Kulkulan Zachary tells Diana the history of the Zacharians, ending with:
"'Ever afterward, we have guarded our heritage.'" (p. 380)
Then there is a long silence between them as they walk toward the promontory:
"Patricius declined, its light going tawny. The wind blew cooler, with a tang of salt." (ibid.)
At last, Diana asks:
"'And you marry only amongst yourselves?'" (ibid.)
- to which the answer is: "'Yes.'" (ibid.)
We notice perhaps five senses: speech and silence; tawny light; cool wind; salt tang - if the characters can be imagined to taste as well as to smell the salt.
The wind blows cooler between the two statements of Zacharian exclusivity. That exclusivity is bad for them and for everyone else and will be ended soon.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I wondered just now how long a people can be as endogamous as the Zacharians were before genetic flaws and defects started showing up. Yes, I know, they claimed expert knowledge of genetics would enable the Zacharians to avoid that. But I have my doubts.
Yes, the rigid exclusivity of the Zacharians was bad for them and everyone else!
Ad astra! Sean
There are plenty of groups that strongly forbid out-marriage -- the Amish, or Hassidic Jews.
Groups like that can continue indefinitely; but they always, if they can't impose their mores by force, "bleed" a trickle of people who don't want to obey the custom.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I have heard of the endogamy of the Amish and some branches of Judaism. Yes, there will always be some who will leave rather than endure such rigid rules.
And this kind of inbreeding comes with problems! I have heard of how Old Order Amish are suffering from genetically caused diseases or problems.
Ad astra! Sean
The Amish do have problems that way. OTOH, the same can occur by accident.
The founding populations of the Indian peoples of the Western Hemisphere were so small that the level of genetic uniformity was very high -- this was a major reason they were so vulnerable to virgin-field epidemics after 1492. The less genetic variation, the fewer who will 'turn out' to be resistant to the new disease.
Europeans today are (slightly) less vulnerable to HIV/Aids than Africans, because it turns out that genetic resistance to -ysernia pestis-, the Black Death, confers IIRC a chance of higher resistance to HIV infection. And bubonic plague never affected sub-Saharan Africa the way it did Europe, which got hit with at least five waves of plague that killed substantial proportions of the total population. (The one in the 14th century is just the best known).
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I think I had some vague awareness of how genetically uniform American Indians were. But not of how that made them more susceptible to introduced diseases like the common cold, measles, small pox, etc.
I also had not known of the SLIGHTLY higher resistance of European descended people to HIV/AIDS.
Ad astra! Sean
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