> Interjecting for a moment to ask Peter a question that I think is just a clarification: Is it correct that your view of the ealrier Founder cults' totems is that the totems are the Protectresses to which the Founder is mythically married? Further, is there anything beyond that totem relationship that constitutes the "marriage"? What was the ealrier relationship between (a) women of the men in the Founder cult and (b) the Herd Sisters? Are they the same?
You have the herd. You have the Founder surrounded by the founders cult. The Founders cult is male-orientated although there are female followers/groupies. You have the Protectress surrounded by the Herd Sisters/Protectresses cult. The Protectresses cult is female focussed although you have some men in the cult.
Since the two have a common object of worship - the herd - they are going to be close by for most of the time. The humans in the two cults will form a loose community in which they will marry and have babies (in addition to converts from the outside). That is how in my view the Founders and the Protectresses become ancestors of the people.
I really don't what to define what the Founders and Protectresses (as opposed to their cult) do with each other and or their herd. I imagine it varies from herd to herd depending on a range of factors - attributes of the beast, relationship to the Good Shepherd and so forth.
--Peter Metcalfe
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