Proto-Koigus-Ndere People

The Koigus-Ndere peoples are an ethnic group from Northern Halmeda belong to the species Homo Spargere Hendensis. They are identified by their use of Koigus-Ndere languages (which descend from Proto-Koigus-Ndere) and their common origin from a tribe which lived between the Gorgik Plateau and the Zet Mountains 6,000~7,000 years ago.

=Linguistics=

=History=

=Culture=

Kinship and Clans
The Koigus-Ndere cultures have a strong importance placed on clans and kinship. A clan in this context refers to a group of people who have a common ancestor, although unrelated members may enter wherein they form a subgroup or "sept" of the clan.

The clan system originated at roughly the same time as when the Proto-Koigus-Ndere language had began to diverge from its ancestor. At this time the earliest Koigus-Ndere people had moved further north where the open grasslands and barren hillscapes proved difficult to live off of by hunting and gathering. This was when they began to herd goats to become pastoralists. Very quickly goats became a central pivot for everyday life and how to pass down the herds and grazing lands to future generations resulted in a clan system forming. Originally the concept of the clan was to decide how a herd and grazing lands are divided when the patriarch of the family dies without causing any conflict. The herds were divided equally among sons and any daughters recieved a tenth of her late father's herd. Daughter's recieved smaller portions as it was understood that when the daughter marries that her portion will be added to her husband's own herd. If someone was unfortunate to recieve very litte inheritance or if a tragedy struck his herd then he had the option to join another's clan, becoming a "subject" and forming a "sept". When an outsider joins another clan he is given a share of the herd but in return he must perform many duties for the clan such as guarding the herd and such. If over time the subject is able to amass a large herd of his own then he may be able to pay off his debt by giving a portion of his herd to his clan. In doing so he leaves the clan and forms a new clan of his own. If the subject remains in the clan then his lineage will form the sept which will act as a subset of the original clan. Early on an owner of a large herd may seek out people to "annex". This was beneficial to the herd owner as it means he gets more help with his herd, and if the sept buys its way out then his herd grows. Some early clans grew rich and powerful with this method. However over time it became less acceptable for long established septs to split apart from the main clan and so this practice of seeking out subjects died out.

Over time people started to heavily identify with their clans and a whole social structure was built upon it. Members from within the same clan were expected to help each other in times of need and clan members were also expected to give certain privileges to other members, such as a shared use of property and grazing rights. Anything owned by one member was free to use by his kin. In the case of septs, the members of the septs recieved full clan priviledges from other members of the sept but they recieved limited priviliges from the main clan itself. Members of the main clan were free to use the property belonging to sept members but members of septs had to ask permission to use the property of the main clan, and this could be rejected.

Later on there were more ways in which a clan could form or diverge. If a family had moved a long distance away then the resulting lingeage would be percieved as a sept of the original clan. Septs may diverge from main clans by the following means:


 * 1) Internal conflicts cause the clan to distintigrate entirely, in which the indiviual septs will disassociate from the clan and form their own clan.
 * 2) If a sept grows rebellious it may unilaterally declare itself to be a clan. This often results in the main clan taking military action to supress the rebellion. If the sept loses against the clan then it would be stripped of certain priviledges for a certain time, or depending on the relations, wiped out by killing all of the men.

Chiefdom
Each clan is ruled by a single chief. This position is not hereditory although current chiefs often groom their children to replace them. Anyone from the main branch of a clan may compete in a series of challenges to become the chief. Septs also have a chief but sept cheifs have far more limited powers and they answer directly to the main cheif.