> We haven't had this one for a while and it might be
> instructive
> (quite a lot of new subscribers post HeroQuest these
> days)
Hokay.
> I'd go along with myself. Its an extended family.
> Me, I don't think
> that sleeping with one's cousins is proper... though
> some folks aroun
> here (southern US) seem to have been doing so.
RW, since my family tree includes one woman being my several-greats grandmother by at least three different routes, I'm not bothered. (Others may take this as evidence of what a bad idea it is, of course!)
It's perhaps worthwhile remembering that Gloranthan relationships are defined by ritual and myth, not genetics. If you're adopted, your adopted family IS your bloodline. And since your bloodline is only firmly defined at initiation, and it's entirely possible to start "window-shopping" before that, ocassional fun can be had with attempts to be adopted into another bloodline entirely, just so as to make a prospective partner available. I'm not suggesting this is common, but I'm sure it's possible.
> And how often do you meet
> > anyone from outside the clan, anyway? A cattle
> raid is not a social event :)
>
> Moots. Visits to the farming folks next door. Its
> common for one to
> exchange labour as well as meet at the monthly
> moots. I suspect
> there's more too-ing-and-fro-ing between steads and
> clans than might be apparent.
Which gets us onto the social life of the average Orlanthi, a subject well worth visiting in itself.
The impression I'd always had was that other clans are seen as foreigners, and that contact between them was deliberately restricted to clan leaders and formal occasions. That, in fact, this was a large part of what clan leaders are *for*.
OTOH, when everyone takes their flocks up into the hills, I'm sure the young shepherds and shepherdesses meet up. Tula boundaries do not have barbed-wire fences.
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