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[[File:Petroglyphs in Victorville.JPG|thumb|Rock art produced by the Wod͡ʒagat people, a critically endangered Urom tribe]] | |||
'''''Urom''''' are a heterogeneous category of non-Coscivian peoples native to [[Great Kirav]], distinguished from the other non-Coscivian minorities of the island continent (termed “National Minorities”) by their {{wp|tribe|tribal mode of social organisation}}, historical ''umpéa'' status under Imperial law, lack of integration into mainstream Kiravian society, and special developmental concerns. Collectively, they represent 2.1% of the Kiravian population, around | '''''Urom''''' are a heterogeneous category of non-Coscivian peoples native to [[Great Kirav]], distinguished from the other non-Coscivian minorities of the island continent (termed “National Minorities”) by their {{wp|tribe|tribal mode of social organisation}}, historical ''umpéa'' status under Imperial law, lack of integration into mainstream Kiravian society, and special developmental concerns. Collectively, they represent 2.1% of the Kiravian population, around 15 million people. | ||
Urom peoples, having many cultural characteristics in common with {{wp|indigenous peoples}} on other continents and beset with similar socio-economic and political challenges, are often included in [[Occidental]] discourse on {{wp|Indigenous rights|indigenous issues}}. In the [[Coscivian civilisation|Coscivian world]], however, ''Uromkor'' is understood as a function of socio-cultural {{wp|Other (philosophy)|otherness}} rather than {{wp|Autochthon (ancient Greece)|autochthony}} and colonial displacement, and Urom peoples are generally not regarded as being any more “indigenous” to Great Kirav than the National Minorities or Coscivian peoples, though claims to the contrary have been advanced by Urom activists. | Urom peoples, having many cultural characteristics in common with {{wp|indigenous peoples}} on other continents and beset with similar socio-economic and political challenges, are often included in [[Occidental]] discourse on {{wp|Indigenous rights|indigenous issues}}. In the [[Coscivian civilisation|Coscivian world]], however, ''Uromkor'' is understood as a function of socio-cultural {{wp|Other (philosophy)|otherness}} rather than {{wp|Autochthon (ancient Greece)|autochthony}} and colonial displacement, and Urom peoples are generally not regarded as being any more “indigenous” to Great Kirav than the National Minorities or Coscivian peoples, though claims to the contrary have been advanced by Urom activists. | ||
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==Concept== | ==Concept== | ||
The concept of ''Urom'' derives from the self-understanding of Coscivian civilisation and its origins. According to tradition, primitive agricultural Kirav was a violent and brutish environment characterised by near-constant {{wp|endemic war|endemic warfare}} between small tribal units, and widespread murderous practices such as {{wp|infanticide}} and {{wp|uxoricide}} within tribes due to both ritual demand and resource scarcity. Lifespans were extremely short, with the prelude to the [[Great Law Chant]] reminding Coscivians that "mere beards - not white but rich with ''[[Colour in Coscivian culture|ūmar]]'' were the mark of the elder; fortunate and few were those who survived to full manhood, for the earth was bathed in the young blood of hairless youth." It was only with the rise of the [[Marble_Emperor#Significance|Emperors]], through their imposition of the Four Laws and patronage of the Four Rites, that communities were able to know peace and order. During this nascent stage of Coscivian civilisation, | The concept of ''Urom'' derives from the self-understanding of Coscivian civilisation and its origins. According to tradition, primitive agricultural Kirav was a violent and brutish environment characterised by near-constant {{wp|endemic war|endemic warfare}} between small tribal units, and widespread murderous practices such as {{wp|infanticide}} and {{wp|uxoricide}} within tribes due to both ritual demand and resource scarcity. Lifespans were extremely short, with the prelude to the [[Great Law Chant]] reminding Coscivians that "mere beards - not white but rich with ''[[Colour in Coscivian culture|ūmar]]'' were the mark of the elder; fortunate and few were those who survived to full manhood, for the earth was bathed in the young blood of hairless youth." It was only with the rise of the [[Marble_Emperor#Significance|Emperors]], through their imposition of the Four Laws and patronage of the Four Rites, that communities were able to know peace and order. During this nascent stage of Coscivian civilisation, known as the "[[Lawful Commonwealth]]", the "Empire" was a tribal confederacy rather than a proper state, without an administration or defined territory. The Four Laws and Four Rites spread by voluntary diffusion more so than conquest, and from this emerged a binary identity of Lawful tribes who accepted the Emperor's authority versus {{wp|Lucy Lawless|Lawless}} tribes who did not. | ||
