Ecumene — Two-Spine Reading (self-anchor)

TLTE self-anchor for the Ecumene's two-spine reading. SPINE 1 (kindred, default): Eelam-Jaffna is pinned at the centre of the relational graph because Northern and Eastern Ceylon is the civilisational anchor of the Tamil ecumene — the contemporary kindred edges (post-1983 refugee flows to UK/Canada/Australia, KNOMAD remittance corridors back to Jaffna and Trincomalee, kindred-association ties across the western diaspora, memory-custodian links to SOAS, BL EAP and UTSC) all radiate out from Eelam. SPINE 2 (indenture, historic): no node is pinned; the 19th-century colonial shipping ledger pulls Tamil Nadu (Madras Presidency) toward the centre because Mauritius, Réunion, Natal, Fiji, Guyana, Trinidad and the Malayan Kangani system shipped out of Nagapattinam and Madras, not Jaffna, and the Nattukottai Chettiar mercantile network was Chettinad/Tamil Nadu, not Eelam. Both readings are true; neither overwrites the other. The Ecumene NEVER claims sovereignty over any node territory, NEVER aggregates a 'global Tamil population' figure, NEVER ranks or scores nodes, and NEVER uses 'Kumari Kandam' as a literal geography (see ecumene-connolly-2023). Default route: /ecumene/network. Atlas route: /ecumene/atlas. Honesty gaps: /ecumene/honesty-gaps.