> Hmm. Babboons:
> - Live in the desert.
> - Run very fast on four legs, slower on three
> - Are large and strong.
> - Hierarchial tribes with a dominant males and many smaller males
> trying to compete amongst themselves.
> - Given to fights in order to show their dominance over lesser males
> and constantly need to enforce this order.
> - The stronger ones have a better chance at finding a mate and getting
> first choice at food.
Nice summary, but perhaps one given by a male baboon. Here's a complementary perspective, from the female side...
"Baboon culture is a hierarchical matriarchy. Female baboons care for their young in an all-female social group (a shrewdness) led by the strongest (and usually oldest) woman. They allow only a single 'dominant' male to reside with them, and may grudgingly follow his suggestions. All other males are scattered to the edge of the clan's range, where they serve as border guards, scouts, and broo fodder. Female baboons all consider this a wonderful arrangement."
There more Praxian baboon background at
http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/DvB/#ballista
I've been thinking a lot about baboons this week, generating baboon characters and trying to capture something of their unique outlook on the universe for my Scotscon effort. (A welcome change to ducks - they're done thank goodness :)). I started with Trotsky's splendid foundation in Anaxial's Roster, and added a few of my own ideas to the mix, mainly from my first baboon module (Its nearly fifteen years since '7 Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'. Aak!) and past conversations with Nick Brooke.
I'm coming to the conclusion that Praxian baboons have two intermeshed but almost completely independent societies, the male and the female, and that they come together only to make children, and perhaps for ritual and other clan events. Two different value systems, two different outlooks, one orderly and cooperative, the other competitive and violent, with the 'alpha' male and his senior 'wives' being the mediators.
I've postulated *two* prime ancestral cults, Grandmother or Grandfather Baboon, which though they seem indistinguishable to outsiders, covering the same territory, offering the same range of traditions, are functionally completely independent.
And as for sports, I certain will steal Oliver's suggestion about Buzkashi, at least for male baboons. 'Boonkashi?' Using a desert hare or other small fresh kill, with much chest thumping, teeth baring, and other epigamic displays.
For the women though, I'm looking for something completely team-orientated and harmonious, sort of like synchronised swimming for the desert. (now there's a thought...) Two obvious areas (though not perhaps 'sport' in the human sense) are singing and dance contests. That they're naturally musical and ecstatic worshippers only makes it more interesting. :) Perhaps two troupes of massed multi-octave chorales, the living and the ancestors all joining to produce something that is much, much more than a competition.
The retuning of the Lozenge perhaps?
Meanwhile, on the fringes of the territory, the men are chasing each other for a bloodied strip of meat. :)
Cheers
John
(* TLA void where prohibited by local law)
nysalor_at_... John HughesQuestlines: http://home.iprimus.com.au/pipnjim/questlines/
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