From: Nils Weinander (niwe@ppvku.ericsson.se)
Date: Thu 04 Jan 1996 - 10:21:52 EET
Peter M:
>But the Agimori of Central Pamaltela have always been nomadic save for
>a brief period when the Doraddi were enslaved by the Six-Legged Empire.
...
>Even now, there is a trend to increasing sedentary behaviour among the
>nomadic Agimori. The Kresh are a clear example of this.
...
>As for the Artmali, even they were in the beginning hunter gatherers.
>They just became more civilized before anybody else IMO.
I was of course over-simplifying the situation to make a point. But that
does not change the fact that the official Doraddi ideology is that they
(or perhaps human life in Pamaltela) have _evolved_ from the bad urban
ways of the artmali to the good semi-nomadic ways of the doraddi.
The Kresh are semi-nomadic too. You could argue that their wagons are
mobile cities, but that would be a bit contrived IMO.
_____
Me:
> It's much easier to say that in the God Time Yinkin, the god of
> cats helped Orlanth, the god of storm and was his foster brother.
Nick:
>But *why* do they worship him? Because they like cats? Because they keep
>shadow-cats? Because they're hunters, or night watchmen, or have good eyesight,
>or always land on their feet? What is the social benefit of worshipping Yinkin.
>
...
>Just my take on this. Saying "He exists, therefore he is worshipped" seems to
>miss something out
The social benefit is that you reinforce the myth of course. By worshipping
Yinkin you reaffirm him as one of Orlanth's more important god-time
companions and thus honour kinship and tradition and all the other mushy
stuff that keeps society safe from revolution and bad foreign influences.
Then there is of course the added benefit of a nifty runespell.
If the cliff toad god had been Orlanth's brother too, tere would have been
myths about that and some sort of a cult to him, IMO.
________________________________________________________________________
Nils W | Here we are!
Office: niwe@einku.ericsson.se | We sail on a ship made of dreams.
Home: nilsw@ibm.net
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