Patrick replied to Bryan, who replied to Mike: > > Are you always so 'stream of consciousness'? I mean, this makes no > > sense... what's the point? > > Part of it, I believe, is that he spins off new threads constantly, > changing the subject without any reference to where it came from. I > think this was meant to be part of the thread on family ships in > space.
Actually, the mail was pretty clear to me. I had wondered about minimum crew sizes of multi-generation family ships from a genetic viewpoint, and how social organization can modify that. C.J. Cherryh has matrilineal, strictly exogamous families in her ships, which means the family only has to be large enough to maintain all the necessary skills with some redundancy. A typical ship has 100 people, some larger ones have 1,000 but that is generally seen as an impractical size, cf Merchanter's Luck and Finity's End. These families would match the Haida clans, right? There are several notable effects in Cherryh's universe: - The culture of the family merchanters is dependent on the stations as meeting places, and on other ships and stations to retain genetic diversity. No single ship could maintain the culture, not even the largest. - No nuclear families, only extended matrilineal clans. The father is from another ship or station, and not married to the mother. (A difference from Haida customs.) The child is raised by the mother and her (male and female) relatives. - Spacers are trained by apprenticeship. Just how formal that becomes depends on the size of the ship. - Economically, the Alliance family merchanters are undercut by Union ships with a more traditional crew. Hard to compete if you haul a nursery around. Compare that to the Travelers in Stargate Atlantis. Here, the ships are survivors of planetary cultures, who had to flee from a powerful enemy. The purpose of their ships is to stay in deep space as an ark for their culture, and they trade only to make that possible, not as a goal by itself. That means: - Cabins will replace payload, even more so than for the family merchanters in A/U. - Every ship must be self-sufficient. - I don't recall their marriage customs. They kidnapped Sheppard to take a gene sample, but that had nothing to do with procreation. Finally, there are ships with family members, like the Enterprise D in Star Trek. Bringing family and children is a perk for the crew, and there are families with a tradition of Star Fleet service, but ships are no clans or families. Some modern freighters develop that way, too. - The ship culture will accomodate existing nuclear family structures, it does not dictate or modify them. - In addition to the 'real' crew, who earn their position with the work they do, there are 'dependents' who may not be qualified to operate a starship. There may help a bit, but offering them scut work as unskilled spacers won't do. More like permanent passengers. - People can retire from the ship to their 'real home' on shore. Regards, Onno _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