The discovery of {{wp|Bronze Age|ærose metallurgy and other technologies}} that enabled the consolidation of stable political control over wider areas and facilitated the evolution of the Empire into a territorial entity complicated this binary, as the Emperor's authority was no longer limited to those communities that had accepted the Law and Rites voluntarily, and now extended to communities brought under his rule by conquest, bound by the Law but (initially) not admitted to the Rites. This engendered a trifurcate distinction between Subjects of the Emperor (ritually initiated), Subjects of the Land (lawful but uninitiated), and barbarians (lawless). Over time, many Subjects of the Land, either on a corporate or individual basis, undertook the Rites and adopted the emerging Coscivian identity. At several junctures, such as the Great Invitation of Emperor Kompūserv and Emperor Ṉspektadek's Naturalisation of the Land, these initiations occurred ''en masse'' and may have been less-than-voluntary. At any rate, the arc of Imperial Coscivian history was long, but it bent toward the convergence of Subjects of the Land with the Emperor's Subjects, and also toward territorial expansion and the closure of the frontiers, such that by [Milestone], few redoubts of ungoverned barbarians persisted, and most remaining Subjects of the Land were tribal peoples living on marginal lands, especially inaccessible mountains, dense forests, and malarial swamps. | |||
To Be Continued. | To Be Continued. | ||
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To be continued with weirder stuff. | To be continued with weirder stuff. | ||
Some Urom tribes have no cultural memory of customs at odds with fundamental Coscivian norms. Many other tribes who once had such customs later abandoned them without assimilating into Coscivian society. In High Modernity, both Federalist and Kirosocialist governments asserted stricter control of the Urom reductions and suppressed practices such as polygamy. | |||
===Languages=== | ===Languages=== | ||
<!-- There are several language families considered native to Great Kirav, as well as language isolates not conclusively classified into a larger family. Modern linguists presume that all of these families descend from ''at most'' three (but more likely one or two) proto-languages, but due to the great {{wp|time depth}} involved, higher-order relationships between the established families are not demonstrable using current methods. For convenience, (Itaho-)Atrassic, Palæo-Kiravian, and Neo-Kiravian. --> | |||
''Urom'' tribal languages mainly belong to the 'Palæo-Kiravian' (Elutic, Gascanic, Intheric, Rulo-Swadeshi) or Itaho-Atrassic families, and not to the Cosco-Adratic family, which is associated with the spread of Coscivian civilisation. The reverse, however, is ''not'' true, as many ethnic groups accepted as Coscivian speak Palæo-Kiravian or Itaho-Atrassic languages. In the rare cases where a ''urom'' tribe speaks a distinct Cosco-Adratic language, they are known to have shifted to that language in historical times from a non-Cosco-Adratic language, which is evident as a {{wp|Substrate (linguistics)|substratum}}. Some ''urom'' languages, such as Varekthari and Oklʌsterbé, are isolates. | |||
===Spirituality and Religion=== | ===Spirituality and Religion=== | ||
==Contemporary Issues== | |||
===Demographic stability=== | |||
Although the total Urom population has increased according to every census since the end of Kirosocialism, buoyed by growth among larger and more developed groups such as the Qódava, Xufur, and Wawa, most Urom peoples - particularly those with smaller populations to begin with - have suffered a decline in absolute numbers during the same period. The Oklʌsterbé, presently reduced to nine individuals with the youngest females in their late fifties, face complete extinction with the passing of the current generation. Other small tribes with collapsing age pyramids must reckon with looming cultural extinction as their populations will soon be too small to maintain community life and traditional continuity, even if their genetic lineage survives. | |||
