Oan Clan System

The Oan clan system forms the basis of the aocial, political and economic system of The Oan Isles. This article aims to describe how the clan system works. Mauia Uweleye scathingly criticised the Oan clan system, but accurately surmised it when he said, "Your name is your place and your future". The Oan clan system has existed for a long time. It has endured political, economic, social and environmental change. This system has a broad influence on the people of the country in multitudinous ways.

Economic Impact

Clans are ranked by an informal system of popular recognition and anthropological research. The clan system can be identified to have a hierarchy, where some families are believed to be greater or lesser than others. This is often attributed almost solely to wealth.

The assets of the clan are generally owned in trust by its members. The greater the value or amount of the assets, the greater the place of that family in society and, by extension, the greater the stature of the individual in society, and vice versa. For example, the Ulua family, through the Ulua Trust owns a large network of financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies.

There are 20 families that are generally recognised to belong to the highest echelon of the social system. They own most of the large  companies of the country and, consequently, have the greatest wealth and most money, eclipsing the rest of society by a great margin even though they are few.

This clan based wealth distribution model causes a great deal of inequality. There is a massive gap in wealth, income and, by extension, economic power and clout, between different echelons of clans. This ultimately has an impact on the individual, whose personal wealth and income and economic aspirations are limited almost entirely by the clan they are born into. Considerations on employment opportunities are greatly influenced by the clan one belongs to.

Social Impact

This model of family hierarchy has a massive impact on the social fabric of the people. Weaker and smaller families will form part of the orbit of influence of larger families to access economic and political opportunities. The relationships clans or groups of clans have with one another can influence how individuals interact.

Enmity or friendship between clans often translates to hostility or amicability between the individuals who belong to them. The higher a clan is perceived to be, the more important the individuals who belong to them will be deemed to be. This translates to social relationships. A plethora of manners and protocol have evolved to determine how people of different clans and classes treat one another.

This class–clan model has an impact on personal relationships. People of similar class gravitate towards each other. People of similar class will live together, befriend each other, go to school together, work together marry each other, and be buried together. The quality of the services they receive or opportunities they have access to will be limited by their class or position in the social order.

Political Impact

The Oan Isles is for all intensive purposes a democracy, albeit a flawed one. Regular elections and free speech, allow people from lower clans to have some influence. A variety of freedoms and rights are guaranteed by the Constitution that allow the individual to be part of the political culture of the nation irrespective of their social, economic or familial background. Without the financial or political backing of large or wealthy clans, political organisations or interest groups that do not serve the interests of the great families, struggle to make a dent on the political agenda.

Political discussion, the core of a democratic state, is shaped by clan loyalties. Tension or peace among families will impact what propaganda they perpetuate for or against each other in order to accomplish their goals or protect their interests. The clans that fall within their orbit or which ally with them will often do the same to maintain their lucrative relationships. The individual's capacity to oppose or support various narratives based on their own experiences or beliefs will be shaped by the clan agenda.

This process can have fairly minor to massive implications for people and communities. One's personal beliefs or even needs can and ( sometimes) are compromised in order to align with a broader narrative imposed by the clan.  Shunning, exclusion or expulsion can follow dissent.

Membership

The Oan clan system is a partiarchal one. Membership is determined through a man in some form or other. A man's children automatically belong to his clan even in adulthood. Legitimacy plays no part whatsoever in this process. They subsequently benefit from its wealth or are subject to its rules.

Change in clan membership does occur. If a woman marries, her membership in her own clan is terminated and she becomes part of her husband's clan. She adopts his name, his people become her people, and his parents become her parents. Even if he passes away or divorces her, she remains a part of his clan, and has all the rights and obligations of any other member. One cannot be expelled from a clan, although they can be cut off from all the benefits of the clan.

Adoption is a difficult topic. Even though one can take a child within ones care, without the approval of the clan they cannot use its surname, or benefit from its wealth. Children whose father is not known cannot use their mother's surname or be considered a part of her clan unless she marries another member of that clan with the condition that her children are adopted.

