God the things I start thinking about at 3 in the morning! G.
Ok. You have a world where people of many species live together.
People won't just happen to fall in live with members of their own
species every time. But couples will want cubs.
Let's say that an otter male is married to a lion and a skunk. (Boy
is that asking for trouble. G.) In their culture a female can just go
to a clinic and be artificially inseminated with sperm that matches
her species. However, that was not always the case throughout all of
history and customs evolve to accommodate practical needs.
The lioness and the skunk would have needed a donor. So the cubs will
have a caregiver father (or just 'father') who raised them and each
species of cub will have a blood father.
A blood father would have social and probably religious recognition.
It would have evolved into the culture. Maybe there is a ceremony
involved in becoming a blood father. Maybe the blood father has
legally recognized conjugal rights regarding his access to the female
who is the mother of his cubs and she'd have those same rights
regarding him. He will have a right to visit his cubs and to be with
them. But he will play a lesser role in the raising of his cubs and
in their support. He would be welcome at the dinner table at a family
reunion as a member of the family.
Ok. Now it's getting complicated but it was fun to think about. G.
Edward Fox
Received on Thu Jan 31 2008 - 01:44:46 CST