Florist
A Matis occupation
Florist has always been an occupation that epitomised Matis values, combining aesthetics, botany, and romance. Even when the Matis were nothing more than tribes of hunter-gatherers, their customs already involved using flowers to decorate their belongings, their clothes, and their bodies. So it wasn't long before there were Matis who specialised in hunting and gathering all the various flowers throughout the forest.
These Matis came to be known as florists. Later on, they realised they could also grow flowers in locations of their choosing, thus saving the trouble of having to seek them. It is said that not only were Matis growing and cultivating flowers long before they ever started growing food-crops, but that in fact agriculture was invented when Matis realised they could do with food what they'd already been doing with flowers.
As the Matis tribes settled down, they also wished to decorate their houses with flowers. Floristry blossomed and florists started creating ever more complicated floral works. And soon a bright florist realised that rather than decorate objects with flowers, some objects could be made completely out of flowers. This eventually gave rise to the Matis tradition of growing objects and later even buildings directly as plants. But these practices quickly branched off from floristry, leaving floristry as quite a but less.
During the era of the first Matis Kingdom, floristry became one of the few ways for Matis women to earn respect. Matis society had strict gender roles in those days, and floristry was strictly a woman's job. Not that Matis men didn't think aesthetics to be important - they thought it highly important, which is why girls skilled at it were highly prized as brides.
Modern Matis women might've thought it oppressive, but at the time it wasn't perceived as such. The Matis fiercely believe that each homin should strive for their true place in society, and it was obvious women were better than men at both aesthetics and nurturing, the two qualities necessary for a florist. Men in turn were better at warfare, politics, science, just to name a few things. That this happened to include all positions of powers just proved men were meant to rule.
But that most Matis women were fine with their roles didn't make the system less oppressive for those Matis women who were better at 'male roles' like science. For many female Matis scientific minds, floristry was a back-door to still participate in botanic science. Most botanists condescendingly considered floristry to be just a cute hobby, but many florists actually made important contributions to botany. Ofcourse, they never received credit and their names were never remembered.
A number of florists survived the Great Swarming, after which followed the period of Prime-Roots Exile which forced all races to live together and so gave the equality-movement a burst forward. Thus once the Matis survivors started building their new Kingdom, the florists had hope that floristry no longer needed to be a separate lesser occupation, that it could merge with botany. And so it happened, but the merger was only partly successful. Old prejudices died hard and the more progressive florists continued clashing with the more traditional botanists.
After decades of arguing over various issues, a subgroup of florists came to the conclusion this was not the way to get their occupation respected. The news that other occupations were opening up to the public was the last nudge they needed to split off their occupation once again. They're now trying to recruit more members from all walks of life, both to validate their movement and to shake off the age-old image that floristry is only for Matis women.
A Matis occupation
Florist has always been an occupation that epitomised Matis values, combining aesthetics, botany, and romance. Even when the Matis were nothing more than tribes of hunter-gatherers, their customs already involved using flowers to decorate their belongings, their clothes, and their bodies. So it wasn't long before there were Matis who specialised in hunting and gathering all the various flowers throughout the forest.
These Matis came to be known as florists. Later on, they realised they could also grow flowers in locations of their choosing, thus saving the trouble of having to seek them. It is said that not only were Matis growing and cultivating flowers long before they ever started growing food-crops, but that in fact agriculture was invented when Matis realised they could do with food what they'd already been doing with flowers.
As the Matis tribes settled down, they also wished to decorate their houses with flowers. Floristry blossomed and florists started creating ever more complicated floral works. And soon a bright florist realised that rather than decorate objects with flowers, some objects could be made completely out of flowers. This eventually gave rise to the Matis tradition of growing objects and later even buildings directly as plants. But these practices quickly branched off from floristry, leaving floristry as quite a but less.
During the era of the first Matis Kingdom, floristry became one of the few ways for Matis women to earn respect. Matis society had strict gender roles in those days, and floristry was strictly a woman's job. Not that Matis men didn't think aesthetics to be important - they thought it highly important, which is why girls skilled at it were highly prized as brides.
Modern Matis women might've thought it oppressive, but at the time it wasn't perceived as such. The Matis fiercely believe that each homin should strive for their true place in society, and it was obvious women were better than men at both aesthetics and nurturing, the two qualities necessary for a florist. Men in turn were better at warfare, politics, science, just to name a few things. That this happened to include all positions of powers just proved men were meant to rule.
But that most Matis women were fine with their roles didn't make the system less oppressive for those Matis women who were better at 'male roles' like science. For many female Matis scientific minds, floristry was a back-door to still participate in botanic science. Most botanists condescendingly considered floristry to be just a cute hobby, but many florists actually made important contributions to botany. Ofcourse, they never received credit and their names were never remembered.
A number of florists survived the Great Swarming, after which followed the period of Prime-Roots Exile which forced all races to live together and so gave the equality-movement a burst forward. Thus once the Matis survivors started building their new Kingdom, the florists had hope that floristry no longer needed to be a separate lesser occupation, that it could merge with botany. And so it happened, but the merger was only partly successful. Old prejudices died hard and the more progressive florists continued clashing with the more traditional botanists.
After decades of arguing over various issues, a subgroup of florists came to the conclusion this was not the way to get their occupation respected. The news that other occupations were opening up to the public was the last nudge they needed to split off their occupation once again. They're now trying to recruit more members from all walks of life, both to validate their movement and to shake off the age-old image that floristry is only for Matis women.