The familiar compounding factors of poverty, poor health outcomes, and the pressures of assimilation and exogamy, as well as the disruption of traditional lifestyles and economies, are believed to contribute to this decline. However, there is also the phenomenon of "Late-Modern Urom Sterility" observed across an array of Urom peoples from different regions, characterised by precipitous declines in fertility beginning during Mid-Kirosocialism that are not evident among similarly-situated Coscivian or National Minority communities. The cause(s) of Late-Modern Urom Sterility are presumed to be environmental or socio-economic in nature, but the exact etiology remains an open question. | |||
===Educational attainment=== | |||
Urom collectively lag behind the other demographic supercategories of Coscivians, Celts, Kiravite Minorities, and National Minorities in educational attainment statistics. They are the only supercategory for whom absolute (rather than functional) illiteracy remains a problem:<ref>The Overseas Peoples category, Immigrant Communities category, and Other/Unclassifiable categories are not ranked or listed here due to insufficient data.</ref> In 1990, 70% of ''urom'' men and 40% of women enumerated by the Federal Census were reported to be literate in any language. By 2010 these figures had improved to 85% and 60%. Present ''urom'' literacy rates are now believed to be much higher, in large part due to the departure of older generations from the sample, though estimates still converge on 5-12% illiteracy among both genders. As with other statistics of the ''urom'' population as a whole, these data are skewed upward by the numerical dominance of larger, better-developed tribes such as the Xufur and Qódava, and are unrepresentative of smaller and more isolated tribes. | |||
Dropout rates among ''urom'' students are higher than among Coscivians or Minorities at every level. Among the small-numbered tribes and the urban Dispossessed Tribes, most students do not complete secondary schooling, and as such few are eligible for entrance into higher education. | |||
A contributing factor to low educational attainment among ''urom'' tribes is that ''urom'' reserves are not subject to provincial compulsory education laws, and in several Western Highlands states and territories even ''urom'' living off-reserve are exempt from such laws since Reunification. Some tribal governments have their own schooling laws, which may or may not be rigorously enforced, while others do not. ''Urom'' cultures are often ambivalent toward modern formal education, understanding that it can lead to both social and economic empowerment on one hand and assimilation and disintegration on the other, even if delivered by ''urom'' instructors in a tribe's own language. | |||
==List of Urom peoples== | ==List of Urom peoples== | ||
===Current=== | |||
*'''Biznad͡ʒ''' - Native to [[Korlēdan]] and [[Argévia]]. | *'''Biznad͡ʒ''' - Native to [[Korlēdan]] and [[Argévia]]. | ||
*'''[[Ethnic_groups_in_Kiravia#Hazléta|Hazléta]]''' - Gascanic tribe inhabiting the Hadselet Valley in Sixua Province | |||
*'''Oklʌsterbé''' - Native to [[Lataskia]]; moribund with all 9 remaining Oklʌsterbé past reproductive age. | *'''Oklʌsterbé''' - Native to [[Lataskia]]; moribund with all 9 remaining Oklʌsterbé past reproductive age. | ||
*'''Pungōvak''' - Native to Inokarya and [[Ixikéa-Qihuxia|Qihuxia]], related to the Coscivian Kayakem. | *'''Pungōvak''' - Native to Inokarya and [[Ixikéa-Qihuxia|Qihuxia]], related to the Coscivian Kayakem. | ||
*'''[[Ethnic_groups_in_Kiravia#Qódavans|Qódava]]''' - Largest Urom tribe, with around four million members. | *'''[[Ethnic_groups_in_Kiravia#Qódavans|Qódava]]''' - Largest Urom tribe, with around four million members. | ||
*'''Rifpito''' - Relatives of the Qódava. | *'''Rifpito''' - Relatives of the Qódava. | ||
*'''[[Ethnic_groups_in_Kiravia#Vaguan|Vaguan]]''' - Native to the North Kiravian plain south of the Lake Belt; known for their small {{wp|earth lodge}} dwellings | |||
*'''Varekthari''' - Native to [[Metrea]]. | *'''Varekthari''' - Native to [[Metrea]]. | ||
*'''Wamdue''' - Native to [[Sixua]], once ruled a confederation of chiefdoms and proto-states at parity with neighbouring Coscivian polities. | |||
*'''Wawa''' - Native to [[Váuadra]]. | *'''Wawa''' - Native to [[Váuadra]]. | ||
*'''Wisaya''' - Native to [[Sixua]] and known for their exotic marital norms. | *'''Wisaya''' - Native to [[Sixua]] and known for their exotic marital norms. | ||
*'''Wod͡ʒagat''' - Native to [[Kensonia]], known for their distinctive and haunting geoglyphs. | |||
===Historical=== | |||
'''Surfantur''' - Inhabited coastal swamps in [[Fariva]], extinct since the 17th century AD. | |||
<!-- | <!-- | ||
{{Infobox ethnic group | {{Infobox ethnic group | ||
|group = | |group = Urom | ||
