Erulan is a terrestroid planet outside Stellar Union space where the crews of two former Nomad ships have conquered and enslaved the humanoid inhabitants. On the one hand, the human beings have only done to the Erulani what the Erulani were already doing to each other. On the other hand, having conquered barbarians, they are being barbarized by their conquest so maybe it was not such a good idea. Joachim, a guest of the ruler, sends a note to Sean who is back in the landed spaceboat:
"Sean stood for a moment in the airlock, straining his eyes to read in the last dull light. The wind was low and cold; beneath the castle, roofs and towers were black against the sky." (p. 85)
Dull light, low, cold wind and black towers paint an appropriately bleak picture of Erulan where life is hard and something monstrous is being prepared for the Union. Ilaloa will urge that, although Erulani life is hard, it is still life, not a mental abstraction - but she will also acknowledge that it need not be this hard, with public gallows and bleeding feet on a procession of chained slaves.
5 comments:
Of course, the assimilated-by-your-conquest thing isn't as straightforward as is often thought.
Eg., the Mongols were deeply influenced by Chinese culture after their conquest of China by Temujin (Genghis) and his son and grandson.
OTOH, when the Mongol/Yuan dynasty was overthrown by the Ming, most of the ethnic Mongols in China left and "returned" to the steppe where their grandfathers and great-grandfathers had come from -- probably finding it a bit bleak, I'd guess.
And the Ming showed an extreme xenophobia towards outsiders that was unusual in Chinese history prior to that point and probably engendered by the extreme cosmopolitanism of the Yuan, who often employed complete outsiders (like Marco Polo, frex) as administrators, etc.
In the case of the Nomad-human conquerors of that planet, they -can't- be completely assimilated because they can't have fertile unions with the locals -- if they want progeny, they have to marry within their group.
I found a few other details unpersuasive. The extreme gender segregation and purdah, for instance.
The (ultimate) source of arrangements like that is anxiety about paternity and preserving female "chastity" -- as the old saying goes, who your mother is, that's a fact, who your father is, that's an opinion. In turn, extreme sex segregation becomes a question of "honor" and prestige -- those who can afford it use it to show their prestige, power and wealth.
But since they can't have fertile unions with the locals, however humanoid, there shouldn't be any original boost for the practice. And the humans are extremely short of personnel they can absolutely trust, which would argue for a lessening of gender distinctions, not an increase.
Note that in Sparta, the most radically hierarchical conquest state in ancient Greece, the position of women was unusually free.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Mr. Stirling: you made good points, which I hope Anderson would have thought of if he had written and pub.THE PEREGRINE in 1966. Esp. how the fewness in numbers of the human conquerors of Erulan would have LOOSENED, instead of tightening sexual distinctions, as a means of increasing their numbers.
Paul: And in "Star Ship" we see the opposite happening. That is, an ACCIDENTALLY stranded crew of humans find themselves and their descendants becoming barbarized over fifty or more Earth years as they were inevitably influenced by the more primitive culture of the planet they landed on.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: that struck me as more likely, since they don’t have access to high tech.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And the stranded humans spent those decades slowly and painfully reinventing aspects of advanced tech Krakenau could use. With the goal of eventually getting back to their star ship.
Ad astra! Sean
To All,
I've been taking a quick look at "Star Ship," which was first pub.by PLANET STORIES in 1950, making it one of Anderson's oldest stories. And I now have doubts that it, along with "The Chapter Ends," truly belongs with the Pyschotechnic series. If "Galactic Coordinators" had not been mentioned in it, the story would have read and felt like a standalone work. But that's a thin connection to make!
Ad astra! Sean
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