Hoon family etiquette.
---another small chapter from the journal of Dor-hinuf
Never Assume!
I recall Alvin mentioning an old Earthclan science fiction series of novels
of a comic nature where the two most important words on the cover to its travel
guide are Don't Panic.
I think Never Assume! works best for the Civilization of the Four Galaxies.
And in many cases, if you assume wrong, it's then already way too late to
even think of panicking.
For example, Humans have been warned repeatedly not to try to initiate a
handshake with almost any alien race. (You may be offering it a challenge--or a
meal!) If an er tells a human that they will accept a handsake, he or she should
never assume that the er is trying to be friendly. They may be trying to
trick the human into making the wrong assumption by extending the _right_ hand.
An uninformed human, trying in all earnest to be nice, can be highly
insulting to a mother hoon merely by asking the question, Is this your firstborn son?
Hoon family possesives do _NOT_ work that way. No male _owns_ a daughter and
no female _owns_ a son. And what _is_ a hoon family possesive first does not
have the same meaning as an Anglic first.
Alvin's journal begins with his name. Alvin Hph-wayuo, son of Mu-phauwq and
Yowg-wayuo.
I am Dor-hinuf, daughter of Twaphu-anuph and Muhaul-hinuf.
A son always mentions his mother's name first, then his father's name, ending
with the shared linage name.
A daughter always mentions her father's name first, then her mother's name,
ending with the shared linage name.
Tracing Hoon genealogy is much easier than tracing Human genealogy. Linage
names don't change.
Children in a family are always mentioned as eldest, second eldest, etc.
Youngest is a term that is never used. It implies a finality which may not yet be.
First is always gender specific.
Alvin's first born son may or may not be the family's eldest.
Third eldest remains third eldest evn if the second eldest child dies. It is
always understood that the ranked titles eldest refer to _born_ and not
_living_. To assume otherwise would be insulting to both the dead and the living.
As with the use of youngest, other ranking and superlative terms are never
used. A child can be very cute. That is a state of being that may or may not
become transitory. To say, That is the cutest child is insulting. That
directly denies the possiblity of other cute children being born into the family,
and indirectly insults all other families' existing and future children.
So, these are the basic rules to Hoon family etiquette.
Do not assume that this list is complete.
---Dor-hinuf.
-
I don't think anything here contradicts what
our good Dr. Brin has written. It just fleshes
it out.
(I'm still having fun with the fact that both
Alvin's sister and Dor-hinuf's mother were
never given names.)
PS ---Post it, Steve.
___
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