The Canting Tribes are divided by many groups. And a tribe may fall into several groups, and a person may have many tribes.

We are mostly held together by a shared culture and language with the rest of our tribe. Other facets will differ by tribe, because we are not a homogenous group. We are many cultures, but with shared ties.

 

The first grouping is Indigenous / Adopted. 

The Indigenous tribes are the one who were here before the Celts, and with those who have a direct cultural connection to those before them. (Some tribes require a family connection and a cultural connection)

Adopted Tribes are tribes who were adopted in to the Canting Tribes. So they came from elsewhere, often as refugees, slaves, or another oppressed community. There would often be a formal induction "ceremony", whereby sacred words are shared between the Indigenous Canting Tribes and the adopted tribes. This is the start of an updated Canting language, or sometimes even a new shared one.

 

The Second Grouping is Nomadic/ Non Nomadic/ Seasonal.

Canting Tribes have a distinctive and large group of Nomadic Tribes. This means that they travel around the UK and Ireland, following set Travelling routes and using the Stopping Places. This is seen less these days due to government assimilation plans and cultural genocide.

Non Nomadic groups are less well known due to earlier, more widespread assimilation and cultural genocide that started to happen in the 1400s.  They still exist, but are far fewer in number and have less legal protections (for what they're worth)

Seasonal Tribes are almost non existent now, due to their reliance on seasonal work. But they used to just move and travel with the seasons, as opposed to a more consistently travelling style.

 

The Third Grouping is Ethnicity-Family-Culture/Job/Landscape

This is the most complicated grouping for people to understand, and the one where a person may fall into many tribes.

Ethnicity, Family and culture is perhaps the easiest to understand. This is simply groups of people who are one as a group, joined by ancient familial ties, who from then on became a recognised group of people. People who marry in take on the culture, and so forth. This is similar to other Indigenous groups.

 

Landscape is more relevant to Non-Nomadic groups- this is simply the landscape in which the Canting Tribe exists. The names of these tribes tends to be contextual. Many people these days use the Old County names. (Huntingdonshire, Cumberland, Riding, Old East Kent etc). Sometimes some Nomadic groups will also use Landscape or county, country signifiers if it's contextually relevant. (Indigenous Highland Travellers, Lowlands travellers, Borderfolk etc)

 

The Job grouping is the hardest one to understand for many people, but it is a long honoured tradition amongst the Canting Tribes, and in some ways is ironically something that even non Canting folks have picked up on- whether consciously or unconsciously. Essentially, this is where a group of Canting Tribes happen to fall into the same jobs together- either because it is of Canting Tribe creation, or because of other happenstance, such as location or required skills. As such, rituals, celebrations, marriages, languages start form around the jobs. Some of the most classic of these are Skaihannen (Sailors), Hoppers (Hop workers), Faytors (No direct translation, but spirit working and telling of fate), Tinkers (Metalsmiths), and Patri-cove (Specialised Priests, Hedge Priests). Many crafts on the endagered herittage crafts list are, in fact Canting Tribe heritage crafts.

 

After a time, with- specifically- the formation of a separate language, a tribe would be considered formed. You'll see the same differences here that you would with any other type of tribe, although often the Job tribes are highly influenced by the other groupings of Landscape and ethnicity.

However- just because somebody did the job does not automatically make them part of the tribe. For example, if you were just an English person who happened to tell fortunes- that doesn't automatically make you part of the Faytors Tribe. In the same way, if a non Canting Scottish person was a Hop worker, it doesn't automatically make them part of the Hoppers Tribe. The cultural integration and more specifically the Cant was the thing that made person "of tribe" or not.

 

Within a job tribe and a landscape tribe, a person may also be tied to another tribe through ethnicity or family. So somebody might be Nacken, Patricove, and be from the Hoppers tribe, giving them three tribes. They may also be descendant of several tribes. Being "of tribe" usually means you have a connection by family or culture by one living generation of passing.

 

The Job grouping and the Landscape groupings are sometimes both the ones with the most information....but also the hardest to find as they're often just slapped into regional folklore books by people with no understanding of the Canting culture.

"Part of the Charm and mystique of the Kentish Hop Yards was created by the special language Indigenous to the work"~ Folklore of Kent (Doel)