>That's the other way round: sure, typical male work
>excludes talking. But it was being suggested that at
>the times men *are* sitting around talking, they are
>incapable of doing anything constructive at the same
>time. And that falls into a popular modern theory
>about men being incompetent (only women can do more
>than one thing at once, apparently), which still seems
>to be to be unfair to men.
It's more a matter of what skills do the men have for repetitive tasks which can be done while they are sitting around talking. Particularly when you bear in mind that someone who does heavy manual labour for many years loses quite a bit of manipulative ability in their hands due to bruising and calluses.
>And since the body is what matters once you're in bed,
>getting a Nandan to give birth is going to require a
>few more steps.
Well yes, that's going to be possible only though a major HQ. Which is why I don't see that as what Nandan is primarily about.
>I can see a possibility that Nandan might lose the
>ability to father children, though no reason for it.
>Vinga losing the ability to become pregnant is
>practical: you're not an effective warrior when you're
>waddling. But fathering a child wouldn't affect the
>Nandan's ability to carry out his purpose. The loss
>would be for stylistic reasons, not practical.
Nandan is a man who's spending most of his time in the company of married women while their husbands are some distance away. Think of the jealously that would exist if it was thought capable of fathering children or even having sexual relations. Now how much is a perception and how much is the truth probably belongs in YGWV but that's a major social reason for Nandani not fathering children. Smutty jokes about eunochs, impotance and so forth will be standard when talking about Nandani.
That's the sort of thing I regard as cultural reasons for what appears to be a silly practice.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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