(06-16-2015, 07:49 PM)Meena Wrote: The Nunh in a seeker clan is believed to be a spiritual and tribal leader in this regard and often will do whatever it takes for his tribe to remain strong - i.e. Kick out weak huntresses, etc.Â
It is my firm belief that to play a traditional miqote you need to be able to set aside your own personal cultural beliefs to experience something new.
Not to derail, but allow me to explain my own and my character's subversion on this matter.
It is my firm belief that the information surrounding Seeker tribal structure is both sparse and contradictory. You quote the Drake Tribe and its depiction in the game, whereas I easily can do the same with the official SE statement of: "Nunh status does not equate to leadership within a tribe, and in fact, very few nunh ever become leaders." This makes it a crossroad of interpretation.
In my interpretation, I did away with my personal cultural experiences and imagined the Seekers like lions, which are less patriarchal than typically depicted. For example, it is a popular interpretation that female lions subordinate themselves to the male lion based on eating order. However, if you examine the reasons for the eating order, you discover that the females allow the male to eat first because they require him to be strong enough to safeguard their territory from challenges. There are even documented cases in which females have left a weak male to promote a stronger one and in which males have left weak females (as in the whole family at once) to adopt stronger ones (again, a whole group). My envisioning eschewed a patriarchy-by-default mindset to adopt a more egalitarian one -- which C'io believes in fervently. In her case, her rebellion is against her father who, like what occurred in many First Nations tribes upon meeting the highly patriarchal Europeans, usurped command of their branch of the tribe to exalt himself above the females. Her rebellion is against the "Europeanisation" of the Miqo'te.
And in a way, I can see Ni'khaj's in the same light. As I understand it, Ni'khaj left his tribe because he, too, believes in a more cooperative tribe, not one ruled by a patriarch. And given that rule by a nunh is supposed to be uncommon, it is not far-fetched to see him view a nunh-in-power in this light or to potentially classify it as 'barbaric.'
Now I understand that the majority of roleplayers choose to interpret the nunh as defacto leader of the tribe, which can be supported by the depiction of the U' Tribe, but it is not the only interpretation. Furthermore, if we are speaking of imposing Western cultural beliefs, I very strongly view this patriarchal interpretation as the epitome of that. I very strongly believe it to not be new, but a reflection of the world we live in. New would accepting that the man is not the leader. New would be equality despite clearly-defined gender assignments and survival needs. New is supported by what little lore we have, and yet remains a road oft untraveled.
So yes, even with my interpretation of it wherein I and C'io see nunhs-as-leaders as a barbaric practice, it is also my firm belief that to play a traditional miqo'te you need to be able to set aside your own personal cultural defaults to experience something new.
![[Image: enucwJZ.png]](http://i.imgur.com/enucwJZ.png)
