Pabap culture and sociolinguistics

The Yiibam religion divided the people of Paba into genities, or moieties, called lisa. Each was assoaciated with a color name, and the people traditionally wore that color at least as underwear. Nudism was allowed, and provided a freedom from the constant association with one's genity. The genities, however, largely corresponded to ethnic groups in early Pabap society, and only became blended together much later.

Blue A group consisting of the navy and all people who work primarily at sea, whether they be fishermen, traders, or explorers. This is because all of these groups are dependent on Paba's strong navy for their existence and for the most part actually overlap with the navy. In much of Paba, especially far eastern Paba, the Blue people have a very close culture, with men spending days a time without seeing their wives. Note that Paba's genities are not ethnic groups because people are encouraged to marry outside their group. Thus, most Blue men do not have Blue wives, although the taboo is not strcitly enforced in the fishing-dominated areas of the east because the vast majority here is Blue and therefore the population would simply die out if they were forced to marry non-Blue people.

Purple The land army. The color is named after Paba's wine grapes, the source of much of its fame and wealth. They were early on the commonest choice for Orange people to marry, and thus the Orange people got a strong link into Paba's military. The military is purple becayse protecting Paba's vineyards is almost as important at protestcing its people. The Purple group also includes workers on the vineyards, but does not include other farmers such as those involved in growing large vegetables.

Red A term for the farming class. They generally live on hereditarily owned farms, but many of these farms are large enough that they can hire outside laborers. These laborers, however, maintain whatever their original color association was, and do not simply all become Red.

Yellow A term for people who live in large cities and mostly work manual labor jobs. However, schoolteachers are also Yellow. The term "Gold" is avoided because it is the name of a much larger and unrelated political organization based in Nama. Gold people in Paba are usually classified as Black.

Orange A group created for the Nik, a group originally found along the southwest coast, just west of the original Pabap settlement in Tamusur Bay. Many of them moved north into the core of Paba, but did not blend in because they were very tall and dark skinned and didnt feel comofrtable marrying the small, blonde Pabap people. However, they were discouraged from marrying other Orange people, because that could lead to accidental cousin marriages, so when they first moved north they oftne had a difficult time finding marriages.

Green A group consisting of the decendants of anyone who has violated hte marriage restrictions, or has married a foreigner. Orange-Orange marriages are not actually illegal, it just is that their children are put into the Green group instead of inheriting the ORange. Anyone marrying Green becomes Green themselves, as do their children.

White The ruling class, living mostly in and near castles in Paba's capital city of Biospum. They generally do not marry any non-White people, but doing so is not forbidden. They do not have a problem with inbreeding because the Whites are the descendants of the entire founding population of Paba save for the ethnic minorities that came with them on their ships. Black A group for foreigners outside the caste system. Not a synonym for Green becasuse anyone marrying a Black becomes Green, not Black. Thus Blacks can only have Green children.