|image = [[File:Vie quotidienne des Amérindiens en Nouvelle-France (XVIIIe siècle).jpg|300px]] | |image = [[File:Vie quotidienne des Amérindiens en Nouvelle-France (XVIIIe siècle).jpg|300px]] | ||
|population = '''34.4 million''' | |population = '''34.4 million''' | ||
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}} | }} | ||
'''Kiravian | '''Kiravian Urom''' or '''Urom''' are a polyphyletic group of peoples who are collectively considered the indigenous inhabitants of the island continent of [[Great Kirav]] and its surrounding islands, present there before the arrival of the proto-[[Coscivian civilisation|Coscivians]]. | ||
==Definition== | ==Definition== | ||
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This definition encompasses a diverse collection of people groups, many of them small-numbered, across different language families, traditional lifestyles, phenotypes, religious traditions, and degrees and manners of differentiation from Coscivian and Coscivian-adjacent society. Although components of the standard definition have been criticised on various grounds, it is nonetheless the most widely used definition by government and civil society alike. According to Rifpito activist and scholar Yefes Ayefsipti, the classification of groups as Urom or non-Urom can seem arbitrary and artificial to urban Coscivians and to Western observers, but in regions with established Urom populations the {{wp|Other (philosophy)|otherness}} of Uromity is an inescapable and deeply felt social reality. A point of agreement between the government and Urom leaders is that Uromity is fundamentally an attribute of peoples and tribes, and that individuals are only Urom by virtue of belonging to such a people. | This definition encompasses a diverse collection of people groups, many of them small-numbered, across different language families, traditional lifestyles, phenotypes, religious traditions, and degrees and manners of differentiation from Coscivian and Coscivian-adjacent society. Although components of the standard definition have been criticised on various grounds, it is nonetheless the most widely used definition by government and civil society alike. According to Rifpito activist and scholar Yefes Ayefsipti, the classification of groups as Urom or non-Urom can seem arbitrary and artificial to urban Coscivians and to Western observers, but in regions with established Urom populations the {{wp|Other (philosophy)|otherness}} of Uromity is an inescapable and deeply felt social reality. A point of agreement between the government and Urom leaders is that Uromity is fundamentally an attribute of peoples and tribes, and that individuals are only Urom by virtue of belonging to such a people. | ||
In sociological and public policy discourse, usage of the term 'Urom' normally excludes the Scheduled Minorities (who maintain a separate identity from Coscivians but have long histories of statehood and civil integration), as well as groups such as the Kiorgians and Indokwéans who are of heavily Palæo-Kiravian descent but identify as Coscivians. However, these groups may considered | In sociological and public policy discourse, usage of the term 'Urom' normally excludes the Scheduled Minorities (who maintain a separate identity from Coscivians but have long histories of statehood and civil integration), as well as groups such as the Kiorgians and Indokwéans who are of heavily Palæo-Kiravian descent but identify as Coscivians. However, these groups may considered Urom in anthropological and historical contexts. | ||
==History== | ==History== | ||
===Speculative Origins=== | ===Speculative Origins=== | ||
<!--** The ultimate origin of the | <!--** The ultimate origin of the Urom remains a mystery. Genetic surveys have identified at least three distinct "founder populations" or "waves of settlement", depending on the model, but have been unable to reliably date the arrival of these groups or definitively match them with related populations elsewhere in the world. Archæological evidence, primarily the carbon-dating of biotic material embedded in primitive stone tools, seems to point to an arrival date for the earliest pioneers between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago, though it remains unclear whether the makers of these tools were ''Homo sapiens'' or other hominids, and even less clear whether their genetic line continues in modern Urom. | ||
