Help needed with terminology.

[MJGraham]

I'm working on a game about nomadic bands of hunter/gatherers that practice animism and ancestor worship. I've decided that I want characters to have proficiencies (i.e. skills). The list of skills I've put together is almost complete, except I can't come up with the right term for the last one, and that's where your suggestions would come in handy.

This is the list of character proficiencies:-

Ritual Proficiencies:
- Crafting
- Performing
Social Proficiencies:
- Befriending
- Prospering
Practical Proficiencies
- Building
- ?

The last one has been left blank as its the one that's causing me problems. I'm looking for a verb that encapsulates the skill of knowing family relations, family obligations, and the ability to understand other family structures. "Parenting" is too restrictive, although it does capture the idea I'm aiming towards. I did thing of creating my own term, but "Familying" doesn't work. I'm leaning towards "Bonding" but I'm not convinced that its right. Of course, its also possible to use more than one word, but I still draw a blank when I try to do that.

What do you think I should use?

[Andre Canivet]

The anthropological term for family relations is "Kinship."  That might be a good one to use, given how important it is in hunter-gatherer societies.  Or you could use some variation, such as "kin ties," "kin obligations," etc.  Another one to use might be "reciprocity," given the importance of reciprocal altruism in such societies; although I guess it depends on specifically which society you're modelling your game after.  What I mean is, in Khoisan society, for example, kin obligations aren't always exactly reciprocal and instead depend on status.

If you're still having trouble, I recommend using something like Dictionary.com's thesaurus, wikisaurus, or something like that and plugging in "kinship," "family," etc.  You should get some good suggestions there. 

Hope this helps,

-Andre

[J Tolson]

Hmm, since you want an -ing verb that does limit your choices; if you want to follow the pattern, crafting a word may be your best bet.. Familying indeed doesn't work, but what about "kinning"? Not to be confused with kenning, of course.

[Andre Canivet]

If it has to be an "-ing" word, how about Relating?