According to Oan law, all children have the right to a name  including a surname. When a child's patrilineal heritage cannot be ascertained, they receive the Emperor's first name as as their surname and he is considered their father. This forms the basis of the entire child welfare and child protection system. Orphans are the state's responsibility to take care of and the statw has power of attorney over them and all their affairs until they reach adulthood. The state often transfers this power and  duty to "foster parents".

They generally have between 300 and 5,000 members.

Hierarchy

As discussed above, the Oan clan system is hierarchical, albeit informally. Their wealth includes combined individual wealth and/or wealth held in trust from foreign to local investment and assets. The echelons are as follows from greatest to least:

• The Great Families: There are 20 families. They are at the apex of the entire economic, political and social structure. The Royal and Imperial Family, the Ulua clan is among them. They own businessed across the nation. The most notable names are the Ulua, Salua, Uye, Takatunuye, Toaye and Uataka, among others. They generally have a wealth of over 50 billion, some going to slightly below 400 billion dollars.
• The High Families: These are important and prominent families with the capacity to stand alone instead of falling within the orbit of a single family, with the freedom to forge or revoke alliances. There are 120 of them. They generally have a wealth under or around a few billion dollars even at 10 billion for tge Oaye clan
• The Noble Families: These are wealthy families who own businesses, albeit ones that are medium-sized, and have sizeable assets generally within a few hundred million dollars. There are 560 such clans.
• The Middle Families: More focus is put on being a professional than opening a business, although they some small to medium-sized businesses. Their assets peak in the tens of millions or less, although their combined individual wealth might be higher. There are 1,345 such families.
• The Humble Families: These are the poorest families, with their collective wealth seldom going over a few million dollars. This may seem significant, but when there are over a thousand members in a clan, this represents a very small portion of the national wealth. There are 1,870 such clans.

Stabilising Forces

The Oan clan system has the power to fail or remain due to a number of various forces. Human individualism poses the biggest threat to this system. Human individualism is a term broadly encompassing self-preservation as their primary survival instinct of human beings which affects their willingness to conform to or rebel against a system that promotes or denegrades their self preservation. Political, social and economic systems have developed organically or artifically to combat the ability of human individualism to usurp this system.

Great families are the primary proponents of this system; it protects their wealth and power. They have, therefore, largely taken it upon themselves to defend or maintain it. Great families often direct a large portion of their wealth to social programs to uplift or support poor families and communities. Great families often support the political careers and subsequent advancement of people of lower clans within their orbit who have political aspirations. Great families often provide their labourers, almost all of whom come from poor clans, with various benefits, while restricting capacity for promotion. Propaganda and some legal instruments such as the right to a name inadvertently give rise to this system and give it legal basis, however contrived or distant.

The great families are almost equal in wealth and power. They often focus on particular sectors of the economy. This means that they are dependent on one another. Although hostility does occur, peace often prevails to prevent turmoil and civil war.

Disadvantages and advantages

The clan system has disadvantages. It limits the number of careers and advancement within careers that an individual can have access to. It concentrates the bulk of resources into the hands of the wealthy, leaving the poor with relatively poor services and limited access to opportunities on almost every front: education, healthcare, access to food and shelter, political freedom and civil rights.

For all its purported evils, the system has benefits. It stabilises the population. The Oan Isles is the most densely populated and heavily urbanised nationstate on Urth. This leads to competition for resources and space when both are on short supply, competition that can cause economic instability and political inrest. The clan system has controlled the population to mitigate these forces.

The clan system also controls labour and ensures the constant supply of human manpower to maintain the country as a whole. It also controls the distribution of manpower to ensure that the needs of the whole are met. Lower families make up the bulk of the labour force. They are affiliated with a great family. This means that they are often employed by the great family and its corporations. This allows the labour force to contract and expand and remain motile, shifting with economic ebbs and flows in a controlled manner.