If his or her birthplace has a mythological connection to the bsamkos (i.e appears in the same story).
 * 7) If he is initiated there.
 * 8) If he meets an older countryman whose son has the same totem as him then the elder man may choose to consider the man as his son which gives him rights to his bsamkos.
 * 9) If he has a namesake name and a countryman who, if he had a namesake derived from his name, would end up with the same name as the man. The elder man may choose to consider the man as his son which gives him rights to his bsamkos.

Much of Hrotȯngimau was bsamkoramajėsonsӑvo ("beyond bsamkos") which is land which belongs to no bsamkos and could be used by anyone. Such lands tended to be poorer in resources as all the valuable lands were claimed as bsamkoses. Holding several bsamkoses was seen as a positive thing as it meant an individual had an extra place to live in case his own bsamkos experienced famine for a time. Men with valuable or multiple bsamkoses were highly valued as potential husbands as any right that the husband holds is true for his wife and children.

The right of a bsamkos could also be revoked by other members of that bsamkos if an individual committed any taboos or if he is seen as being too stingy with his sharing (or lack thereof).

Old Age
When a Hrotȯngi reached an age where he or she had limited mobility and could not be a productive member to the family, the elderly relative was either ritually killed (only if the elder wished it) or sent to live in an iswaagvar with the Aafmürpat where a settled lifestyle would be much easier during the last few years of life. The latter option was not preferred as the family would have to make a payment of furs or meat to the people of the iswaagvar in return for care of the elderly relative. Rather it was seen as more honourable for the elderly to chose a ritualistic death.

Aafmürpat
The name Aafmürpat means "they who hoard" (from aafmuen "to hoard") which is in reference to how they store food rather than immediately sharing it with peers. Note that this is not what they called themselves, they called themselves Aafmuud (" we who hoard"). The Aafmürpat were semi-sedentary, they only moved a few times a year or even once every few years. They had a much higher population density than the Hrotȯngi and their range of Mӑgalsjo, known as Aafmuudmau, covered a much smaller area than Hrotȯngimau although its lands gave higher and more predictable resources which allowed them to invest in storing food. These habitats included the southernmost marine forests and shores, as well as southernly stretches of the taiga forest. The Aafmürpat lived in settlements of various sizes: iswaagvars ("rest realm") or small villages of around 30-50 people, tȯngiernavars ("great foot realm") villages of around 50-300 people, and bsakuvars ("outstanding/incredible/prime real") or towns of up to 300-600 people (in very rare cases some settlements reached upwards of 1000 people). Rather than sharing food for favours and social prestige, the Aafmürpat invest in storing food in hoards, with each family building up a sizeable hoard to help them survive through times of hunger. It is actually this hoarding that caused the Aafmürpat lifestyle to emerge. Before the Sumric Golden Age all Sumnė lived as the fully nomadic Hrotȯngi but eventually the nomads in what became Aafmuudmau saw storing food as a more attractive option that sharing, for those areas had more predictable weather with more predictable resources. So if a famine strikes an area it would affect everyone the same making redeeming favours useless. Instead this sharing culture was replaced by a hoarding one. Each family invested in building up a hoard, preserving food using a mixture of ice, salt and smoking. The act of storing food had a massive knock on effect which defined everything about who the Aafmürpat were, so great that the beginning of the Aafmürpat is what defines the beginning of the Sumric Golden Age. All literature, carvings, and other art from this time is exclusively from the Aafmürpat.

Food hoarding
The first effect of food storage was a population boom and a reduction in mobility, with a large hoard moving camp was made more difficult (as any Hrotȯngi would care to tell you) and so people became more sedentary. As people stopped moving as much, the areas around settlements became more depleted of resources which forced hunters and gatherers to travel further away from home on hunting/foraging trips. Being further away from resources placed an even heavier incentive to rely on food hoards, creating a feedback loop. As parents had to go on longer trips for food the children left at home were looked after by the village and so there was a rise in peer-rearing. The increased population also put a strain on resources which pressures an increase in household production to keep families afloat, with this came a more pronounced cultural emphasis on women as a source of domestic labour, being responsible for foraging plants, cooking meals, making clothes and tending to the house and children. Men on the other hand spent more time away from their families on long hunting trips or raids on other settlements (made worthwhile thanks to there being food hoards to steal) which reinforced the idea of women being the stable force of the home - and so the Aafmürpat became matrilocal, husbands moved to live with their wives family after marriage. The segregation of tasks based on gender became more pronounced, to the point of becoming taboo. By their cultural laws a man was forbidden from gathering certain plants or making/mending clothes and it was forbidden for a woman to hunt any animal, so much that it was taboo for her to even touch weapons. Women became associated with bad luck with hunting. When a woman was on her period a man could not utter the names of prey species nor could he speak to her the day before a hunt. Women were also forbidden from speaking Mylmrė ("hunt language, avoidance language used during hunting. Hrotȯngi of both genders use this during hunts but also during the darkest hours of night). Another effect of lesser mobility was the ability to make harder to move tools, and the flourishing of decoration on clothes and tools. Rather than being made of hide and tusks, houses were made of wood and rock.

