>1. There definitly IS cultural relativism in defining crimes.
>Americans do not consider George Washington a traitor, nor do the
>British consider Drake a pirate.
In neither of these cases did the basic definition of treason and piracy differ between cultures. All that differed was the reference point.
>Was Orlanth a traitor? Depends on your culture.
No, it doesn't. What Orlanth did was rebellion, not treason.
>2. Comparisons of Heortling morals to RW morals are nearly
>meaningless. Heortlings have met their god, and religion is tightly
>integrated into all aspects of life.
Which is irrelevant. In the pre-modern world, virtually every religious person knew that their religion was true and had the evidence to prove it. Yet they still had problems with people breaking social and religious laws.
>Don't go to church and you'll freeze to death in the winter, or the crops
>will fail.
Not so. There are people at the margins of Orlanthi society (namely beggars and stickpickers - Thunder Rebels p159) that cannot keep up with the sacrificial demands of Orlanth's religion and so are lapsed Orlanthi. Yet they do not automatically perish every winter.
Meeting God does not make gloranthans into mindless automatons and there are numerous instances in which gloranthans have broken faith with their god. King Blackmor the Rabid has met Orlanth yet he has now joined the Red Moon.
--Peter Metcalfe
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