Dihamban

Ipka Valsushra, a Dihamban

The Dihambans are traditionally an ethnicity of nomads, traveling between desert oases and vegetated areas. They primarily value tradition and family, being largely unimpressed by any impractical imported baubles and foreign influences. They are often easily recognized by their complete outfits of undyed cloth, due to the sparseness of plant life in their native region, and the cultural insignificance of colorful imported dyes and fabrics. As a culture living in a region with frequent tempests of swirling sand, their material culture is more texture and shape oriented, as opposed to colorful but flat visual designs favored by other cultures. Their stunningly textured, detailed earthenware is highly prized.

## Naming Traditions

### Unisex names

As in the majority of cultures of Paan Atta, personal names are not gender specific. Names are given after the first few days to weeks of an infant's being alive when any semblance of a personality begins to show. Names are normally not aspirational or after virtues since it is believed to create discomfort and pressure rather than allow individual growth.

### Family names

Names are inherited from the birther, as is the norm of those cultures of Paan Atta whose family names are inheritable. Their origin is generally from a very early ancestor, possibly from an ancestor's occupation or a notable landmark/location.

## Culture

### Common Etiquette rules

Food is eaten with the hands. Stabbing, prodding, or pushing food with any sort of utensil is seen as a disconnect from, and by extension disgust of, the food itself and the people who contributed to it. Not finishing your food is seen as a similar, if less severe insult.

### Birth & Baptismal Rites

Ideally, children are born in an oasis's water for sanitation and comfort. This is not always possible, so birth is generally undertaken in natural or human-made shade. Family members of the birther are gathered around to give comfort and to meet the new child.

### Coming of Age Rites

When children have completed their height spurts and reached adult size, their clothing changes from the adjustable draping and wrapping of childhood to the personally sized tunics and cowls of an adult.

### Funerary and Memorial customs

The dead are burned at night, as it would create too much heat under the daytime's scalding sun. As the stars shine down on the funeral-goers, family and close friends gather around the pyre and speak their memories, the admirable traits, and of core developmental events in the deceased's life. To continue to stay at the same spot where the deceased died is taboo, seen as unhealthy and asking for bad luck. Once the pyre-flame dies down, the group packs up their livestock, belongings, and tents and vacates the area. The area is **not** permanently unclean or taboo, and it can be returned to, but it is not good to stay in it so soon after a death.

### Common Taboos

Marking or stabbing the skin with or without ink to intentionally create a marking is strictly forbidden due to mythological beliefs about the body and family. Stepping on fabric **with your shoes on** is a horrible insult to the people who worked to make the fabric how it is. Spitting in the same room as a pregnant individual or a baby is thought to wish the infant to cough or become ill, whether you intend to or not. Standing in any sort of doorway longer than you need to is said to be bad luck, wishing hard decisions and bad health into your life.

### Common Myths and Legends

It is said that the mountains that partially encircle the desert region are formed from the dead body of the oldest and largest salamander, whose spit formed the oceans and whose eyes became the deepest oasis lakes.

## Ideals

### Beauty Ideals

Dihamban beauty standards may be assumed by outsiders to not exist for a culture that seems to be so constantly on the move, and with bodies so covered to protect from the scorching sun, but this is a misconception. Visually, Dihambans generally find smooth, even, and shiny skin and hair the most appealing. Curly hair is ethnically uncommon, and usually slicked down and tamed with oils and lotions, and tied down with fabric strips. The darker, more reflective, your eyes are the more beautiful they are viewed as. Thinner lips are mythologically associated with self-control and trustworthiness.

### Courtship Ideals

Dihambans have close-knit familial groups, so a long-term relationship is seen as a merge of families. Due to this, families are generally very involved in the relationships of their offspring, even to the point of saying, "You may not form a relationship with this person, their family is not trustworthy, or lacks kindness, even if they as an individual may have these traits." Love in a marriage is definitely an ideal, but there are still spouses that are just close friends, married for their families, and loving one another platonically.

### Relationship Ideals

As much communication as possible is ideal for relationships, no matter what their goal or level of seriousness is. Understanding one another and making boundaries clear is a general communication norm that becomes more apparent in romantic connections. Relationships are not looked down on if they are casual, and casual relationships have more freedom of choice since there will not be a marriage or the merging of families it entails. The experimentation, learning, and experience that casual relationships provide are upheld as it prepares individuals for marriage.