Poswob Ethnographical Questionnaire

Poswob Ethnographical Questionnaire

Dr. Zahar’s Ethnographical Questionnaire was compiled by David Zahir to help in the description of concultures, and can be found in the files section of the Conculture group at Yahoo.

Questions of Place

Describe the geography of where your society calls home.

The Poswob Empire (no native name yet, sorry :) is very large for its time period, about the size of the continental USA. However, Poswobs live mostly along rivers and lakes, with vast interior areas remaining essentially wilderness. Furthermore, the expansion to its present size was quite recent; previously the empire was mostly just the south coast of Rilola.

Describe the climate your society deals with. How severe are their seasons?

The Poswob Empire stretches from subtropical climates at about 25N (where the population density is highest) all the way to the glaciers of the Arctic. Also, there are settlements in high mountain ranges. Some of the islands along the south coast have maritime climates with little seasonal variation in rainfall or temperature, and thus would be considered "tropical" by most, though technically the correct classification even here is subtropical.

What kinds of natural disasters has this society gotten used to?

Not much. As said before, the empire is quite large, so it has experience with volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards, floods, and droughts, .... but for the most part the humans have not settled in the areas that are most prone to these types of disasters. Even the hurricanes are not really much of a problem because the subtropical south coast is sheltered from the open ocean by other coastal areas that extend further south (granted, this didnt save Louisiana from Katrina), and the ocean water is not warm enough to allow the formation of a serious hurricane.

What foods are considered exotic or expensive?

Meat, of any land animal, is expensive. In the capital city of Blop, it is common to see the same vendor selling cooked fish meat for 1/10 the price per pound of meats such as beef and chicken. This is due to the cultural taboo/prohibition against killing animals, so that all meat has to come from animals that died of natural causes (though there are some quasi-domesticated "farms" the animals there are not raised in enormous groups the way they are in modern Earth societies). On the rare occasions when Poswobs do eat meat, it's always the muscles of an animal, never organs, eggs, dairy, or anything else. The same applies to the fish.

Is there usually enough food and water for the population?

Yes, despite the very low level of technology, there has never been a famine in Blop or any other northern settlement, and famines in the more heavily populated southern states really just mean that people can't get the foods they want, not that they can't get food at all.

How do people travel from one place to another?

Mostly by boat, sometimes horses or camels can be used to travel over land.

Are the borders secure? In what way?

The Poswob Empire is pretty much undefended, because the population believes in a strongly pacifistic religion and political philosophy, but they don't have many enemies either. Most foreigners would rather enslave Poswobs than conquer them and disrupt their government. The Poswobs live to the east of another empire called Kuroras. They allow the Kuroras people to more or less step on them and do whatever they want, because 4000 years ago the Kuroras warriors saved them in a war that would have brought them to extinction. This means the Kuroras people can enslave the Poswobs, but on the other hands, the Kuroras people are responsible for protecting the Poswobs from other empires who would also want to enslave them.

How many people live here?

The city of Blop has about 50,000 people; the whole empire is close to 1 million. Similar (I think?) to medieval Europe.

What are the most common domesticated animals here? And what are they domesticated for?

One could argue that all animals are domesticated, or that none are, because as said above the animals in this world have a level of sentience that is confined on Earth to just a few animals (humans, elephants, dolphins, arguably cats, dogs, etc)

Questions of Time

How far back does this society's written history go?

At least 8000 years, which isn't to say that they actually have access to any of the original historical documents, since they were living thousands of miles to the east at the time, and much of the land has flooded over.

How far back do its people believe it goes?

They have a calendar, so they know the exact dates of various historical events, but as I said, only if they've remembered them. Still, they know it is the year 8200 (roughly) and that is the year when a great flood hit the islands of Laba.

What is the worst disaster they believe they've faced?

The day that they went to war against their own gods is the worst disaster they've faced, since hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed, and when they won, they still didn't defeat the gods and they had made a lot of enemies among other humans.

Who in the past is the greatest hero? The worst villain?

Probably Mappamensam, a woman who came from what was at the time a different empire to help them realize their religion was destroying their lives. They decided she must be a god. The worst villain would be Pespweb (Kuroras: Tū), the name of a Satan-like bird character who was a reborn human.

Questions of Sex and Family

How many spouses may a man or woman have?

Infinity, though in practice most men are monogamous because the woman is the head of the household and it doesn't usually work out to have two of them in the same house. Women are not prohibited from having multiple husbands, but this is even rarer than the opposite.

Who usually takes custody of children if a marriage ends for some reason?

A religious court known as ????? decides this. There is a general distrust of single parent families, so younger children will usually be given to an existing childless couple, but older children are more likely to be able to stay with the mother. If the husband is given any custody it isn't considered a divorce.

How is adultery defined? What (if any) is the punishment? Who decides?

The woman in the relationship gets to set the rules for the man, and a religious court will handle the woman. There is no native word in Poswa that translates "adultery"; they had to loan it from Kuroras.

How are families named?(g) What happens to orphans?

Officially Poswobs have five names, but one of the five has fallen out of use since almost the whole nation was named Pusi. (That's where the name Poswob comes from; it was originally just a group of families who crowded out the others.)

How are boy and girl children treated differently?

Poswobs are feminists, so they prefer girls and generally girls have more rights than boys. Arguably, this is a result of the pacifist philosophy which makes military occupations essentially redundant and causes males to be seen as "less than" females since women can do anything men can do plus they can bear children.

