Thunese - Ethnicity

Thunese culture is the culture and traditions originating from the planet Thunus and relating to the Thunese people.

Thunese culture tends to be very capitalist, with many of the most powerful Thunese individuals and families being business owners and merchants, as well as very clannish, with families expected to be loyal and supportive of their clan and other clan members.

This guild system, capitalism, and clannishness has led to there being many ways, often fashion choices or ways of speaking, a Thunese will show off clan and guild ties and leverage them to their advantage.

Social structure

Kinship

The Thunese kinship system is clan based with lineage and clan members being traced through maternal ties. Due to this, families tend to be multigenerational and matrilocal, with the husband moving in with the wife’s family.Due to this, families tend to be multigenerational and matrilocal, with husbands moving in with the wife’s family.

Paternal lines are still acknowledged with children inheriting their surname from their fathers even though they inherit their clan and inheritance from their mother’s side. 

Family inheritance and titles are passed down through the maternal line, with senior members of the maternal clan making up the clan council which approves the next clan leader put forth by the most senior female clan members.

Men are more likely to hold positions of power in a clan, however the title is passed down to maternal sides so a male leader will often pass their title to a sister’s child, typically one of their nephews. The most senior women in the clan will help the clan leader who is often their son or brother, and have the important role of selecting the next clan leader.

Marriage & Courtship

For more info see: Thunese Weddings

Marriage and courtship in Thunese culture are still very traditional with one’s parents and clan having a strong influence on who they end up marrying. Arranged marriages are common, especially in more elite families where marriage is used for social climbing and solidifying alliances.

There are also rituals surrounding getting engaged and married with the traditional proposal of sending wedding jewelry to the family of the intended fiance, with a matching gift being given in return when the proposal is accepted. Married couples will wear wedding bracelets as a sign that they are married, with taking them off being considered taboo and disrespectful.

Guilds

There is also the presence of guilds in Thunese society, especially in more cosmopolitan areas. These guilds are trades based, with members having access to heavily protected trade secrets as well as prestige through the guild. Oftentimes certain clans will be affiliated with a guild, meaning their clan members will be more likely to get into the guild than someone from a different clan. These affiliations help both the clan and the guild have people to lean on in times of need. Oftentimes fathers and paternal families will assist their sons’ children in getting into a guild if the maternal family is unable to do so.

Initiation often happens when the person is still young, often in their mid to late teens, and involves them being accepted as well as their family or a patron paying an initiation fee. The initiate would then start as a novice receiving training and education in the guild’s field before they become a full fledged member. The high ranking members of the guilds often hold extreme power in urban areas as well as accumulating a lot of wealth.

Some of the most notable Thunese guilds are the Thunese Aerospace Engineering Guild, which has a near monopoly on the creation of Thunese air and spacecraft, and the Thunese merchant guild, which handles much of the shipping on and off of the planet. Another important guild are those that produce traditional outfits and jewelry, often being metal working guilds or tailor guilds.

Gender

Despite the matrilineal traditions, Thunese culture is still quite patriarchal with the male members of the matralineal clans typically being the leaders and more powerful members, often considered to be more business minded. Men are expected to take on more of a public role in society while women, who are still considered quite powerful in their own right, are delegated to more of the private and spiritual sphere.

Sexuality

Thunese culture is very heteronormative, with different sex couples being historically the only type or relationship acknowledged. In modern times however, non-heterosexual couples are more widely accepted though they often face difficulties and are seen as non-traditional.

Architecture

Thunese households are ofter large and wide, with wings branching out horizontally in traditional architecture. Of course modern buildings and city planning has led to the development of apartment buildings and packed residential streets, but the sort of broad horizontal layout of houses is still often seen.

Houses typically open into a sort of multipurpose reviving room, used for dinners and parties when guests are over and as a multipurpose space when the family is alone. To one side of the house there would then be the storage rooms, the kitchen, and the more utilitarian rooms and on the opposite side there would be the bedrooms and living space of the family. The above mentioned horizontal layout still applies to many Thunese houses today.