Kiravian historians and anthropologists categorise the time between the immigration of the last Urom "founder population" and the arrival of Arctic and Levantine peoples on Kiravian shores as the Isolation Period. The boundaries of this period are poorly defined, with the beginning date being purely theoretical and the end date rather vague due to lack of hard data. Nonetheless, the period of isolation has an upper bound of XXXX AD, as evidenced by findings of Celtic artifacts on the [[Mariava]] coast.** --> | Kiravian historians and anthropologists categorise the time between the immigration of the last Urom "founder population" and the arrival of Arctic and Levantine peoples on Kiravian shores as the Isolation Period. The boundaries of this period are poorly defined, with the beginning date being purely theoretical and the end date rather vague due to lack of hard data. Nonetheless, the period of isolation has an upper bound of XXXX AD, as evidenced by findings of Celtic artifacts on the [[Mariava]] coast.** --> | ||
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==Culture== | ==Culture== | ||
Kiravite | Kiravite Urom are a polyphyletic group, divided among five apparently unrelated language families (and three language isolates) and exhibiting considerable variation in appearance. Their traditional religious practices can differ greatly between tribes, encompassing shamanism, totemism, vitalism, monotheism, universism, animism, spiritism, and combinations thereof. Today, most Urom practice some form of Christianity or Islam, usually in syncresis with their previous beliefs and traditions. There have also been efforts to formalise and institutionalise wholly native belief systems in order to perpetuate them in modernity. | ||
==Contemporary Social Characteristics== | ==Contemporary Social Characteristics== | ||
[Under reconstruction] --> | [Under reconstruction] --> | ||
<!--** The social characteristics of contemporary | <!--** The social characteristics of contemporary Urom divide their population into three “castes” based primarily on their ancestors allegiances during the Continental War and the political status they came to hold in the Coscivian-dominated order afterward (see Political Status below). | ||
'''Pro-Kiravian Tribes''', as well as tribes in the Aterandic mountains and eastern coastal regions that had been assimilated into or displaced by Coscivian civilisation early in history, also referred to as | '''Pro-Kiravian Tribes''', as well as tribes in the Aterandic mountains and eastern coastal regions that had been assimilated into or displaced by Coscivian civilisation early in history, also referred to as | ||
''Treaty Tribes'', were rewarded with high political status after the war. They immediately received (or already held) full Kiravian citizenship, and considerable political autonomy under self-governing Tribal Authorities and Autonomous Countyships. Whether they integrated into Cosco-Kiravian society as new tuaþaya or opted for greater cultural autonomy, these tribes were well-positioned to retain many aspects of their cultural heritage while benefitting fully from Kiravian economic advancement. Today, their economic, housing, health, and education indicators are generally on-par with those of Coscivians living nearby, and even exceed them in select localities. | ''Treaty Tribes'', were rewarded with high political status after the war. They immediately received (or already held) full Kiravian citizenship, and considerable political autonomy under self-governing Tribal Authorities and Autonomous Countyships. Whether they integrated into Cosco-Kiravian society as new tuaþaya or opted for greater cultural autonomy, these tribes were well-positioned to retain many aspects of their cultural heritage while benefitting fully from Kiravian economic advancement. Today, their economic, housing, health, and education indicators are generally on-par with those of Coscivians living nearby, and even exceed them in select localities. | ||
'''Neutral Tribes''' that avoided taking sides in the Continental War, as well as those living in more remote mountain and inland regions of the West who were uninvolved in the conflict, constitute the middle caste of | '''Neutral Tribes''' that avoided taking sides in the Continental War, as well as those living in more remote mountain and inland regions of the West who were uninvolved in the conflict, constitute the middle caste of Urom. After the war, most were gradually confined to less-autonomous reservations or forced to adopt private landholding. Marginalised and generally ignored by Cosco-Kiravian society, they preserved much of their culture through relative isolation, but were also left behind as the Kiravian economy developed. Today, they are generally poorer than neighbouring Coscivians, have lower (oftentimes wholly premodern) standards of living. The Neutral Tribes of the northern West Coast and Northwest Isles are an exception, being more or less on par with Coscivians living in those areas in terms of economic and social status. | ||
