>> Alan & Carmel Brain on Humakti being allowed in birthing chambers:
>>
>> - -..except to sever the umbilical cord, a very Holy act to Humakti.
>>
>> I don't think this is true. The symbolism of a follower of Death
severing
>> the umbilical cord between a mother and a newborn is pretty creepy.
>> I can see reasons why they might be allowed to do this (none of them
>> particularily nice) but I don't think this is part of the normal birthing
>> process.
and Alan & Carmel Brain had responded:
>Normal Birthing process? No. Creepy? Not usually. Given Humakt's
>severing of ties with his Kin, the symbolism is too obvious to be
>ignored. In this Aspect, Humakt is not so much a Death God as a God of
>Separation - one that cleanly divides this from that, not always at a
>natural boundary. Death is but one such separation, and not neccessarily
>the most important.
Hmm, while this is an interesting approach especially in some of the quoted examples I don't think men would normally be welcome in a birthing room. The first two examples:
>Mother dies in Childbirth - A Humakti umbilical severance would prevent
>any bad consequences to the Child.
>Child is stillborn - ditto for the Mother.
I think these tasks would normally be done by a priestess of Ty Kora Tek. Still creepy but necessary in some cases. (Though I wonder what they do in isolated steads where they don't have a priestess nearby? Anyone in a pinch and they would have to do some serious ceremonies later to fix things?) Ty Kora Tek's the deity that separates the living from the dead, Humakt just makes them dead.
>Child is to be adopted into another family/tribe/cult - ditto for both.
>Particularly important if a Slave or lower Caste is the mother, but also
>a way of avoiding rival-inheritor infanticide if the mother is Nobility,
>as the child would then only (considered to) be related to its Father.
I guess.
>Child is to be trained as a Humakti - this ceremony would remove at
>least one Geas and/or confer at least one benefit. Perhaps the ultimate
>Heroes are Born not Made. Perhaps Arkath had this ceremony.
I wouldn't imagine this would happen very often since it strikes me that it goes against the Orlanthi tradition of "freedom" of choice.
Oliver
www.geocities.com/bernuetz
bernuetz.oliver_at_cbsc.ic.gc.ca
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