Lineage
Where the Hrotȯngi were rather unbothered with their ancestry, the Aafmürpat were obsessed with it. Both patrilineal and matrilineal lines of descent were important. The patrilineal line was important for establishing membership of a clan, while the matrilineal line was important for establishing which women a man could marry. As such everyone is a member of two clans, the patrilineal and matrilineal clans.

Membership to a clan or bsuinks (lit "close knit, busy") was inherited from the father although very similar rules 8 and 9 of the bsamkos in that an older clan member can consider a younger man his son if the younger man has the same totem as the elder's son, or if the younger man had a namesake name which is identical to the namesake derived from the elder's name. However a man could only be a member of one clan at a time, joining one clan means leaving another.

Membership to a pepta or maternal clan was determined via the direct female line, so a child inherited it from his mother who inherited it from her mother and so on. These lineages are completely independent of the paternal bsuinks clans. A man inherited his pepta from his mother but he could not pass it down to his own children as the lineage is traced solely through women. It is taboo for two people of the same pepta to marry, however a cousin via a male relative is seen as a potential partner, indeed even preferred. So a man is forbidden from marrying his mother's sister's daughter, but he may marry his father's niece or his mother's brother's daughter. If two biologically unrelated men enter a father-son dynamic by the rules above, the new "son" and the biological children of the elder man are considered siblings and in turn their own children are considered cousins who would be expected to marry each other. Each pepta has an associated flower which is used to make a perfume which is used to soak the hair of single pepta members to signal to others which pepta they belong to (the Homo spargere of Malomanan have very sensitive noses). The taboo on marrying a member of the same pepta and the use of perfumes as a means of identification is referenced to in this proverb: oki maagonni basiwohė domėen žwurrdnӑӑ prentimӑӑ "two of the same scent makes a foul stench".

Marriage
Women were also used as a source of bridewealth where a potential husband had to pay his bride's family, the price for a low status woman was: 1 obsidian spearhead, 10 blankets and a pot of honey. Women of higher status fetched higher prices: 3 obsidian spearheads, 20 blankets, 3 pots of honey, and if the family was able to demand it, ivory equaling the arm span of the husband (tall men suffered from this). The husband to be also hunted for the family until he married his bride. The bride's family often took advantage of this, demanding a higher price or more labour with the threat of breaking off the marriage. This would only work if the man was of a low status, if the bride's family were of a low status and the man was high status then the family wouldn't dare risk ruining the marriage. In the case a divorce where the woman wronged the husband (by cheating on him or committing a taboo) then he could reclaim the bridewealth from the wife's family. If the man wronged the woman then he would not get his bridewealth back. If the husband died before a child was born then his family would reclaim the bridewealth. If he died but his wife was pregnant with his daughter then the future bridewealth of the daughter would be split by both families. At any time the wife's family could end the marriage by giving the bridewealth back to the husband if he wronged them but neither husband nor wife wanted to divorce, however this was seen as being untasteful behaviour.

Violence
Another effect of food storage was an increase in violence. In this society men stood more to gain by being violent and ready to fight. Unlike the Hrotȯngi they couldn't just move camp to get away from someone, and the food hoards presented easy targets of theft, which also was the reason for raids on other settlements. Rather than shunning violence, the Aafmürpat embraced it. If two men had an issue they were encouraged to fight it out in a duel, if one chief insulted another, the response was war. The spoils of raids were not only food hoards, but slaves, as the Aafmürpat had a large need for household production, slaves were an easy way to keep household production with little cost (in times of hunger slaves could either be released or killed to make one less person to feed). A person could also become a slave voluntary for a certain amount of time in order to pay off debts. Slavery was also practiced as a punishment for those who broke the less severe taboos. Warfare was also used to displace other settlements if they sat on coveted land.

Status
Even more unlike the egalitarian Hrotȯngi, the Aafmürpat were led by chiefs or nappas. It was the chief's job to manage the clan and to lead it into war. Aafmürpat society was starkly divided between the lower class and the higher class. For example a low status man was forbidden from asking a high status woman to marry him (although a high status man taking a low ranking woman as his bride was completely fine). Certain clothes and weapons could only be owned by the higher class and certain species of game were off limits to low status men. A man of low status could not challenge a man of high status to a duel but vice versa was accepted. These two groupings of Sumnė would often trade and sometimes intermarry. The Hrotȯngi saw the Aaufmürpat as being too cruel and decorative, finding them to be quite obnoxious. The Aafmürpat saw the Hrotȯngi as simple, chaotic, stupid and poor (due to their plain clothing and items). =Material Culture= Stone tools are made using stones sourced from Sumric Mining Industry