bloodlines; human spirits

From: via RadioMail <David>
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 1994 11:44:20 -0800

Jonas Schiott said
>When we wrote up the Otter clan (for Growing Pains) we
>took the definition literally: the male line is traced to the founding of
>the clan, thus there are only three bloodlines. Of course, this is probably
>more of a social construct than genetic truth - the story about the three
>founding brothers has a touch of myth about it (there must have been more
>men around to father children).

If you traced bloodlines back indefinitely, it seems like it would become harder and harder to find marriage partners. Perhaps I should have said that the _legal_ bloodlines are 4 generations (similar to the way many US states prohibit marriages of only close cousins). I'm sure East Wilders can also trace them back to founding ancestors. But those lineages don't matter for inheritance or marriage.

Steve Barnes asks
>Suppose a shaman grabs the spirit of a newly-slain human, and
>binds it into his fetch. What kind of spirit is it? What abilities
>can it use?

A ghost, it always seemed self-evident. Special ability is that it can control a human body it happens to find itself in (unlike, say, Power spirits).

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