-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Sean Roach <roach_s@alph.swosu.edu> wrote:

...

Afterwards, a compensation arrangement is made between your protection company and the protection company of your victim.

Also, according to what I remember, the "protection company" was your extended family. Pay up or face the wraith of all the deceased's cousins, nephews, uncles, neices, aunts, maybe his kids.

This seems to have been a common case, but it was not the rule. There were a limited number of franchises available for protection companies. Protection franchises were bought and sold like any other business. Like businesses, some did well and grew in size and value under the care of their stewards and others did not. The ability to change protection companies at will is important - it's what distinguishes this system from feudal "protection" systems where the "clients" are actually serfs. The Icelandic idea of the extended family did not map precisely to ours. Divorces were easily and commonly arranged. There was a lot of turnover and a lot of half-siblings around. There were some interesting adoption customs, too. People sometimes adopted children they liked, even if the parents were still living. This did not mean that the children didn't continue to live with the natural parents. But the adopting parent would help out here and there. (In "Njal's Saga", for example, an adopting parent beats up people for his adopted daughter and this causes no end of trouble.) Just Another Cypherpunk -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBNASrX/+1rw4IkyBFAQGkcgf/UPot2diIVhohhip4CQDpUnGdZZA9TCK6 OPAsNb01CekDk8fv0SThudb9jSf5/QFEkZ6OM/ts2f5hbpxwGx6zC+sMJ9oo+LsI 4odgrR2lbwdikgMBDoJ3FcJMOF9bKLnUPYBUUc/RwPP0b7Jj8FEfDxURu+yHAUR7 VRRxmtyWMHSp7j+2Ngz8Idu7CJHqUfekcuSdPKank3QaXO9nEDDnWsoWK94UWBrh ZJPYo1D1TgdP/0LxjoU4FH2Tq9AZYVrZ8jxXxDShzS2mVR9jhGu31HBcQ/povEYC w/BoG/6kA59bmfvV8odU/q5CM9vFuJmLb8Swtc7YZXal5a6v2KX5+g== =MFgT -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----