From: Alex Ferguson (abf@cs.ucc.ie)
Date: Wed 25 Oct 2000 - 00:22:40 EEST
John Hughes on Humakti:
> They're *severed*. Not only that they're *dead*.
More usually, they ain't either. Who precisely are we speaking of
In particular, (formally) leaving your clan is probably at the high
here? Humakti heroquesters? Tribal champions? One of your
friendly neighbourhood (sic) weaponthanes? A member of the fyrd
with 'some degree of devotion to' Humakt? What about clans such as
the Greydogs, where Humaktism is 'institutionalised' somewhat?
I think this sort of formal separation and/or ritual death (two
subtle different, though related things) is a very powerful and
"idiomatic" thing for a Humakti to do, but isn't anything like
a universal practice.
end of the kinship severing scale. The starting point is probably
severing your direct connection to your closest kin -- in particular
your brothers. The most direct re-anacting of the myth, the most
bang for your proverbial buck.
> If you think about mainstream Heortling society, a humakti would
> rate only slightly above an Uroxi a as choice of sexual/marriage partner.
Significantly below, for my money. (De gustibus, etc.)
Cheers,
Alex.
------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 13 Jun 2003 - 17:21:09 EEST