Intergalactic Summit

Not so much an argument as a misunderstanding of slightly different viewpoints.

A Matari is a label. Like for any other label, a person requires two components.


1. To declare yourself of that label, and be comfortable in that declaration.


2. To be accepted by others that the label does indeed apply to you.


"2" is only a requirement if it matters to you what other people think. In my opinion, even as an unkillable infinitely-replicating clone, life is too short to worry about other people and their opinions.

I agree with Joe.

There is no "one" Minmatar.
We are a kith and kin.
The blood of the ancestors within our veins.
Respectful of our diversity.
United against adversity.

Racial identity is a complex web of personal, social and physical factors, and in all of them tremendously subjective. While "Genetics" is, of course, an easy answer, it's sort of unapplicable in terms of human society. You could be genetically a turnip, but so long as you looked like a Brutor, people would see you as one.

For instance, It is the popular opinion in the State that Caldari who rejected the secession movement and live peacefully in the Federation to this day are not "true Caldari", for both cultural reasons and the fact that many have mixed considerably with the Gallentean population - Even in instances where neither of these factors are entirely applicable. Inversely, there are people living in the State who are largely genetically Gallentean, but are fortunate in terms of physical makeup, and are thus accepted without question as being Caldari.

When you start looking at things in terms of societies rather than individuals, the issue becomes even muddier. Due to the Imperial invasion, genetically and culturally, today's Minmatar are considerably divergent from the Minmatar of several hundred years ago. Say for example someone were to find a few hundred Minmatar from that period in cryogenic stasis. Would they no longer be Minmatar, if they refused to integrate into the current society? Or would that action make the entire current Minmatar society illegitimate by default...?

Ultimately, these are questions of human construction. The essential truth is that an identity is "legitimate" when you manage to convince both yourself and your peers of it's legitimacy.

But of course, some people are better at convincing than others.

In my view a person is Minmatar if they are accepted as such by one of the tribes. Usually this is through being born to one of the original bloodlines. But I have known at least one Caldari who underwent a Voluval and was accepted into my tribe.

Most of my mother's clan would probably disagree with me. They tend to be a little more conservative in their views. But my father's clan of the Brutor tribe is inclined to consider the spirit and the character of a candidate over simple biology.

Genetics makes you Minmatar.

Voluval makes you Matari.

Sounds easy...

I would like to thank everyone who participated in this thread. This has given me even more to consider, the strength and diversity of the Matari people continues to astound me. I am Brutor, despite how I was raised, I want to follow the traditions and beliefs of my ancestors. I accept myself as Brutor, I can only hope in time the rest of my tribe accepts me as I do.

Replace "Voluval" with a more generalized "Acceptance by the people of the Tribes as one of their own", and I'd agree on that. Children raised by their clans are still Matari, after all. And there are many cases of returning immigrants and liberated slaves who find a new home, are accepted or adopted, and only after that undergo the ritual (if they do). My sister is one such case - she got her mark when she was what, 23? But yet no-one ever really doubted her Matariness (or whatever you would call that), and she's an avid supporter of the Republic.

Just a lighthearted response....

What makes one matari?

Two other matari.