Re: Shayanan background and biology; was Re: Kinship terms?

Elyse Grasso wrote:
> If the people on the planet were willing/able to come off the planet,
> they wouldn't need to contract with someone else to build and run the
> station, so they could keep all the profits for themselves.
So, the people on the planet have the worse end of the bargain?

> It's literal. Shayanans have 4 limbs with 4 digits on each limb. They
> use hexadecimal, but 64 is a nice round number because it is a hand of
> 16s.
Ah, neat.  Miklapai (the Kassi's species) have 6 fingers on each hand,
and 2 toes on each foot, so some cultures also use base 16.  The Kassi
themselves are base 12.

> > So, does the mother lay an egg, and then the hatchling enters
> another's
> > pouch?  What criteria are used for "looks or tastes wrong"?
>
> At some point I mentioned that there are froglike aspects to Shayanan
> reproduction, and that the Imperials may have got it wrong when they
> decided which Shayanan sex was male and which was female.
>
> OK... when the Imperials arrived on Shayana, they found a species with
> basically 2 sexes. Sex A has an intromittive organ and a somewhat more
> itinerant lifestyle. Sex B has a more settled lifestyle and is
> apparently viviparous in a marsupial sort of way. So the Imperials
> decided Sex A were the males and Sex B were the females. However, the
> intromittive organ is technically an ovipositor, and the 'females' are
> the sperm producers. And the species is technically ovo-viviparous and
> marsupial rather than viviparous and marsupial.
Interesting.

> I don't know what the criteria are for deciding that a baby looks or
> tastes too wrong to raise. Shayanans know what their babies are
> supposed to look and taste like.
So, I take it this is to eliminate genetically defective young?

> No, not the seed-parent, the pouch-parent. The hormonal effects and
> bioenergetic drain of lactation tend to suppress ovulation and rut.
> Lactation is enormously expensive biologically (in Earthan mammals,
> too).
Ah, I see.  That makes more sense, then.

> > Why only once?  Is this a social restriction or biological?  If
> > biological, what would lead to it?
>
> Because the 'males' are the ovulators: making eggs is biologically
> expensive and takes time (a couple of weeks, at least, from the time
> the pheromones hit).
Ah, I see.  :-)  More of the backwards gender assignment.  I've also
been working on an alien form of reproduction for my Kassi.  There's
still a few details I'm working on, however.

P.S., are you on conculture?

--
"There's no such thing as 'cool'.  Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
overheard
ICQ: 18656696
AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42

Reply