Stephen Tempest:
> Do Heortling clans practice fostering? I don't recall reading
> anywhere that they do, but also nothing to say they _don't_ - and it
> could be an excellent solution to the notorious "clan exogamy"
> problem. If the clan elders regularly send the youngsters to live
> with another clan for a few years just at the time when they become
> seriously interested in the opposite sex, it means they can engage in
> sexual experimentation without fear of breaking incest taboos. IIRC
> the Celts practiced fostering, so there are historical parallels.
Despite occassional hints to the contrary, AFAIK not even John "kinder, gentler proscriptiveness" Hughes seriously thinks that sex with another member of your clan (but of another bloodline, and more than 6 or 7 degrees of relationship otherwise, let's say), is "incestuous". Though if "one things leads to another", you could argue (as JH in fact recently did) that this has the "danger" of causing "inappropriate" marriages.
> It is customary for Heortling boys to be fostered to another clan
> during their early to mid-teens. Girls will leave their home soon
> enough when they get married, so this custom isn't applied to them
> (and besides, since the point of fostering is to seperate the clan's
> young men from its young women, fostering them both to the same place
> would defeat the object).
You make this sound like _all_ (or "All") boys are fostered, which I don't believe. I think it's a "large minority practice", though. Certainly a routine thing to do with "minor" sons of Important bloodlines. (Probably because, as noted, I don't think it happens for the _reason_ you give.)
> =46ostering happens after the boy is initiated and becomes a New Adult.
> This is a period of self-exploration and growth, and contact with
> people outside the clan is an important part of this. It ends when he
> chooses a god and becomes an Initiate, at which point he normally
> returns home and is welcomed with a victory feast as a full member of
> the clan.
You mean it lasts about two years, the length of the initiation process itself? Seems a bit short to me... I can give you an Absolutely Definitive account of this, as something like this happened IMG. Well, definitive for one clan... OK, for one person... And well, one Glorantha... Oh and yeah, the fosterage didn't actually happen. But... A dignitary of of clan offered to foster one of the younger sons of one of the PCs (who himself is a clan ring member, and as the other clan is from a different tribe, this would be a Big Deal). In this case the kid was uninitiated (I forget the exact age), and the offer explicitly included the possibility of initiation into the _fostering clan's_ magical secrets (though short of that required for adoption, one assumes).
> If a feud did break
> out between birth clan and foster clan, the fosterlings would normally
> be sent home immediately (or kept as hostages - er, "honoured guests"
> - to prevent them taking up arms in the feud. However, that plays
> fast and loose with the laws of hospitality and so is a risky
> business).
Frankly that _is_ part of the motivation of fosterage. Granted that actually implementing the implied sanction here could be problematic to one's honour. (There's always the obvious variation on "outlaw then kill", though.)
Much snipped that I retroactively agree with, I hasten to add.
Cheers,
Alex.
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End of Glorantha Digest
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