From: Nick Eden (pheasant@cix.compulink.co.uk)
Date: Sat 12 Nov 1994 - 12:50:00 EET
In-Reply-To: <9411110815.AA22181@glorantha.Holland.Sun.COM>
Alex wrote
> Nick Eden:
> > I'm not very convinced by clans that are 1500 people big either.
> Surely > with 1500 people about you don't need to worry too much about
> inbreeding?
>
> Probably not much, no. (Depending on _who_ they marry, obviously.) But
> clans are social constructs, not minimaxed breeding programmes, so
> customswill persist even as clans get larger. (Note that Volsaxi clans
> seem to be even larger, and perhaps Hendriki, too, though for them clans
> are less important, I think.)
But where do social constructs come from? I've always thought that the
reason that we have toboos about sleeping with our sisters is that over
the years this has been shown to be a bad thing, leading to stupid and
deformed children.
Now Sartarites have a similar taboo, but not within the immediate family,
but within a VERY extended family. So extended that there might not be
any common blood in the two people. Doesn't make sense to me.
Does the same thing happen in Scotland? As a member of the MacGregor clan
(honest I am, even if it is tenuous) should only consider marrying people
from other clans?
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