Marriage
Few things so disconcert and fascinate the Sapient ethnographer as the Nowan family. As if trying to understand another species were not difficult enough, now we must approach what appears to be a similar institution but in reality is utterly different.
First 'marriage' is not quite an adequate word. Nowans do not form individual households and families. Rather they form breeding/economic bands. A typical household may consist of the following, 1-3 elder non-breeding females (matriarchs), 3-6 breeding age women (wives), 3-6 breeding age men (husbands), 6-8 pre-pubescent children, and 2-3 adolescent girls. All of the children and all adult females are in the same clan. The husbands are typically all of one clan but may be from 2 or even 3 clans. The wives are usually sisters or cousins to each other and are the daughters or nieces of the matriarchs.
Households are necessarily rather fluid in some aspects. As women mature and cease estrus they enter the matriarch role. They will either stay in their own household with their daughters and nieces or move into another household as new ones are formed.
New households are formed when a group of young women approach a matricarch about the possibility of setting up a new breeding group. If they meet with her approval, and most do if they are over the age of 18-20, they will initially take up residence with her. The matriarch then begins the process of finding husbands for them. She will do this through her network of friends and relatives, both male and female. She is looking for men who offer economic and political advantage as well as those who are biologically sound. She is not blind to the wishes of her young wives-to-be, it is very unlikely that men they reject will ever take residence with them.
An equal number of husbands and wives is considered ideal in a family but matriarchs vary in whether they attempt to do this all at once or one at a time. It is considered ideal to have at 2 different clans represented by husbands. This offers not only more potential political links but also somewhat weakens male positions in the family. Husbands from the same clan are rarely more closely related than cousins but a too distant relationship is not desirable either.
As children reach puberty, males are sent off to the Men's House to live while girls remain with their mothers. As the last of the wives ceases estrus, the family begins to break up. Husbands go to live in their clan's Men's House, wives become matriarchs in their own right. Husbands and wives maintain a social and legal relationship throughout their lives even if not living in the same household.
The Men's House usually houses 3-6 elder men (patriarchs), 6- 12 male adolescents, and a few unmarried breeding age men. The adolescents are instructed in masculine things and roles. Here they are introduced to the public world and their roles in it. Many boys enter apprenticeships or college while living in the Men's Houses.
Each Men's House is used by only one clan and is always near
the other clan households. Patriarchs take an active interest in
the growth and development of young boys in their clans and it is
rare that a boy is not on a close personal basis with them when
he moves in.
Household Geography
Historically, the Nowan Longhouse had 3 distinct areas. At one end was the Men's quarters where men slept. Also in this area was a small room reserved for wives in estrus. Normally adult women did not enter this area although young girls cleaned and straightened it as needed. At the other end of the house lie the Women's quarters. This was one of the largest areas of a household because it was also where the children, adolescent girls, and matriarchs stayed. This area was off-limits to husbands at all times. It included a special room next to or even in the matriarchs area where adolescent girls in estrus slept.
In the center of the house was the common area. Usually this was one large open room which filled the roles of kitchen/dining room, entertainment room, and public room. Guests rarely went into any other part of a house.
In the modern world, apartments have taken the place of
individual househoulds in many cases. Each building will usually
have only a single clan living in it. The 'Men's House' is
usually found on the first floor with individual households
occupying whole floors above them. They very largely mirror the
old longhouse arrangement but with more specialized spaces.
There still remain seperate sleeping areas for males and females.
A typical Men's sleeping room rhon.qul has perhaps
three Men's beds, and a double lavatory. There is usually a
stool near each bed and occasionally a bench or small table. The
Men's room also contains an Estral Woman's Room which has one
larger bed (roughly 1.6m wide). Wicker walls seperate it from
the rest of the Men's room.
Women's rooms contain 3 beds as well and similar furnishings
except for having several couchs as well. Where men have the
Estral Woman's Room, the women have a Children's Room. This
often has a single large bed where the younger children sleep
together and several smaller bunk beds for older children.
Unweaned children sleep with their mothers. The ma.kom's
room has but a single bed for her, several stools, a couch and an
estral Girl's Room where her young charges spend their time when
in estrus.
A Nowan bed is roughly oval in shape, about 1.3 m. wide
narrowing to about 0.5 meters at either end. They are typically
about 2.2 m in length. Nowans do not use pillows. The mattress
or sleeping pad p'i.qur.ge is about 3-6cm deep and usually
stuffed with cotton batting. There are no bed springs. HS tend
to find Nowan beds very hard and uncomfortable while a Nowan
thinks HS beds are too soft.
The bed sits on elevated platform which is enclosed on three
sides. At the head end are a set of shelves facing in towards
the bed. At the foot end is small closet. The back is a wicker
wall. The front is usually closed off with a curtain or mosquito
netting while sleeping. The platform has a number of drawers
where the owner keeps clothing and personal items.
Most houses have a communal bath phu.ren where the
whole family baths together each day. Customs vary but this is
typically in the evening before the last meal.
Today, the modern kitchen contains an oven, a large
refrigerator, a freezer, a pantry, a griddle for making flat
bread, a hot sink (metal or ceramic sink, filled with water and
heated by gas or electricity and used to steam or boil
vegetables), several stoves, cabinets, and counter space enough
for the preperation of meals for the typical family of 15
(average family size of 1 ma.kom, 3 males, 3 females, and
8 children). Both men and women (except for the Makom) cook with
men being responsible for cooking of meat and fish. Thus most
kitchens have a men's space and a women's space. Meals are served
in the adjacent dining hall qul.s� where the family sits
around a single, long, low table. They usually sit crosslegged
on thin pads placed upon the floor. Men sit at one end of the
table, women and children at another. The makom and any
pubescent girls
sit in the middle.
There still remains a public/common space usually with low
couch-like benches and the typically Nowan hourglass shaped
stools. And non-family members are rarely invited to any other
area of the house except the dining hall.
The Family
The breeding habits of H. intelligens make it difficult to be certain of paternity of children (although not impossible in the modern era.) This tends to make HI males very protective of all children in their family and children are raised cooperatively by all family members. No attempt is made to segregate children until puberty. As noted above, boys are moved to Men's Houses but girls stay in the household. They are segregated only during estrus at which time they take up residence in special rooms in the Wive's Quarters.