'''Defeated Tribes''' were the founding tribes of Drail and their allies. After the war, they were evicted from their lands to make room for Coscivian settlement, denied citizenship, and lived as captured enemy aliens for generations, often being subjected to forced labour and migration. They were only granted Kiravian nationality in 21073 and limited citizenship in 21126. Due to their landlessness, they are highly urbanised, making up a plurality of | '''Defeated Tribes''' were the founding tribes of Drail and their allies. After the war, they were evicted from their lands to make room for Coscivian settlement, denied citizenship, and lived as captured enemy aliens for generations, often being subjected to forced labour and migration. They were only granted Kiravian nationality in 21073 and limited citizenship in 21126. Due to their landlessness, they are highly urbanised, making up a plurality of Urom living in Metropolitan Core regions according to the KF Census. They suffer from generational poverty, weak family structures, social breakdown, high crime rates, drug abuse, and abysmal educational attainment rates. ** --> | ||
<!-- | <!-- | ||
===Population=== | ===Population=== | ||
As of the latest census, | As of the latest census, Urom numbered just over 34.4 million people, accounting for about three percent of the total population of the Kiravian Federacy. 62% of Urom live in West Kirav. | ||
==Political Status== | ==Political Status== | ||
Today, all Urom Kiravians are citizens of the Kiravian Federacy, with the four Draili tribes being the last to gain citizenship in 21126. Previously, the civil status of | Today, all Urom Kiravians are citizens of the Kiravian Federacy, with the four Draili tribes being the last to gain citizenship in 21126. Previously, the civil status of Urom varied by the political favour in which their tribe was held, usually entailing lower grades of status such as metics, mere nationals, or [[subjects of the land]]. | ||
Overall, 48% of | Overall, 48% of Urom live outside of tribal jurisdiction and are subject to the same laws as other Kiravian citizens. The 52% that live on tribal lands enjoy special autonomy and exemptions from state and federal laws that vary by the type of tribal jurisdiction they inhabit. | ||
<strike>The larger Treaty Tribes govern Tribal Authorities, defined by the Urom Affairs Code as “domestic, dependent, but autocephalous subjects of federal law”. Though they are not states themselves and have no independent input into federal politics as states, territories, and other federal subjects do, Tribal Authorities have the same standing as states under federal law. They exercise most administrative powers of states – levying taxes, operating police forces, issuing licences, and passing laws – within areas under their jurisdiction, which include both one or more autonomous counties and larger non-autonomous areas of states where the Tribal Authority’s jurisdiction is extraterritorial. | <strike>The larger Treaty Tribes govern Tribal Authorities, defined by the Urom Affairs Code as “domestic, dependent, but autocephalous subjects of federal law”. Though they are not states themselves and have no independent input into federal politics as states, territories, and other federal subjects do, Tribal Authorities have the same standing as states under federal law. They exercise most administrative powers of states – levying taxes, operating police forces, issuing licences, and passing laws – within areas under their jurisdiction, which include both one or more autonomous counties and larger non-autonomous areas of states where the Tribal Authority’s jurisdiction is extraterritorial. | ||
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==List of Recognised Tribes== | ==List of Recognised Tribes== | ||
*Draili - [[Devahoma]] | *Draili - [[Devahoma]] | ||
*[[Tapkek]] - [[ | *[[Tapkek]] - [[Kaviska]], [[Niyaska]] | ||
*[[Hidenrek]] - [[Kastera]], [[Arkvera]] | *[[Hidenrek]] - [[Kastera]], [[Arkvera]] | ||
*[[Ethnic groups in Kiravia#Qódavans|Qódavas]] - Súneridan | *[[Ethnic groups in Kiravia#Qódavans|Qódavas]] - Súneridan | ||
Latest revision as of 18:32, 9 November 2024
 | This page is currently undergoing major reconstruction in accordance with broader lore changes. |
Urom are a heterogeneous category of non-Coscivian peoples native to Great Kirav, distinguished from the other non-Coscivian minorities of the island continent (termed “National Minorities”) by their tribal mode of social organisation, historical umpéa status under Imperial law, lack of integration into mainstream Kiravian society, and special developmental concerns. Collectively, they represent 2.1% of the Kiravian population, around 15 million people.
