Fsava
From Almeopedia
The fsava [ˈfsa va] is a lineage of the Tžuro people, cognate to Old Skourene bsepa and Lenani bofa.
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The ancient system
A fsava is a family group, matrilineal but male-led.
The essential characteristics are these:
- Boys and girls are born into their mother’s fsava and never leave it.
- Men join their wives’ fsava only as visitors.
- Women’s wealth passes to their daughters.
- Men’s wealth does not pass to their wives’ children, who belong to a different fsava and may not even be theirs; it passes to their sister’s children.
- A fsava is led by the eldest male relative (asev); but the eldest female (ñasev) is also a powerful voice.
This system evolved to fit a culture where women stayed put, and men roamed widely, either taking care of herds, raiding, or trading. Thus the adult males are simply not around much of the time.
Before Jippirasti, a fsava would have paired gods, male and female. Fsavau frequently raided each other, a chaotic state of affairs that underlies Babur’s insistence on the unity of all fsavau in one Tej and of all gods in Jippir.
Nonfidelity
The most important consequence is that a man cannot safeguard his wife’s fidelity. (Even if he wanted to, she lives in her family, not his— she has too many allies and cannot be dominated.) This in turn has several corollaries.
- Women choose who to sleep with. The sign of her favor is that she invites a man into her tent.
- Men may sleep with any woman who invites them into her tent.
- A man can’t know that his wife’s children are his— indeed, that any woman’s children are his.
- However, he is certain that his sister’s children are hers. His nieces and nephews are the only children he can be sure share his genes; they are therefore his heirs.
Leadership
The system is not matriarchal: the leader of the fsava is the eldest male. He will be an uncle to everyone in the next generation, a brother to those in his own. ‘Father’ is such an alien concept that it’s a loanword (añesum, from Old Skourene). ‘Uncle’ (asev) is the term closest in connotations to other cultures ‘fathers’.
The uncles are often away, of course, so in practice the older women (ñaseve) run the daily affairs of the fsava— and all its affairs, when the elders are gone. It’s a foolish asev who doesn’t consult the senior women on any important issue.
Size and splitting
As a man’s heirs are his nieces and nephews, he will live with them: the basic family unit is a set of siblings and the children of the female ones. However, in a nomadic culture, where the men bring food from as far away as necessary, there are no real limits on settlement size. An entire fsava can camp together, and its common ancestor (always a woman) may be five or six generations back. Once the group grows to more than 150 or so people, however, it will split into (typically) three new fsavau.
A sub-lineage will never split off unless it already has adult women with daughters. A fsava will die out if it has no daughters. A wealthy fsava will further guard against this by keeping itself fairly large; but in an extremity it can adopt a daughter, preferably from a related fsava.
Later modifications
Jippirasti did not change the basics of the system; it evolved from it and its morality is an idealization of it. Thus, though it has many rules on sexual morality, it doesn’t prohibit what we would call adultery (except among the Carhinnoi).
Sequestration
The first challenge to the traditional system was the enormous power of the atej. If he liked, he— and no lesser leader— could sequester his women, which meant that he knew who his children were. This caused conflict as early as the death of Kurund, because he favored his son Adubum over his nephew Burudusi.
This particular problem was solved by the convention that a ruler could choose an heir from either his own fsava or that of his wife.
Conquest also tempted the Tžuro with the possibility of having multiple wives, prohibited under both tradition and Jippirasti law. This was tricky for the Tžuro, because their children were raised by their mothers; if the mothers were pagan, the children would be too.
The solution here was to forbid not only marriage to but sex with pagan women. Polygamy per se was allowed, if the wives were all Jippirasti. In practice only those who wanted to live with multiple women married them— if they simply wanted to sleep with them, after all, this was already allowed.
Sedentary life
The biggest challenge of all was the transition to an agricultural, sedentary lifestyle once Šura was conquered. At first the Tžuro tried to live like nomads, having their children raised on the steppe and returning for long periods. This proved inconvenient, however, and quite impossible once a majority of the Skourenes converted.
As a result. most men were no longer away for six months of the year. Who did they live with?
At first the only correct response was “With their fsava.” A common practice was for a man to hang out with (and take meals with) his fsava during the day, but sleep with his wife at night. In rural areas this practice is still common.
Among the Skourenes, a married couple had normally joined the richer bsepa (their term for fsava)— and the bsepar were not of the same importance as the fsavau.
Once there were large numbers of Skourene converts, mores evolved toward traditional Skourene ways; and then men began to leave their wealth (or a portion of it) to their children instead of their nieces and nephews. This was an eternal scandal to the nomadic Jippirasti.
Sedentary life also decreased fsava size. Like the Skourenes, the Tžuro found that a fsava was idea for running a workshop or farm; but few enterprises needed the 75 or so adults in a full-sized fsava. Fsavau tended to split off much sooner, so that their size ranged from 20 to 60 people. In recent centuries, with more urbanization and social migration, the fsava might be as small as 10 people.
This was not a conscious plan, of course, and at the personal level, splits were usually caused by quarrels. This gave moralists plenty to object to.
The status of women
The position of women also declined. Partly this was because the men were always present, so they insisted on running things; partly this was due to Skourene influence, and even the practice of marrying wives from the conquered population; from “inferior because non-Tžuro” it wasn’t far to “inferior because female”. Women still had authority over their children, and there was no nonsense about chastity or staying in the house, but they were generally subject to men, and excluded from many professions, such as the army.
In recent centuries these restrictions have been relaxed; women have more freedom, and aseve much less. In the cities, land is not normally owned by the fsava but by individuals, which allows a good deal more flexibility and movement. Often a couple lives together, though it is still common for siblings (especially sisters) to live together, and other members of the fsava often live nearby.