Thunese households are often multigenerational and as such they can be quite large and expansive, which is still seen in elite houses today. For the more common household, especially those living in more modern housing, maternal family members -those one would be in the same clan- will often live in different units of the same apartment building or different houses in a housing complex or neighborhood.

Circular buildings and towers with domed roofs are common in traditional elite architecture, and are still often found in buildings based on traditional architecture like government buildings. 

Fashion

For more info see: Thunese Traditional Fashion

Thunese fashion has both formal elite wear as well as everyday wear. The formal wear tends to focus more on showing off wealth and clan relations, with everyday wear tending to be simpler and more streamlined for work. Things like elaborate jewelry and fabric patterns would typically be reserved for formalwear while shorter hems and visible trousers are typically used for more casual everyday wear.

Thunese fashion also tends to have some notable elements like a rectangular silhouette and long modest upper garments being common trends in Thunese fashion.

The typical Thunese outfit is made up of a long sleeved loose top that hangs down to the knees covering much of the bottoms which are typically a skirt of trousers, with trousers being seen as more working class. Outerjackets and vests may also be worn for warmth. Elaborate jewelry like head jewelry, neckrings, bracelets, and bangles are often worn for formal wear.

Farming & Pastoralism

Most of thunese agriculture has been moved to the Thunese colonies on the planets and moons nearby the Thunese homeplanet. Very few farms are located on Thunus itself, with those that do often being small in size compared to the large ones found in the colonies.

Intensive farming of plants and livestock is common in the Thunese system, with colony farms being mostly focused on large scale field production and the raising of large livestock. Farms on Thunus on the other hand, tend to focus more on smaller scale production growing garden plots and raising smaller livestock and animals, with fishponds and aquaculture being common.

Food

Thunese cuisine tends to use a lot of seafood and vegetables, with fruit often being used more for sweet treats and desserts. Lots of seasoning is used and the flavors used tend to be quite acidic, peppery, and fishy.

Many Thunese give up eating livestock meat as a type of religious fast, often done as a sign of piety to a patron deity, and this has resulted in fish being the main source of meat in Thunese cruising. There is still some land animals and livestock that are eaten, but they are much less popular and considered less traditional.

Many dishes are cooked through frying and simmering with meals traditionally consisting of a main dish and then a variety of side dishes that can be mixed in to complement the main course. There is also a thriving street food culture, with many of the most notable foods being snack foods eaten on the go.

Notable Dishes Include

Jarklin Fish - fish cooked in an acidic sauce with lots of spices. Often served with pickled vegetable sides and eaten as part of a larger meal.

Seafood fritters - spiced seafood dipped in batter and deep-fried. This dish is often eaten as a quick meal or snack food.

Spirituality

Thunese spirituality is very pantheistic with there being a belief in many different gods and spirits, with the belief in ancestral spirits being especially common. Spirituality tends to be very decentralized, with each family or clan having their own preferred god and ancestral deities that they worship regularly and myths varying from place to place. There is a wide belief that if one worships their patron deities and spirits well enough that they will be blessed in return and prosper.

The Arts

Opera Theater

The most famous of the Thunese performing arts is the Thunese operatic theater tradition typically called Thunese Opera or Thunese Theater. These performances involve actors playing out a story on stage incorporating rhythmic prose, operatic singing, and elaborate dancing.

The type of plays varies from tragedy to ghost story, with romances -even the tragic kind- being some of the most popular. 

The costumes are easily the most identifiable element of the theater traditions with actors wearing elaborate traditional outfits along with extra elements like big shoulder pads, flags, banners, and lots of moving and ostentatious elements especially for the more mythical or larger than life characters. 

There are multiple character archetypes seen in Thunese theater with actors typically specializing in a specific archetype. These archetypes include the gentlemen archetype, the villain archetype, and the damsel archetype which are the three most commonly seen. Elaborate makeup is worn by all of the prominent characters in the play, with each character archetype having different identifiable styles of makeup.