Urom peoples, having many cultural characteristics in common with indigenous peoples on other continents and beset with similar socio-economic and political challenges, are often included in Occidental discourse on indigenous issues. In the Coscivian world, however, Uromkor is understood as a function of socio-cultural otherness rather than autochthony and colonial displacement, and Urom peoples are generally not regarded as being any more “indigenous” to Great Kirav than the National Minorities or Coscivian peoples, though claims to the contrary have been advanced by Urom activists.
Urom are not a single people, and ideas of a collective Urom panethnic identity have yet to extend beyond the context of political agitation. There is great diversity among the various Urom tribes in terms of ancestry, appearance, language, religion, and lifestyle.
Concept
The concept of Urom derives from the self-understanding of Coscivian civilisation and its origins. According to tradition, primitive agricultural Kirav was a violent and brutish environment characterised by near-constant endemic warfare between small tribal units, and widespread murderous practices such as infanticide and uxoricide within tribes due to both ritual demand and resource scarcity. Lifespans were extremely short, with the prelude to the Great Law Chant reminding Coscivians that "mere beards - not white but rich with ūmar were the mark of the elder; fortunate and few were those who survived to full manhood, for the earth was bathed in the young blood of hairless youth." It was only with the rise of the Emperors, through their imposition of the Four Laws and patronage of the Four Rites, that communities were able to know peace and order. During this nascent stage of Coscivian civilisation, known as the "Lawful Commonwealth", the "Empire" was a tribal confederacy rather than a proper state, without an administration or defined territory. The Four Laws and Four Rites spread by voluntary diffusion more so than conquest, and from this emerged a binary identity of Lawful tribes who accepted the Emperor's authority versus Lawless tribes who did not.
The discovery of ærose metallurgy and other technologies that enabled the consolidation of stable political control over wider areas and facilitated the evolution of the Empire into a territorial entity complicated this binary, as the Emperor's authority was no longer limited to those communities that had accepted the Law and Rites voluntarily, and now extended to communities brought under his rule by conquest, bound by the Law but (initially) not admitted to the Rites. This engendered a trifurcate distinction between Subjects of the Emperor (ritually initiated), Subjects of the Land (lawful but uninitiated), and barbarians (lawless). Over time, many Subjects of the Land, either on a corporate or individual basis, undertook the Rites and adopted the emerging Coscivian identity. At several junctures, such as the Great Invitation of Emperor Kompūserv and Emperor Ṉspektadek's Naturalisation of the Land, these initiations occurred en masse and may have been less-than-voluntary. At any rate, the arc of Imperial Coscivian history was long, but it bent toward the convergence of Subjects of the Land with the Emperor's Subjects, and also toward territorial expansion and the closure of the frontiers, such that by [Milestone], few redoubts of ungoverned barbarians persisted, and most remaining Subjects of the Land were tribal peoples living on marginal lands, especially inaccessible mountains, dense forests, and malarial swamps.
To Be Continued.
Cultures
Heterodox Customs
The traditional narrative ascribes the ancestral Urom's refusal to assimilate into Coscivian society to their desire to retain customs that did not conform to the Four Laws or other defining norms of Coscivian culture. Commonly cited examples of such customs include marital norms, with many Urom peoples having practised (at least historically) forms of polygamy, or (especially in the case of hunter-gatherer groups) eschewing the marriage bond in favour of serial partnerships. Many Urom of the Southwest and the Western Highlands continue to (extralegally) observe customs obligating a married man to marry his brother's widow as an additional wife.
To be continued with weirder stuff.
Some Urom tribes have no cultural memory of customs at odds with fundamental Coscivian norms. Many other tribes who once had such customs later abandoned them without assimilating into Coscivian society. In High Modernity, both Federalist and Kirosocialist governments asserted stricter control of the Urom reductions and suppressed practices such as polygamy.
Languages
Urom tribal languages mainly belong to the 'Palæo-Kiravian' (Elutic, Gascanic, Intheric, Rulo-Swadeshi) or Itaho-Atrassic families, and not to the Cosco-Adratic family, which is associated with the spread of Coscivian civilisation. The reverse, however, is not true, as many ethnic groups accepted as Coscivian speak Palæo-Kiravian or Itaho-Atrassic languages. In the rare cases where a urom tribe speaks a distinct Cosco-Adratic language, they are known to have shifted to that language in historical times from a non-Cosco-Adratic language, which is evident as a substratum. Some urom languages, such as Varekthari and Oklʌsterbé, are isolates.
