Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor
Council of Old Ladies
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The Nora tribe in
Horizon: Zero Dawn has a literal council of old ladies - they are lead by a council of Matriarchs, who are presided over by a smaller group of High Matriarchs. Matriarchs are those in good standing (not outcast/exiled) who are grandmothers, and they are elevated to the level of High Matriarch if they become great-grandmothers. The idea is that only those who “speak for generations” should lead.
This suggests another system, where one’s political rank is determined by one’s offspring. Plugging into the “point” system, perhaps you gain points for being a parent, for being a grandparent, and so forth. You gain further - but lesser - points for additional descendants within each generation. Rather than winner-takes-all, one’s political rank is decided by number of points. Such a system naturally lends itself to harems - if you’d rather it didn’t, either restrict political power to women (as in the above) or outlaw polygamy and only allow legitimate children to be counted (or only have legitimate children count fully, with bastards still counting but at a reduced value). In a society with formalized gender inequality, children of one sex may count more than those of the other.
Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman
Likely based on the elective monarchy of Malaysia. That country is a federation of 13 states, 9 of which are hereditary monarchies. Every five years, the nine monarchs elect one of their number to be monarch of Malaysia. Nowadays, it's simply done in rotation, but that's an informal agreement, rather than a rule. |
Nifty.