However, history and anthropology display an enormously broad range of possible societies which becomes even broader if we envisage evolutionary changes to humanity itself, as in Poul Anderson's The Night Face where an entire planetary population becomes insane for a few days each year but otherwise is psychologically integrated enough not to need any restraints imposed by laws or governments. Ideas and values that seem self-evident in one social context are unthinkable in another.
How viable is SM Stirling's Domination of the Draka with its continual warfare, militarized citizenry and massive slave population? I would have said highly unstable but Stirling shows it as dynamic and expanding. The Draka, in all honesty, abandon any pretense of Christianity and even try to revive Northern Paganism. I will be interested to learn how their civilization develops over four volumes.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm glad you are reading S.M. Stirling's MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA. I would argue, however, that Draka society can be considered vigorous only up to a point. In many ways, it lacks a truly DYNAMIC science and economy, both of which requires a truly free economy and true intellectual autonomy. Both of which we see in Stirling's Angrezi Raj and, for that matter, in Poul Anderson's Technic Civilization stories. I grant, however, a partial exception to what I've written: the Draka were to truly innovate in the biological sciences.
As for religion, it's no surprise that most of the Draka had abandoned any pretence of even nominal belief in Christianity by the time of MARCHING THROUGH GEORGIA. The principles and beliefs of Christianity flatly contradicts those expounded by their favored philosophers and its synthesis by Elvira Naldorssen. The end result being Christianity, esp. Catholic Christianity, being regarded with hatred and fear by the Draka.
As for the attempt by SOME of the Draka to revive Germanic/Scandinavian paganism, that never really succeeded, primarily, I believe, because of its sheer absurdity and because actual belief in ANY gods clashed with Draka philosophy.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I forgot to address another point in my comments above. You mentioned the cannibalism found in THE PESHAWAR LANCERS and how its continual practice degraded many virtually to sub-human level. The great exception to that being, of course, a Russian Empire which had abandoned Christianity and rationalized cannibalism as the rite most pleasing to Satan. If anything, that's even worse than eating people merely for bare survival! But, by limiting cannibalism to a rite of human sacrifice whose victims were not initiates in the worship of Satan, the Russians managed to achieve a wider level of some degree of mutual trust. That allowed them to preserve some kind of civilization, no matter how grotesque.
Sean
It wasn't ENTIRELY limited to a rite; I recall Ignatieff's gruesome complaint that some food he was given wasn't nearly as tasty as "roast suckling Uzbek." The idea that they'd gone SO bad that some of their leaders PREFERRED human flesh -- and CHILD'S flesh at that....
Hi, David!
I have to agree with you. I should have kept in mind the PREFERENCE some Russian leaders had for eating human flesh, esp. the flesh of infants. I agree the worship of Satan and offering him human lives whose flesh his devotees then ate would degrade and corrupt its practitioners more and more.
Another chilling bit I recall was Yasmin telling an appalled Sir Manfred and Captain King that Count Ignatieff was a man of great faith and piety. Alas, it was Satan Ignatieff adored.
Sean
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