Hoppers: Difference between revisions

'''Hoppers''', also referred to as '''hop-harvesting peoples''' or the '''hop clans''' are a Coscivian ethnosocial group (or groups), often described as an ethnoclass or {{wp|caste}}, who are traditionally engaged in the cultivation and harvesting of {{wp|hops}}. The labour-intensive nature of hop harvesting and processing created a large demand for migrant workers during the harvest season. These migrant workers organised themselves into clans for protection during their annual travels, mutual aid during the off-season, and in some cases collective bargaining with landowners. Although different clans and groups of clans may be of different ethnic backgrounds, speak different languages and dialects, and inhabit different parts of the country, they nonetheless feel a sense of kinship and solidarity with other hopper clans. Hoppers have often leveraged their crucial role in the production of one of Kiravia's most important commodities in order to protect their communal interests and advance themselves politically and economically. In modern times, even though many or even most hoppers are no longer actually engaged in hop harvesting, people of hopper descent continue to marry mainly within the hopper community and retain a distinct group identity. Hoppers often vote as a bloc in state and local elections, encouraging political parties and candidates to court the hopper vote, and giving rise to dedicated hoppers' parties in some areas.

As a legacy of their migratory lifestyle, historical landlessness, and lower social status, hoppers as a class experience poorer economic, educational, and health outcomes than the average Coscivian-Kiravian, though with regard to most indicators hoppers in inland Kiravia are now largely on par with other rural Coscivian-Kiravians in the same areas.