A very fascinating and well-thought out discussion. Great job and thanks Calli! 
I come from an anthropological/medical collegiate background, and though my initial thought after reading your post (besides the above), was "well then we also need a good cultural/psychological discussion to supplement"...
I find that the subsequent postings have done a great job in discussing those.
No, one cannot look at a species (and yes- there is a difference between species and race, though people in fantasy tend to use them interchangeably. Or ignore them to allow for the ability to have 'half' this and thats. Admittedly, I struggle with this because... well... Miqo'te are NOT Hyur who are NOT Roe.. nor Lala... etc. BUT... with the developers not definitely stating 'half'-lings are impossible, I must resign myself to using race over species. Regardless of my 'real life' instincts.
Tl;dr... moving on.) or "race" of humanoid as a purely biological specimen. One simply MUST integrate the environmental & cultural aspects, traditions, religion, morals and mores and so on into the equation. For it is THAT that shapes 'who' and 'what' we are....
At least in my opinion. But this is the simple 'nature vs nurture' argument that still persists today. Even among anthropologists.
(esp between evolutionary and cultural anthropologists!) But I digress.
Basically- my comments would only reiterate previous posters regarding the various tribal and typical matriarchal vs patriarchal familial structures... so I won't go into my own dissertation of it. Though I admit, I find using strict human structures like this to not -quite- fit the Miqo'te idea of things.
Similar, but not quite the same.
I think the developers basic ideas in creating all the clans/types of 'races' was a rather simplistic "make them opposite." And left it at that.
Seekers... sun... male/father focused... strength.
Keepers... moon... female focused... spiritual/mental.
Highlanders... strength
Midlanders... intellect
Dunesfolk.... gil/merchant
Plainsfolk.... agriculture
Wildwood... urban/forest focused
Duskwright... reculsive, cave dwellers
Hellsguard... volcanoes
Seawolf... ocean
With such basic parameters, and limited lore to expand on the above, it leaves us, the RPers and lore hounds, culture fanatics, biologists and just... creative folks to expand on them and make our characters our own.
Which, to me, is both cool (I love to have wiggle room to develop interesting characters and engage other interesting characters) and annoying (I need SOME parameters so that I don't risk diverting from the realm of lore logic/possibility enough that all members of a certain RP'd "race" are similar enough to be recognizable and relatable.)
Honestly... I find such discussions as Calli has set forth to be enlightening and interesting. Not necessarily as an instruction manual to RPing a 'true' tribal Miqo (because it would not be... if you were to use her discussion as such at the absence of culture, you would be RPing more of a true PRIMAL Miqo'te... and one that would likely not function well in 'modern' society. Might they exist? Sure... as she said, the spectrum of possibility is there to use and abuse as we, the RPers, see fit. The more diversity, the more interesting the RP could be.), but as a basis of maybe understanding how things BEGAN... the roots of the division, the culture, etc.
People will make cultural adaptations to justify biological rules. And vice versa.
And we have not even discussed the psychological adaptations that might be made to justify biological drives or cultural decisions...
Lastly, discussions like this aren't a result of 'worry' or anything else- but merely a desire to dive deep into what could drive a character, a race, a clan, a species or whatever... in order to create a more in-depth, complex and intellectually stimulating character and IC interaction. It helps a character evolve from 2-D to 3-D. From flat and boring to dynamic and interesting.
My 2 gil.
Sorry for the rambling... haha
I come from an anthropological/medical collegiate background, and though my initial thought after reading your post (besides the above), was "well then we also need a good cultural/psychological discussion to supplement"...
I find that the subsequent postings have done a great job in discussing those.
No, one cannot look at a species (and yes- there is a difference between species and race, though people in fantasy tend to use them interchangeably. Or ignore them to allow for the ability to have 'half' this and thats. Admittedly, I struggle with this because... well... Miqo'te are NOT Hyur who are NOT Roe.. nor Lala... etc. BUT... with the developers not definitely stating 'half'-lings are impossible, I must resign myself to using race over species. Regardless of my 'real life' instincts.
Tl;dr... moving on.) or "race" of humanoid as a purely biological specimen. One simply MUST integrate the environmental & cultural aspects, traditions, religion, morals and mores and so on into the equation. For it is THAT that shapes 'who' and 'what' we are....
At least in my opinion. But this is the simple 'nature vs nurture' argument that still persists today. Even among anthropologists.
(esp between evolutionary and cultural anthropologists!) But I digress.Basically- my comments would only reiterate previous posters regarding the various tribal and typical matriarchal vs patriarchal familial structures... so I won't go into my own dissertation of it.
Though I admit, I find using strict human structures like this to not -quite- fit the Miqo'te idea of things.Similar, but not quite the same.
I think the developers basic ideas in creating all the clans/types of 'races' was a rather simplistic "make them opposite." And left it at that.
Seekers... sun... male/father focused... strength.
Keepers... moon... female focused... spiritual/mental.
Highlanders... strength
Midlanders... intellect
Dunesfolk.... gil/merchant
Plainsfolk.... agriculture
Wildwood... urban/forest focused
Duskwright... reculsive, cave dwellers
Hellsguard... volcanoes
Seawolf... ocean
With such basic parameters, and limited lore to expand on the above, it leaves us, the RPers and lore hounds, culture fanatics, biologists and just... creative folks to expand on them and make our characters our own.
Which, to me, is both cool (I love to have wiggle room to develop interesting characters and engage other interesting characters) and annoying (I need SOME parameters so that I don't risk diverting from the realm of lore logic/possibility enough that all members of a certain RP'd "race" are similar enough to be recognizable and relatable.)
Honestly... I find such discussions as Calli has set forth to be enlightening and interesting. Not necessarily as an instruction manual to RPing a 'true' tribal Miqo (because it would not be... if you were to use her discussion as such at the absence of culture, you would be RPing more of a true PRIMAL Miqo'te... and one that would likely not function well in 'modern' society. Might they exist? Sure... as she said, the spectrum of possibility is there to use and abuse as we, the RPers, see fit. The more diversity, the more interesting the RP could be.), but as a basis of maybe understanding how things BEGAN... the roots of the division, the culture, etc.
People will make cultural adaptations to justify biological rules. And vice versa.
And we have not even discussed the psychological adaptations that might be made to justify biological drives or cultural decisions...
Lastly, discussions like this aren't a result of 'worry' or anything else- but merely a desire to dive deep into what could drive a character, a race, a clan, a species or whatever... in order to create a more in-depth, complex and intellectually stimulating character and IC interaction. It helps a character evolve from 2-D to 3-D. From flat and boring to dynamic and interesting.
My 2 gil.
Sorry for the rambling... haha
