>
> >> > I have difficulty with the idea that a pre-industrial society
> >> > should have anything like 10% of the adult population being
> >> > specialists.
>
> First, initiates are not "specialists" in the definition that they
> would be pulled out of the labor force, which is how I wold define
> specialists.
> And where "labor force" = farmers or other food production.
I think something got lost in the snipping--the original poster was talking about devotees, not initiates. Sorry that I lost that context while trying to not re-post at too much length.
>
> > An initiate with a 'job' is committed to around 60%
>
> This is what made me jump in.
> Where does this 60% come from?
> An initiate spends 30% of his time in worship.
>
This was a finger in the air for being an initiate -and- having an occupation. I was basing this on (I think it was) Thunder Rebels (might have been HW?). It was stated somewhere that with 60% of their time devoted to their gods, devotees could not hold down an occupation in addition. This implies that 60% of time is roughly "full time," and hence that an initiate who was also performing some occupation would be at least 60% of time. I think also that in Barbarian Adventures (and the further publications) they use 30% of time going to 'occupation' of whatever sort. So 30% for being an inititate, 30% for occupation = same time commitment as a devotee. So a farmer who is an initiate of a farmer god spends about as much time and effort on farming as does does a devotee of a farming god.
Regards;
-Bryan
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