Spirituality and Religion
Contemporary Issues
Demographic stability
Although the total Urom population has increased according to every census since the end of Kirosocialism, buoyed by growth among larger and more developed groups such as the Qódava, Xufur, and Wawa, most Urom peoples - particularly those with smaller populations to begin with - have suffered a decline in absolute numbers during the same period. The Oklʌsterbé, presently reduced to nine individuals with the youngest females in their late fifties, face complete extinction with the passing of the current generation. Other small tribes with collapsing age pyramids must reckon with looming cultural extinction as their populations will soon be too small to maintain community life and traditional continuity, even if their genetic lineage survives.
The familiar compounding factors of poverty, poor health outcomes, and the pressures of assimilation and exogamy, as well as the disruption of traditional lifestyles and economies, are believed to contribute to this decline. However, there is also the phenomenon of "Late-Modern Urom Sterility" observed across an array of Urom peoples from different regions, characterised by precipitous declines in fertility beginning during Mid-Kirosocialism that are not evident among similarly-situated Coscivian or National Minority communities. The cause(s) of Late-Modern Urom Sterility are presumed to be environmental or socio-economic in nature, but the exact etiology remains an open question.
Educational attainment
Urom collectively lag behind the other demographic supercategories of Coscivians, Celts, Kiravite Minorities, and National Minorities in educational attainment statistics. They are the only supercategory for whom absolute (rather than functional) illiteracy remains a problem:[1] In 1990, 70% of urom men and 40% of women enumerated by the Federal Census were reported to be literate in any language. By 2010 these figures had improved to 85% and 60%. Present urom literacy rates are now believed to be much higher, in large part due to the departure of older generations from the sample, though estimates still converge on 5-12% illiteracy among both genders. As with other statistics of the urom population as a whole, these data are skewed upward by the numerical dominance of larger, better-developed tribes such as the Xufur and Qódava, and are unrepresentative of smaller and more isolated tribes.
Dropout rates among urom students are higher than among Coscivians or Minorities at every level. Among the small-numbered tribes and the urban Dispossessed Tribes, most students do not complete secondary schooling, and as such few are eligible for entrance into higher education.
A contributing factor to low educational attainment among urom tribes is that urom reserves are not subject to provincial compulsory education laws, and in several Western Highlands states and territories even urom living off-reserve are exempt from such laws since Reunification. Some tribal governments have their own schooling laws, which may or may not be rigorously enforced, while others do not. Urom cultures are often ambivalent toward modern formal education, understanding that it can lead to both social and economic empowerment on one hand and assimilation and disintegration on the other, even if delivered by urom instructors in a tribe's own language.
List of Urom peoples
Current
- Biznad͡ʒ - Native to Korlēdan and Argévia.
- Hazléta - Gascanic tribe inhabiting the Hadselet Valley in Sixua Province
- Oklʌsterbé - Native to Lataskia; moribund with all 9 remaining Oklʌsterbé past reproductive age.
- Pungōvak - Native to Inokarya and Qihuxia, related to the Coscivian Kayakem.
- Qódava - Largest Urom tribe, with around four million members.
- Rifpito - Relatives of the Qódava.
- Vaguan - Native to the North Kiravian plain south of the Lake Belt; known for their small earth lodge dwellings
- Varekthari - Native to Metrea.
- Wamdue - Native to Sixua, once ruled a confederation of chiefdoms and proto-states at parity with neighbouring Coscivian polities.
- Wawa - Native to Váuadra.
- Wisaya - Native to Sixua and known for their exotic marital norms.
- Wod͡ʒagat - Native to Kensonia, known for their distinctive and haunting geoglyphs.
Historical
Surfantur - Inhabited coastal swamps in Fariva, extinct since the 17th century AD.
- ↑ The Overseas Peoples category, Immigrant Communities category, and Other/Unclassifiable categories are not ranked or listed here due to insufficient data.