Van Rijn informs Coya that not all of Hirharouk's crew are of his choth and some have no choth:
"'Ythrians got as much variation as the Commonwealth - no, more, because they not had time yet for technology to make them into homogeneouses.'"
-"Lodestar," p. 347.
Dominic Flandry reflects that Cnif hu Vanden, Merseian xenophysiologist:
"...belonged to no Vach; his ancestors before unification had lived in the southern hemisphere of Merseia, in the Republic of Lafdigu, and to this day their descendants maintained peculiarities of dress and custom, their old language and many of their old laws. But Cnif was born in a colony; he had not seen the mother world until he came there for advanced education, and many of its ways were strange to him."
-Poul Anderson, A Circus Of Hells IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, January 2010), pp. 193-365 AT CHAPTER THIRTEEN, p. 286.
A yellow tinge to Merseian green skin shows Lafdiguan ancestry and their national language is not Eriau.
The tapestries and banners in the audience chamber of Castle Afon in Ardaig display:
"...Old Wilwidh, before the machine came to impose universal sameness. It was the wellspring of Merseia."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Young Flandry, pp. 1-192 AT CHAPTER FOURTEEN, p. 141.
But the machine has not imposed much sameness according to Flandry's reflection on Cnif!
Both Ythrians and Mersians acquired interstellar technology from Technic civilization.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But advanced technology and the unifying of Merseia by the vachs of the Wilwidh Ocean culture was tending to homogenizing all Merseians into a common culture.
Ad astra! Seam
Yeah. The -size- of a culture is dependent on its technology; that imposes an upper limit. There is no lower limit, of course. Eg., the Roman Empire did tend to cultural uniformity but very slowly. If it had had more advanced tech, that would have happened more quickly, but the limits meant that, eg., most people had to work in food production and that's a very localized business.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Your Antonine books are giving us fascinating glimpses how much more rapidly the Romans might have spread that cultural homogenizing, given advanced tech.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: well, advanced tech like printing and paper... 8-). And to be sure, better agriculture and new crops like maize and potatoes, cheaper metals and so forth. Roman engineering in terms of buildings and so forth was already quite advanced -- more so than it would be again until the 19th centrury, in fact.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Exactly the points I had in mind. However, now I'm wondering, I thought Western engineering had reached Roman levels by the 17th century.
And I liked how the practical changes being made by Artorius would lead to the decline of slavery, because those changes reduced the incentives for slavery. With no need for ideological conflicts driving people to take fiercely opposed sides. Next comes doing something about the disgusting barbarity of gladiatorial games.
I also liked how mention was made of Marcus Aurelius thinking of collecting and standardizing Roman law into a single code, anticipating the codes of Theodosius II and Justinian I.
Ad astra! Sean
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