Just figured I'd repost this.
Culture
Above all the
Tuntun values its culture, its art, its Gods. Any 'city' the early
Tuntun peoples could have claimed to possess was not a city in the sense that it was filled with urban dwellers, but instead a gathering place where artwork could be shown off and sold, great feasts and events celebrated, and Gods invoked during dire times through mass rituals conducted by the
Tuntun community. Community, in fact, is also paramount, for without it the
Tuntun may as well be barbarians.
Though they live in separate tribes, in small villages surrounding their ceremonial 'capital', the
Tuntun see themselves as a people who have been set above the rest by the Gods. How one
Tuntun recognizes another is a two-step process. First, any
Tuntun carries some small piece of artwork on his person, something he or his father or his father's father made that bears the
Tuntun 'essence'. Next, one
Tuntun will challenge the other to a friendly game of
Tizia, a game derived from the far more important
Tizikin and adapted to allow for impromptu play between a few individuals.
Tizia sees two opposing parties aiming to launch a small ball made from various materials across the opponent's left shoulder (left specifically due to a
Tuntun belief that all ill-spirits hover on a person's left side) using only their forearms, elbows, or hips. Depending on how a person players--or if they play at all--one
Tuntun can recognize another (and the more skilled players can even figure out the individual's tribe due to various strategies passed from generation to generation).
Tizia is a friendly game, often played during greetings between two tribes and at the beginning of any major event;
Tizikin, however, sees far more at stake and occupies an important place in
Tuntun mysticism.
Tizikin is always played in a decorated ball court and always played with an equally decorated rubber ball. The ball itself is often heavy and the game's players are always young men who are at the pinnacle of their strength.
Tizikin is played only three times a year during the
Tuntun's most important rituals:
Xolxi (Year's End),
Xuli (Year's Birth), and
Cuetlu (Womb-Month). Each village provides a team of five players and a tournament is held to determine a 'winner'. The goal of the game is to launch the rubber ball through a hoop (signifying, simultaneously, the ending/beginning of a new year and the act of copulation) or keep the ball in the air for roughly half an hour. Should the ball hit the ground, as it often does, before the time is up the team that let the ball fall loses and they are beaten by
Tuntun priests. Any blood spilled is collected and offered to the Gods. Once two teams remain the game's length is doubled to an hour and the losing team is sacrificed to the
Tuntun Gods by the winning team. Understandably, things get fierce during the last match and many teams opt to lose early, but both the winning and losing teams are held in high esteem by the
Tuntun and both tribes with the teams belong to earn special rights and privileges.
Society
The
Tuntun live in familial clusters around their ceremonial and religious capital. No one man can truly say he leads the tribes, but one woman each generation is raised above the staunchly patriarchal system to become the
Cuettempthal, literally
'The One Womb of the World'. This woman leads all
Tuntun rituals and acts as the
Tuntun face to outsiders. In truth her authority is only maintained by a council of older male priests called the
Itltec, of which there are seven, one for each of the major
Tuntun Gods.
On a tribal level this model is mimicked by the dual-leadership of tribes. Each tribe has a 'Headman' (
Itlopa) and 'Headwoman' (
Cuetopa) who see to the efficient ordering of the 'Man's World' (hunting, farming, animal rearing) and the 'Woman's World' (trading, weaving, child rearing). Oftentimes these two individuals are married, though this need not be so. Regardless of any egalitarian pretenses these dual-leaderships may suggest, men rule the villages and it is to the
Itlopa that the tribe looks to for guidance.
The
Tuntun are very much based in agriculture and taking their yield from the land. They have domesticated a few animals, such as ducks and dogs, and spend a great deal of their time plowing the land to grow corn. Corn is the staple in
Tuntun diet and most meals consist of corn-based creations that are vaguely flavored with whatever else the
Tuntun find and kill.
When the
Tuntun are not working they are creating their art, which ranges from small carvings into clay tablets or the sides of their mud huts, to intricate body tattoos and the monolithic sculptures housed in
Tuntun cities. Artists hold a special place in
Tuntun society and are regarded as priestly. In fact, most priests are or were artists at one point due to the fact that the best
Tuntun artists are housed in the ceremonial cities. These artists work with stone, a feat that many regard as divine and supernatural.
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