me:
> > I don't think the Grazers are at all pure, in the sense I
> > discussed. I should prolly go remind myself what HW says about
> > them before shooting my mouth off, but their relationship
> > to their great spirits/deities, and their lack of integrationism
> > practices suggests this.
Peter Metcalfe:
> I don't see any relationship differences between the
> Grazer and their divinities and that of the Doraddi
> for example.
The Doraddi are a tricksy case; it strikes me that they cover both 'traditions', to a fair extent. I won't pursue this here, lest I get too far into 'simultaneous quantum uncertainty in two variables' area.
> As for lack of integrationism, what do you mean? The
> Grazers can integrate their spirits.
As far as the mechanics of the HW:RiG write-up are concerned, I must reluctantly concede. I was thinking of the statement about Ancestor spirits, as regards integration, which is something of an Isolated Incident.
Having said that, it doesn't actually make much sense to me. If I were feeling cynical (and I am, as it happens), then I'd say it smacks somewhat of reverse-engineering the culture to the 'rules': they're animist, therefore, they _must_ integrate spirits, QED. Throughout, strike 'god' and replace with 'great spirit'. I won't pretend to be a font of knowledge on the Grazers, but at the moment it doesn't ring very true.
Perhaps I'm being somewhat influenced by the old 'RW God Learner theory' of the religious 'progression' that runs animism -> totemism -> theism -> deism -> playing roleplaying games with religious themes. Which Greg has scoffed at openly, much less merely disagreed with. I dunno. Will ponder.
Cheers,
Alex.
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