Silly answer:
> Are there husky dogs in Glorantha ?
They're big-boned. It's glandular. If you quit feeding them so much they'd slim right down...
Now if you mean Husky as in sled dog,
> This sort of absolute binary opposition makes no sense to me at all,
either
> as a description of the way Heortlings see themselves, or as an outside
> [absolute] characterisation of gender roles. Women are PASSIVE?? Men are
> ACTIVE?!? To me it seems positively Solar as well as wildly inaccurate.
Both
> hunting and warfare involve days and days of sitting round doing
absolutely
> nothing, while running a hearth and shaping a child are among the most
> active and demanding tasks possible. Can I ask for a "please explain"?
Broad strokes, John, broad strokes. I'm not referring to the actual duties of the male/female jobs, but how they are seen by society. I'm trying to paraphrase Greg here, but may have trouble articulating a many-month old discussion...
Men are considered "active" - they are emotional, violent, etc. Women are centered, less emotional, more concerned with keeping the hearth. Warfare, hunting et al. are considered "active" pursuits (a though occurs to me - it's burst-work, not steady-work. The best way to defeat an Orlanthi army is to do nothing - either it will get bored and wander back to the stead, or attack with little cohesion as bands of warriors get bored and "do something"). Women, on the other hand, are more used to steady-work - doing the dame or similar things day after day.
Another way to look at it is that Men are from Air, Women are from Earth (#1 for 42 weeks on the Boldhome Times Best-seller list). Earth is the most passive element, Air is the most active. The people *tend* to emulate their diety. It's certainly *not* an absolute - there are places for women fighters (the Gor sisters), and for men to heal or cook. Heck, Farming, the most esential of Heortling occupations, is steady-work, concerned with growing and tied closely to the Earth and done mostly by men (at least the heavy work of plowing & keeping the fields, everyone chips in at harvest time). If the boys spend Fire season blowing off steam by raiding the neighbors, who's to blame them?
Even in America in the 21st century, little boys don't play with dolls, they play with "action figures" (ie male dolls with guns), and little girls are told not to play "rough sports" like football.
RR
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