Ghupii are polygynous. The average woman will give birth four times (to eight babies) during her life.
Women are considered pouchling-making machines and spend their days raising young. The men do all of the hunting, gathering and cooking. During their periods of pregnancy, the women will stay kept away from the rest of the clan in a house called a bhixha. Dead animals are regularly stocked near the bhixha, so whoever is there will have something to eat. Raw meat often makes women sick during pregnancy. When the women come out of the bhixha they have a cleansing ceremony called a miutshu. A gazelle cloth is blessed by the priest, wetted in a river and wiped through each vagina in the "hospital" (a hexagonal shaman's office made of sticks) by the shaman. The shaman recites the word "phaaqaang" (phaang, blood, broken up by a q to "kill" the word), throughout the entire rubbing. If a woman has had quadruplets, the ceremony is repeated twice.
Ghupii consider their young vulnerable and sacred for the first 40 days after birth. After the sun sets on the fortieth day, they are temporarily taken out of the pouch and sprinkled with dirt to represent their new exposure to things natural and dirty. They stay in pouch for about 5 years, after which they join the adult community.
On a boy's coming-of-age ceremony, he has his first hunt with a group of adult men. He is expected to learn the words of the hunt dance chant, and the boys having their coming-of-age ceremony lead the chant while the men do their dance. The new comers-of-age will then go on a hunt at night until the group has bagged an uintatherium. A banquet is then held in the community. The boys will spend the rest of the night sleeping outside among the trees and animals until morning. Their ears are then pierced with horns (and more horns are added in throughout life). They have then entered the adult community. A girl's coming-of-age ceremony is less adventurous but just as trying, as she has her clitorides pierced with an animal's tooth and has one tooth fitted into each clitoris.
The first time a man marries, he has a stick from a fig tree placed between the prongs of his penis to increase virility. The man and his wife cut their wrists and exchange blood, then say, "I will love you until the moon falls into the sun and ants eat up the sky". The man then gives the woman a branch from a fig tree, and the woman promises to be faithful to her husband. Wedding viewers from both the bridegroom's and the bride's clan throw pomegranate seeds. The shaman asks Goxhiin, the god of the fig, to make their marriage a good one.
Last rites are given by burying the deceased in a wooden coffin, with fresh meat to eat in the afterlife, animal spleens (believed to contain the gift of life), fig sticks to immortalize the marriage, and all of his/her jewelry. The coffins have wooden "horns" on them that point towards Ghanaa, home of the gods. The shaman summons all 168 gods, and asks them if they will accept the deceased among them. The shaman waits until he hears an answer, then tells the families that the deceased will now make his/her home in the next world. The members of his/her clan then dance around the coffin as the shaman throws dirt over it, and professional mourners (always male) wail. In a funeral for a man, the man's oldest brother-in-law leads each of his wives away from the burial spot until the wife can turn around and the coffin is no longer in sight. She then walks home. Widows receive pensions until they remarry.
A Ghupii is given a pouch name for the first 40 days of life and then upon the fortieth day given a two-word name. The Ghupii also have a clan name, for their one of the Ghupii's 40 clans. After marriage, a woman moves to her husband's clan. Her clan name is now that of her husband. Names are not considered masculine or feminine.
The Ghupii wear lots of horn and tusk jewelry. Successfully hunting males wear the most. Females still wear jewelry, but never as much. Male adults will often pierce their ears, while female adults pierce their tongues. Male adults wear loincloths, while female adults wear skirts that reach to just above the ground.
The Ghupii believe in 168 gods and goddesses. Each deity is associated with some aspect of nature. The tribe's shamans are said to have the ability to commune with all 168 of them. Shamans appear at many of the rites and rituals Ghupii have. The gods are said to be invisible to Phadonis, but to have the ability to see the invisible so that they can see other gods. The gods and goddesses spend most of their time in a land called Ghanaa, with the spirits of deceased Phadonis.
