[gurps] [Worldbuilding] Intriguing concept

[Rupert Boleyn]

On 3 Jul 2006 at 8:43, Matt Riggsby wrote:

> Easy:  there's little or no attachment to the parents/the nuclear
> family.  There's loyalty to a tribe or extended family, a common
> concept in most societies (we in the modern west are an exception to the
> global trend).  Children are raised by whoever is left behind:
> matriarchs past fighting years, the mildly disabled, and whoever the
> society can't economically afford to put into the field.

Or they're raised in the way the Spartans are supposed to have raised 
their boys - in boarding schools with next to no parental contact. 
Loyalty was to their school mates, and then to their 'dining clubs', 
rather than to family.

For amazons, I'd have them raise both boys and girls like this, with 
them segregated and the girls raised as warriors and administrators, 
and the boys raised as labourers, etc.

> In either case, it's a society likely to be a lot less concerned with
> sexuality.  Paternity, a constant niggle for patriarchial societies,
> doesn't matter; a man may not know for sure that the child his wife is
> carrying is his, but the woman *always* knows that it's hers.
> Consequently, virginity and controling who people have sex with won't be
> nearly as important.  That also probably makes relationships between men
> and women less important (childbearing and initiation as a warrior are
> important milestones in a girl's life; marriage as we know it may not
> exist) and increases the importance of friendships and alliances between
> women.  There's some good literature on intense female friendships which
> would be useful here, but, alas, I've read precious little of it.

I suspect these relationships are probably similar to those groups of 
single men form when there's no chance of them actually being able to 
form a family. You still see elements of this behaviour in sports 
teams, and it hits the Aus and NZ news from time to time when rugby 
teams get caught up in a scandal because somebady complains about a 
'gang bang' or the like.

-- 
Rupert Boleyn <rboleyn at ihug.co.nz>