More ancestors

From: Kmnellist_at_aol.com
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 16:16:11 EST

I would think that if ancestors can be traced through both male and female lines then most humans will share ancestors. Only extremely isolationist cultures would be free from any other ancestry apart from Grandfather Mortal. In twenty two generations one could have 4,000,000 ancestors of one generation - -this is approx 500 years worth of breeding. Admittedly most of these ancestors could be cancelled out by a few inbreeds, but it is likely that most adjacent people will have at least a few links.

It would just be a question of finding the ancestral spirit that both share. This could take a long time (8,000,000 ancestors to be questioned?) be dangerous (they might not like you.) or the spirit may have been : reincarnated (like Manni) and therefore still alive, eaten by chaos (and utterly destroyed), bound in an enchantment (shaman must go off an rescue), or isolated in some other way.

Interesting Ancestor worship incident could be a child born to a woman and believed to be of one father but in fact is someone elses. Some ancestors summoned at family get togethers presumably would sense the 'non descendant', others may think the new born is perfectly acceptable. (note: offspring of a man would slept with his sister in law would appear to ancestral spirits as perfectly OK). Watch 'Eastenders' for examples of complicated family scenarios.

Keith

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