"John Norman - Telnarian histories 02 - The Captain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

on the other hand, is not contractual, neither implicitly nor explicitly, no more than that
of being brothers. One does not participate in a tribe, but one is of the tribe, much as one
finds oneself, through traditions of blood, one of a family, or line. Tribes consist of clans,
and clans of families, and thus one is speaking, here, when one speaks of tribes, of
complicated and extensive networks of human relationships, and predominantly blood
relationships, though in many cases of an extended and tenuous sense. The state rests
upon law, and the tribe on blood. One cannot, in the ordinary course of things, cease to
be a member of tribe, any more than one can cease to be the son of one's father. To be
sure, certain caveats must be entered. For example, one may be accepted into a tribe,
and then one is truly of the tribe; and one may be cast out of the tribe, and thus be no
longer of the tribe; and one may repudiate the tribe, and thus remove oneself from it.
Here, in such considerations, we find that the tribe bears analogies to, for example, the
obtaining of citizenship, the loss of citizenship, the repudiation of citizenship, and such.
The tribe is thus, in a sense, analogous to a biologically founded state. It is thus, actually,
not simply biological, not simply a matter of blood, and, at the same time, it is more than
an abstraction, a matrix of legalities, a creature of convention, profound or otherwise.
There are, of course, many other differences, and many other commonalities, as well. It
may be useful to mention some, as it may render more intelligible some portions of what
follows. Custom is important in the tribe, and law in the state, though it is a matter of
degree, for the state, too, has its customs, and some tribes, at least, have their laws,
though usually the laws in such tribes are unwritten, and are the province of the law-
sayers, who must, in many such tribes, memorize the law, and are responsible for reciting
portions of it at gatherings, to keep it in living memory, usually a third of it at each
annual gathering. Thus the men in such tribes will hear the law as a whole, from its
sayers, once every three years. In many tribes, on the other hand, the court of law is the
hut of the chieftain, and its statutes and codices are his whims. Better put, perhaps, in
such tribes there is no law, but there is the will, the decision, of the chieftain. Citizens are
often literate, while tribesmen are less often so. But, of course, there are illiterate citizens
and literate tribesmen. Men who can read and write are often kept, like interpreters
which, in a sense, they are, in tribes, to aid in the conduct of business, and in transactions
with other communities. Although tribes are diverse, as are men, and hanis leopards, it is
frequently the case that a distinction is drawn within the tribe between what we may think
of as the aristocracy and the yeomen, so to speak, between the high families and the
ordinary free men. In the empire, distinctions obtain between, similarly, the honestori and
the humiliori, the higher, honored classes and the commonality. Within the honestori falls
the patricians, which includes the senatorial class. These relationships are more volatile,
and more subject to mobility, than those within the tribe. For example, one may ascend to
the honestori by appointment or acceptance, an appointment or acceptance often
consequent upon unusual service or merit, or, in some cases, it is rumored, consequent
upon the provision of favors, moneys, and such. The coloni, or tenant farmers and
laborers, fall, obviously, among the humiliori. So, too, do individuals bound to certain
occupations or to the soil, whose numbers were increasing in recent times, due to the
needs of the state to stabilize the population, primarily to assure a continuation of
necessary services and, more importantly, a reliable, locatable tax base. Slaves need not
be mentioned here, no more than cattle, and sheep, as they, too, are domestic animals, a
form of livestock, some of which are quite lovely. There are many other differences, and
similarities, between states and tribes, but it would be tedious, and impossible, to attempt
to enumerate them in a genuinely useful manner, as the factors are numerous, and as
states differ among themselves, as do tribes. A last remark or two will, however, be
helpful. Some think of the tribe, or folk, or people, as having a certain mystical aura.