> Greg Stafford :
>
>> I'd like to suggest some thought and debate be given to the idea
> that many
>> heroquests are instinctive, known to everyone, and that the human
> cultures
>> are ways to limit them to be within acceptable norms.
>
Simon Hibbs
> Nevertheless it equaly obviously can't be a conciously learned
>heroquest, since children are concieved 'by accident' all the time (as my wife
> and I recently discovered ;)
Congrats.
I would emphasise the 'conciously' there. In heortling terms at least, the
marriage rites could include the 'learning' of all or part of the conception
heroquest. This also provides another practical basis for the various
precscriptive exogamy arrangements. The clans with which you may marry share
your conception (& doubtless many other) heroquests. Spouses from outside
those arrangements either have more trouble concieving or conducting a
successful marriage rite. Thats not to say it can't be done, just that its
harder.
>
> I can't believe that casual sex, 'the R word that shall not be spoke
> on this list', and various other unplanned or unpremeditated sexual
> encounters are immune from the chance of leading to conception in Glorantha.
Probably not immune but given that control of personal fertility has a history of long standing in Glorantha I would be inclined to make accidental pregnacy the result of a rare combination of magics (i.e. when it suits the story) rather than the feared near inevitability I remember from my youth. Another feather in the cap of the Broo. Their heroquests are powerful enough to subsume all others. Or perhaps they get in & tinker with the victims mechanism
>This naturaly leads to the conclusion that perhaps the ritual/magical
>behaviours associated with conception and childbirth are instinctive.
>
An awful lot of what looks instinctive is really social conditioning.
Perhaps the various 'instinctive' quests could resemble language learning,
the instinct to do so is there, what you learn is down to your environment.
> Are there any other candidates for instinctive heroquests?
>
Learning to talk. My eldest recently went from toddler babble & single words
to fully formed sentences apparently in the course of one day. Looked like
the culmination of some magic to me. Plus we already have long precedent for
communication being magical with The God of the Silver Feet, the Illiteracy
Era, etc etc.
> Yet all human societies have rites
>Perhaps these heroquests, while they have developed into more sophisticated
>local versions, are based on an essentialy instinctive basic behaviour?
I'd think the rites are there to either shape or modify the quests. The behaviour is certainly unconcious but I would suggest not instinctive giving further justification to the various adoption rites, they make you a fertile member of the tribe/race/polity whatever by 'learning' their quests. Arkat must have had a really interesting legacy, or none at all. 'Nother reason adventurers are suspect, sometimes their kids" ain't quite right" due to unusual & incompatible intiations.
D
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End of Glorantha Digest
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