Ghupii enjoy craft activities such as weaving, embroidery and bead-making. They play music for ceremonies and for calling animals on their synatoceras-hide drums, whistles, and vheyv (a string instrument shaped like a shovel with five strings). Paintings of animal scenes are done in their round, palm-leaf-covered houses and public shops. Another favorite pastime of these people is cougar-baiting (similar to bear-baiting), as these howling pumas are tortured and torn apart.
Tribal elders form caucuses. Popana is used by the elders. It is the caucuses that can call war and tell the soldiers whom to fight.
A number of Ghupii are trained as soldiers. These soldiers go out the night before a battle and dance with saber-toothed tiger masks on. They carry out their battle the next day carrying spears. They fight often with the Tlanu and the Knibo, who sometimes try to take over Ghupii territory or destroy the Ghupii.
The Ghupii have a number of taboos relating to family and gender. A man must speak to his sister-in-law first before his sister-in-law may speak to him. The sister-in-law may not speak to him first even if she notices before he that the house is on fire. Women and men eat in different rooms, while pouchlings eat with the women. A man may not joke with his sister, with his sister-in-law or with his mother's sister. A woman may not, under any circumstances, touch the nose of a man. A male may not wear a piece of jewelry that has ever been on a female, or vice versa. Women may not enter the kheur, a room in which men sit around, tell jokes and smoke strong herbs. The language has different words for foods and sexual concepts that a male uses with a male then he uses when speaking with a female. A pouchling is not really considered to have a gender, and is exempt from observing the normal rules about males and females.
The caucus must convene to decide whether someone should be executed. To execute someone, the tribe's executioner reads the damned his crime, then says, "This cannot go". He then lays him on a pile of wood surrounded by rocks, and ties his feet and hands together so he cannot run away. The executioner then sets the pile of wood afire, as the flames engulf the prisoner and burn him up. A man can be executed for murder, rape of a non-wife, treason to the tribe, or destruction of items and places valuable to the Ghupii people; a woman can be executed for adultery. Funerals are not held for people who are executed.
The Ghupii hold an orgy in the spring. The first full moon of that season is celebrated by the holiday of Hyawtliid. Phadonis run naked (except for a wreath of apple tree leaves around their necks) through the town and drink broeq, fermented pomegranate juice. They also eat diatryma eggs and slaughter any mother diatrymas that have gotten violent to be fed to pouchlings. Hemp is tied around people's doors. The shamans call Kukhaph, the god of reproduction, and Shwelh, goddess of eggs, to come down onto Phadon.
In the summer, they sacrifice 50 new babies who have recently passed the 40-day period to the gods. The sacrifice is done by piling the pouchlings up and lighting them on fire with a flame blessed by the tribe's dwegyae, its highest shaman. Tlikaw, god of the harvest, is asked for a good harvest in autumn by the shamans.
In the autumn, they hold a harvest festival. Every harvest festival, the Ghupii drink plenty of alcohol, of all types. Especially popular are beer and vapoxh, fermented kangaroo's milk. They dress up as goats by donning goat pelts and bronze horns and run through the oaks and bushes. This "butts" off the spirits of death that they fear may be especially prone to taking them around that time.
On the first full moon in winter, the Ghupii celebrate Khavhag. They go into a woodland until they find the tallest oak tree and cut it down. The members of each clan then burn their oak and watch all the evil spirits of the year fly up from the fire, away from them. The evil spirits are said to be responsible for all the bad things that have happened the past year. Bears are a popular symbol of the season, drawn on walls and doors. In emulation of their hibernation, the Ghupii one of one clan will get together on the night of Khavhag and sleep together in the open, with blankets piled over them. The community's shaman will summon up A'ingaa, goddess of winter, Tamhue, goddess of sleep, and Gyaera, god of oaks, to make their winter and night enjoyable. Presents are given on Khavhag from parents to children, from uncles to nieces and nephews, from grandparents to granchildren, from nephews to aunts, and from parents-in-law to sons- and daughters-in-law.
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