Are premarital relations allowed?

Yes, subject to the same rules as "adultry".

How do people react to homosexuality?

Male homosexuality is forbidden, since it makes women redundant. Homosexuals who rfuse to get married will usually be enslaved or exiled from the cities.

How do the genders dress?

Poswob men very often have hairstyles that would in the modern West be considered girlish (Justin Bieber, etc.). However, they would never have hair that extends beyond the shoulders. Likewise, women would never have short hair unless they have a disease that is keeping them from growing long hair.

Nudism is legal everywhere but is seen as analogous to being "underdressed" in Western culture, so generally you won't see many naked people in public. In the northern states, there is a prejudice against fancy clothing, but there are a lot of hypocrites as well. Since the technology level is similar to medieval Europe, clothes are often the only way someone can show their wealth.

What professions or activities are considered masculine?

War and anything involving extreme physical exertion. But as said before, the Poswobs are such pacifists that they don't even allow hunting, and animals take care of most of the extreme physical jobs, so most men are working right alongside women. The economy of the city of Blop is almost entirely centered around animal breeding, which means that most humans are employed in feeding, sheltering, and cleaning up after various animals. But this doesn't apply to the other 90% of the empire.

What professions or activities are viewed as feminine?

Only a few things are exclusively female, mostly things to do with cooking or cleaning.

What is the biggest sexual taboo?

Pedophilia and incest, I'm sure.

What does this society mean by the word "virgin" and how important it it?

Virgins and homosexuals are considered almost the same thing, since homosexual sex to the Poswobs isn't really sex. They are both considered sins since a man's role in life is to marry a woman, and vice versa, although if someone is disabled they are not obliged to raise a family.

Questions of Manners

If two men get into a fight, how is this supposed to be resolved?

There are too many different situations to give this a clear answer. However, fighting is not illegal, even if it causes permanent injury, and if the loser of the fight tries to get a court case going against the winner he'll just be laughed at. Men are supposed to be at all times "ready to fight" unless they are physically disabled.

If two women get into a fight, how should that be resolved?

This is rare, but the same solutions given above apply here.

How do people demonstrate grief?

When a close family member dies, it is up to the head of the household to respond. Some people will handle it privately, visibly doing nothing at all, and this is not considered to be insensitive. Others will call for a funeral ceremony similar to those of the modern West, usually held in the local temple. Generally these are very upbeat and the speakers will talk about how the person is in Heaven even if they were known to be a very evil person.

What does this society do with their corpses?

Most are buried in graveyards, but it is not considered a taboo to cremate them or even in some cases to feed them to animals. The lack of taboo of feeding dead humans to animals is in large part tied to the religious belief that, after death, the human soul escapes its body and is not even human anymore.

What kinds of jewelry do people wear? And when?

None, the Poswobs are very plain when it comes to dress.

What happens to those suffering from extreme mental illness?

There are too many possibilities here to consider, though it's true that the Poswobs are more likely than modern Westerners to believe that demons (of which they have several distinct classes) are responsible for both physical and mental illness.

What parts of the body are routinely covered?

Nudity is allowed but generally confined to private gatherings at which most others are also nude. During the hot summer days (in the warm parts of the empire), it is common to see adults wearing just underwear, that is to say, the same clothes that in wintertime they put other clothes on top of. Since the Poswob empire extends to the Arctic, winter wear is very well developed, and can be very warm.

How private are bodily functions like bathing or defecating?

In the cities there are public bathrooms all over the place, but nearly everyone prefers the privacy of their own home (though the technology is not well developed; e.g. they don't have flush toilets or hot water or anything).

When and how does someone go from child to adult?

Generally when someone is married they're considered an adult, but many of the responsibilities which on Earth are associated with adulthood are in Poswob society given at the beginning of puberty, even if the child is only 11 or 12 years old.

Questions of Faith

What superstitions are common? What kinds of supernatural

events/beings do people fear?

Questions of War

Who declares war?

War is rare enough that there is no established governmental organization responsibel for military affairs. In most cases when the empire is invaded the cities respond individually just as if the problem were a natural disaster or a legion of criminals. Howwever, as mentioned before, the Kuroras people who rule over the Poswobs are more alert to dangers and sometimes will send their own soldiers out to defend the Poswobs from an invasion before it happens. The Poswobs themselves are not obligated to help, but in most cases there will be at least some Poswob soldiers involved.

Has this society ever attacked another? Do they want to? What would make them do so?

Most Poswobs would tell you that their empire has existed for 4000 years without ever attacking or invading any other nation, and that they have always been the victim rather than the aggressor, and that they have survived and prospered even so. However, they have gone to war against rebellious groups within the empire, and some settlements that are presently part of the empire in fact began with Poswobs illegally immigrating to foreign nations and slowly crowding out the native population. (Though even here, none of these events were actually wars.)

Who are their enemies? Who's winning?

There is a loose organization of tribes called the Sakhi, who refuse to embrace pacifism and routinely make problems of themselves along the Poswob-Sakhi borders. However, they don't get along even with each other, and have never been able to unite into a team and make reality of their goal of subduing the Poswob empire. Not to mention that they'd have to face off against the Kuroras and other allies of the Poswobs.

What do soldiers do when there's no war?

Generally, there aren't any soldiers. Even when under attack, the Poswobs will respond by just sending out whoever's free with no training and sometimes even no armor to fight off the invaders.