Beast/Man Rune

From: Jamie <orlanth.umathi_at_virgin.net>
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 22:10:57 +0100


My view on this whole Beast/Man rune debate is purely God Learner.

Their are many myths in Glorantha and the RW that deal with man's relationship to the world by stating at one time there was little or no distinction.

Examples:

Man / Beast - Hsunchen.
Eater / Food - Praxian Nomads and possibly some hunters. Living / Dead - Ancestor Worship and to some extent all

     death cults.

They primarily act to define man. In the context of the Hsunchen myth of animal brotherhood this defines a relationship to animals and the boundary of their society.
- -"I am a Basmoli; this lion is a brother Basmoli; that Yin-Kin worshipper
and his shadow cat are potential allies, this man is not Basmoli, not an

animal brother and not one of us; this Telmori is soon to die!"

The question of men separating from their beast allies is entirely mythical,
and as such true. To a Basmoli all lions are his kin, human or not, and their was an ideal time when no one could tell the difference.

The other side of the argument is subjective depending on your view of Glorantha. I imagine that Hsunchen cultures descend from people that used their associated animals as companions, hunting tools etc. and became so reliant on the symbiosis that they began to merge the associated symbolism. The point is that in Glorantha mythology is a source of truth, and so this RW viewpoint is untrue and meaningless. Besides no one apart from the Hsunchen claim to remember their origins and the only people that argue with their point of view are so removed from the Hsunchen to be irrelevant to the argument.

Our RW view may in part coincide with a western philosophers' view in Genertela but we are both outsiders looking in.

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