I know almost nothing about American Plains Indians (other than what I picked in western movies). But I doubt that they would use, when describing aspects of their society, concepts like *Contrary*, *Society*, or *Therapy*. These seem to be western concepts imposed on Indians in order to make their mores understandable to western men. That's the same reason why I don't like to apply the concept of *pathological violent thugs* to SB followers. This is a western RW concept that IMO would not be understood by Praxians, neither have a Praxian equivalent.
> "Primitive" societies seldom really are, except on a purely
> technological basis.
I fully agree. But there's another level where they are primitive: in the formalisation and structuring of so-called *ideal* entities like organizations, institutions, and, yes, societies.
I'm sure that Praxian culture is highly complex, and has some fascinating twists of its own. In some aspects it will be very sofisticated. That means that they will deal in their own way with what we, RW humans, would call pathological states. Why reduce their alternatives to the same patterns we RW western humans employ, namely, categorization and exclusion?
The point I was trying to make is that the SB does not exist because it's a form of integrative mechanism of socialy excluded elements. SB exists because it allows Praxians to deal with aspects of their environment that the other cults are not prepared to deal with. Or because of the very interesting hypotesis you make: it came from outside and found a place in Prax.
Sergio
End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #549
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