Several comments here. First, the hetaera role wasn't exactly a "prostitution" role, nor were the pre-WWII geishas; there was a lot more to it than that, and sex wasn't necessarily even part of the job description, although to be sure, it usually was. Second, maybe it feels strange to us, but it wouldn't necessarily feel strange to them. Switching universes and roles to the world of the late Frank Herbert, think of the way the women of the Bene Gesserit would happily harvest sperm from wherever they needed to get them in order to fulfill the Bene Gesserit goal of breeding a Kwisatz Haderach, even if they were part of otherwise normal, loving marriages (consider Margot, Lady Fenring). To them it wasn't strange; it was just doing their job.Alberich wrote:It still feels strange to have a clan full of old-fashioned machismo and family pride willingly put its own daughters into any kind of prostitution role, even an elevated one.Graybeard wrote:Well, that fate might await misbehaving women (and not just slaves, but also wives, as in that rescue Therese was introduced doing). However, my vision of the sex slaves is for something quite different: it would be a positive role for the women, in its own weird, Gorielian way.
Third, and maybe most important as it bears on some other aspects of Goriel we need to think about, we still don't have a clear sense of how big and all-encompassing a "clan" is. If it approaches being the size of a "tribe" in modern clan-oriented cultures, then its membership would be not merely the big kahuna, his spouse (spice), and those descended from him; it would also include the big boss' kid brothers who weren't powerful enough to establish their own clan, and their male offspring and families, and possibly also the big boss' male cousins and their families, maybe all the way out to second or even third cousins. Under these circumstances it would hardly be atypical for some lower-status clan guy who was cursed (as the Gorielians would view it) with having fathered a dozen daughters to figure out that the best future prospects for the younger daughters would be in this sex-slave role (we really need a name for it). You're right, few direct descendants of the big chief would be likely to do this. But there are plenty of other eligible women in the clan, probably. (Or not, depending on how all-inclusive the clan is; again, we need to examine this.)
The use of more distant nieces offers a natural way of deciding how "elevated" the status would be. "Outsiders" coming in by trade or capture would get incorporated at a level appropriate for the ... "attributes" they bring in.Alberich wrote:I can well believe that, humans being what they are, a subset of enslaved "kept women" originally from outside the clan could rise in status to something like what you describe, by pleasing the right men. Or do you think she should start her career in the "elevated" status, based on some attribute she had when she entered that position?
Right, although the Sisterhood would be careful to only approach women who either want out and/or are in terminal danger -- they wouldn't want to tip their hand for the sake of a woman who might turn them down, or worse, expose them.Alberich wrote:Having the higher status be a promotion (granted by the chief or his designees - or, if you prefer, by an official of the PM's who is naturally influenced by the chieftains) would create a dramatically interesting tension related to the Sisterhood's work - since some of the women they'd approach for recruitment or rescue then must decide between trying to get out of the whole degrading business, or staying around to try to elevate their status within it.
Let's come back to the question of child-bearing later, if it arises, but yeah, there are a whole pile of related questions on that count too. Fun building a society, isn't it?