Ian Cooper:
> But surely this is how economic specialisation always
> works. You relieve me of day-to-day stead work so that
> I can concentrate on what I am really good at being an
> 'expert farmer'. My role involves devotion to Barntar,
> which gives me useful magic to oversome difficult
> problems and increase our yields. Overall productivity
> rises as a result of my magic, but to get that magic
> you have to support me while I forge close links with
> my god.
Right: the 'model' Barntar Devotee (Disciple Wannabe) would be who _only_ does work that in B's idiom, plus the purely ritual stuff that accounts for some of the now-notoriopus 60%. You'd eliminate as much of the child-minding, turnip-growing, etc, etc, that obviously is just as much a necessity in the stead in practice. This other work would obviously have to be done by others, whether they be other devotees in some other niche, or more likely less emulatorilyspecific individuals.
> The same argument applies to mailing the best
> potter the clan's pot maker as opposed to everyone
> making their own pots. He will probably produce more
> pots than we need that we can trade for wealth, but we
> have to support him while he does it. A community and
> organisation is required for this.
Which happily, we have. It's called the clan (or the stead, or the household, or the tribe, etc, depending on the particular case).
> Without a surplus,
> you cannot support me while I acquire the skills that
> when applied more than make up for the time it took to
> gain them in increased wealth. That is why I also
> suggest that a wealthier community is able to afford
> more specialists i.e more devotees.
Note that devotion has very little to do with "skills", especially in the mundane sense. In theory you could be "called" very suddenly, in game-world terms. Becoming a _good_ devotee is another matter.
As has been pointed out In Another Place, such "specialists" are not a net economic cost, though, if their skills are actually being fully utilised. (i.e., there are enough Pure Barntar Chores around the stead to keep a Barntar Chap occuppied full-time.) I suspect the limiting factor isn't economic at all, though: rather it's that only a modest fraction of people have the "vocation" to become a devotee, of any diety. If it were simply a matter of choice, a sufficiently Fordian divsision of labour would give you a brilliantly efficient clan where _everyone_ was a devotee... (Well, unless they all wanted to be Humakti...)
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End of Glorantha Digest
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