Ok so Grotaron females are only allowed/want to mate with the hunt leader. Since the STMM is a spiritual animal they would have to go on a hero quest to kill a STMM the reward of which is STMM bone from which they make the beads. They then present these to the females proving themselves worthy mates. Only problem I can see with this is only hunt leaders can mate which sorta limits the genetic diversity somewhat in the society. Maybe the females "have" to recieve a bead before they become fertile. This sorta makes the hunting of the STMM a curse i.e. you have to successfully hunt one to make sure you line continues.
(This would also explain the general grotaron obession with the STMM its all to do with sex.)
Now back in the good old days the grotaron could mate with whom ever they liked but they liked but along came a nasty godlearner who decides to play around with their myths (a remote, weird race who cares about them, good to experiment on). Originally the males venerated the sabre tooth tiger spirt who has all the attributes a hunter would want and the females the mammoth spirit which is a worthy prey and provides clothing, food and bone. The godlearner experiment fails and the grotaron end up with the sabre tooth mammoth which has both hunter and prey attributes so throwing male and female roles into confusion. As a side effect of the godlearner meddling only the grotaron can percieve the new STMM spirit and everyone else thinks they are mad. Another side effect is that males become sterile. One heroic grotaron goes a quest to regain the male fertility and comes back with a partial solution. If they spiritually hunt the grotaron they can come back with a piece of bone which if they present to the female will make them temporarily fertile. The bone symbolism is quite good here :o)
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