>Well, living in the same room as your parents can make things a little more
>difficult to sneak out for trysts... The Thing about Heorltling society
>that I find interesting is that if you have a bad dream, everyone in your
>stead knows; If you fart loudly in bed, everyone knows; if you and your
>marriage partner haven't had sex in a month, everyone knows... There is no
>privacy.
Equally such societies evolve a social ettiqute to deal with that knowledge. In any case while we think of 13 year olds as children, in Heortling society they are young adults. A parent would not dream of ordering their son or daughter not to have sex with someone, they would give advice on contraception and the social ramifications of the relationship.
>I guess my question becomes: Do the Heortlings have a taboo against sex with
>people from your clan/bloodline, or only against marrying them? I had
>assumed that the "Only take a marriage partner from outside the clan" was
>for incest-taboo reasons, but I guess economics might be enough - although
>I'm not convinced.
The definition of incest is a cultural/religous one, the Heortlings do not share ours although discussion of precisely what their definition is belongs on the digest. From a game point of view - whatever suits your story.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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