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

From:Nik Taylor <yonjuuni@...>
Date:Friday, March 21, 2003, 8:14
Sorry for the delay.  I'd sent this to the draft folder and then forgot
it.

Elyse Grasso wrote:
> Ok... some of this info is available on the cherani website,
What's the site again?
> Cherani Station is the counterweight of a beanstalk that was built in > patrnership by the Shayanans and the people whose planet the beanstalk > is attached to.
Beanstalk? Is that anything like a "space elevator"? That is, a long tube connecting a geosynchronous satellite with the surface?
> The people on the planet don't come up off it (part of why they agreed to > the partnership, which lets them take advantage of their economically > valuable location).
I'm not sure I understand this. What's the advantage for the people on the planet in agreeing not to come up off it?
> They do > have a word, "Lliassi", which means "a hedge or biological trap that > will take 64 years to ripen, or a plot or strategem that will take that > long to mature". On the other hand, normal Imperial life expectancy is > only about 64 Shayanan years.)
Do they use base 8? And is that "64" literal, or just meaning "many years"?
> In both Shayanans and Nedranetsta, once a hatchling is pouched by an > adult, it stays with that pouchparent, except in rare situations > usually involving death or the imminent threat of it. A mother has the > option of pouching a hatchling herself, bestowing it on another (in > Shayanans usually the seed-father or a member of the mother's > household, sometimes a grandparent with a separate household) or > discarding it if it looks or tastes wrong.
So, does the mother lay an egg, and then the hatchling enters another's pouch? What criteria are used for "looks or tastes wrong"?
> (The breeding season sort of starts in the center of a > community and ripples outward pheromonally.)
Interesting. Center in the sense of geographic center?
> In both Shayanans and Nedranetsta the parent of an unweaned pouchling > will not be involved in a breeding season.
Do you mean seed-parent? In which case, why would unweaned make a difference?
> Males compete to be the mate of an in-season female. If there were less > than 4 competitors involved in producing a specific child it's very > scandalous.
Do they know who actually fathered the child?
> (Males only breed once per season
Why only once? Is this a social restriction or biological? If biological, what would lead to it? -- "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

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Elyse Grasso <emgrasso@...>