Aiel - Customs

Customs

The Aiel have a number of cultural practices that are quite strange to outsiders. For example, women frequently become soldiers and fight alongside men. In addition, the taboo against nudity is much weaker amongst the Aiel than in some cultures (much to the astonishment of many of the series' main characters). The Aiel moral code is called ji'e'toh, an Old Tongue word which roughly translates to "honor and duty" or "honor and obligation;" it codifies the Aiel responses to honor and shame (which is essentially synonymous with obligation). The concept derives from Face (sociological concept), which is Chinese in origin. It is similar in many ways to many international cultures, including the Japanese Bushido philosophy, which stresses that duty and honor are essential in every aspect of one's life; this, coupled with the fact that 'ji' is the onyomi of the Japanese kanji for 'samurai', the most purported practitioners of Bushido, makes the connection doubly strong. Outsiders consider it labyrinthine—one Aes Sedai who studied it for a month reportedly ended more confused than she started—but the Aiel live and die by it. Their culture also seems to stress the importance of water. Because they live in the desert Three-Fold Land, water is scarce and as said in the books, battles are fought over pools narrow enough to step across.