>
> At 01:25 AM 4/30/01 -0400 David Hobby wrote:
> > The fighting is INTENTIONALLY kept low-tech and "nonlethal".
> >Since the biology of everything else is worked out so well, we could
> >try to figure out why this low-tech state is maintained. Naroin's
> >comments seem to indicate that this way of fighting is culturally
> >enforced.
>
> So, even in war, combat is highly ritualized to ensure that noone really
> gets hurt? If the founders pulled that off, that is a particularly mean
> feat of social engineering. On Earth, I think that wars are very often
> no-holds barred.
Note that what was described was NOT a war, but rather what
would happen in an instance of "quasi-legal piracy". Whatshername,
the old Lamatian woman, explains it all quite well. The men do not
fight in these instances, unless they are defending their boats. It
seems to be kept to the two groups of women fighting over their
cargoes, etc. (Although the "etc" seems to include the possibility
of "being sold for a season's labor".)
>
> > I see Brin's role as dispassionately reporting what this
> >society is like. The clans flow naturally from the biology, as does
> >almost everything else. You've heard me praise Brin for this before,
> >I'm sure!
>
> But how is this structure flowing naturally from Biology? Indeed,
> Stratoian society seems a bit like Social Darwinism run amuck - rather than
> the inevitable output of Stratoian genetic changes.
It flows naturally from the biology, since members of a clan
are genetically identical. Social insects are only 3/4 identical,
and look at them!
---David
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
