From: argrath@aol.com
Date: Sun 24 Apr 1994 - 19:10:35 EEST
Re: Elf Sacred/Mundane Stuff
I tossed out the idea of aldryami not preserving this split the way humans do as a way to accentuate their alienness. It makes a lot of sense to me given the way the published sources present the aldryami. It has a couple of consequences.
Obviously, for aldryami PCs, it gives the player something to wrap his or her head around, trying to get into character.
For aldryami society in general, it means that there is no need for a whole class of rituals which humans use to ritually enter and leave sacred space and time. I see aldryami thinking of the sacred as a continuum, along which they move smoothly from the "small" to the "large," or from "distant" to "central." Whereas humans think of the sacred as separate from the mundane, and those transitions are dangerous.
New thread: polygamy
One thing left out of the Doraddi kinship stuff was polygamy. The Left Hand Path folks wouldn't have it, because they can't afford it. However, some of the Right Hand Path folks could have it--at least their Terran analogues do.
Men with a lot of wealth can afford more than one wife. Women rarely have the kind of wealth and power needed to have more than one husband, even if society allowed it. Then there's the double standard in adultery, which condemns women but not men who sleep around. Why is there this asymmetry, and what effect does it have on RPG'ing? We could just say, "that's the way it is," but it's more fun to get deeper down toward the roots.
Current research in what you could call "comparative adultery" sheds some light on the more open forms of polygamy. Individuals in all kinds of animal species (including our own) practice monogamy for its economic benefit. When both parents take part in the upbringing of children, the parents have higher reproductive success (as measured by number of children who themselves have children) than when only the mother takes part. However, both partners can improve their reproductive success by a little judicious adultery with a partner who is more desirable than their mate. This also increases genetic diversity in their offspring, hedging bets while still gaining the reproductive advantage of monogamously raising a brood. Thus, some species of monogamous birds "cheat." Reproductive success strategies explain their sneaking around.
The flip side of adultery is jealousy. A man is jealous of his wife because (on some level) he doesn't want to spend his time, money, and effort to raise another man's sons. A woman is jealous of her husband because (on some level) she doesn't want him to abandon her to run off with some other woman. Both fears are economic, but they are not symmetrical because of the biology involved.
Now to polygamy: if a woman is pretty sure that her husband won't stop supporting her economically when he takes another wife, she won't strongly object to it. She'll want to be Number One Wife, of course, for the social and economic power that brings. But having a junior co-wife can even be an advantage to a woman, in some societies. For one thing, it means your husband is a big enough man to afford two wives. I don't think there's any argument about the advantages for the man.
But the mirror-image situation rarely occurs. A man who let
his wife take another husband, even if there were no societal
cost to doing so, would lose reproductive success. He'd never
know if his wife's child was his or not. In a matrilineal
society (like Esrolia), it could happen, because the man
(theoretically) doesn't care about his wife's children. The
advantages for the woman are purely economic (extra help in the
fields), since she can't have more than one baby at a time.
Now, I'm not a member of the Chicago school of economics, which treats these descriptions of economic reality as part of a prescription for maximum efficiency. But you ignore economics and socio-biology at your own peril.
So, anyway. In Fonrit, rich men take as many wives as they can afford. This is because the economics in Fonrit make great disparities of wealth possible, and even encourage the collection of wealth.
In Jolar, where chiefs have to be generous, a chief with two wives might be common, but a chief with more than two might be thought of as selfish and greedy. A young chief might take a young wife as second wife under his older first wife. An older chief might have two young wives, or wives of different ages.
Polygamy makes it easier to ensure having a male heir, thus avoiding the Henry VIII problem. However, it means you have a bunch of squabbling half-brothers. Thus, much of the politics in Fonrit revolves around which of the Jann's wives is in favor this week (and therefore which son is in the ascendancy). Regional politics are also affected. If the wife in favor is from Sarro, for example, everybody at court who is from Sarro is riding high.
In societies with open polygyny (more than one wife), you get a large class of men with no sexual partners. You also get this in a society where men marry late in their twenties, when they can afford it. If you have both polygyny and late marriage, you get a lot of it. Two things happen: adultery and prostitution. Need I say "plot ideas"?
Prostitution is a form of polyandry (more than one husband)
where the "husband's" economic input is purely impersonal (money
or its equivalent), rather than in time and energy with the kids.
(Some modern marriages are like this, too.)
The Uleria cult in Glorantha puts a twist on this. I think Ulerians have children about as often as other women in their society, making no special effort to avoid or terminate pregnancy. This is because their social status is sufficient for them to raise their children without (much) stigma. It's still a problem in patriarchal societies, especially for the boys, because they really need their fathers. However, the Ulerians have ceremonies to let a man adopt a Ulerian's son, and to give him entry into the men's secrets. Or (as in our world), the Ulerian might retire and get married the normal way.
Re: warrior women
The Washington Post today had an article about the Silver
Bullets, the women's baseball team sponsored by Coor's Brewery.
Like it or not, the best women athletes can't beat mediocre men's
athletes. The Silver Bullets tied the Austrian national team
So warrior women in Glorantha are going to have to fight
using some strategies other than brute strength. RQ doesn't make
strength everything, but it does count. Bows are good idea;
fighting from a mount is another (think Unicorn Women).
But what about your average Babeester Gori temple guard? (I
(baseball normally doesn't have ties; the game was called when
the audience left) and lost to a team of major league old timers.
I think BG and other warrior women must use magic much more than male warriors. Every smart BG warrior walks next door to the Ernalda temple for some Shimmer, or to the Asrelia shrine for Protection. Intimidation works well, too. I'd give a bonus on a BG's attempt to Demoralize a male foe if her axe is appropriately, ah, decorated. BG doesn't give access to any arrow magics, however, and I think that's a major disadvantage.
Later--
Martin
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Fri 10 Oct 2003 - 01:33:53 EEST