maybe they don't have irony there.

[fox]

here's a question about SGA that someone may have asked before somewhere i wasn't looking:

i can get behind the idea that teyla was speaking figuratively, or from the wraiths' point of view, when she said "they ... cull their human herd", and that the humans don't actually think of themselves as a herd.  that's fine.  but, they do all use the word culling to describe what the wraith do to them.

so why is there not more vegetarianism out there?  i mean, it apparently bothers nobody that people who run and scream when the wraith come to gather (human) food will go into the forest to hunt game for their own people?  i'm not saying the wraith are right, you understand, and it would be nicer of them to kill their dinner before eating it, and torturing people with the idea that they might be set free if they lead the wraith to more people food is very bad.  but ultimately, the wraith are hunters, and the humans are prey.  wouldn't you think that, understanding that, the people might quit hunting themselves?

(also:  in a fight between the wraith and the reavers, who would win?)

[eta:  okay, i take the point that people may not be able to afford, health-wise, not to eat meat.  but the question, really, is why there is no acknowledgment that hunter:food animal::wraith:human.  the athosians (at least) are portrayed as enough of a spiritual, respect-for-the-land, quasi-native-american society that you'd (or at least i'd) think this would have come up.]

Comments

[kmg-365.livejournal.com]

wouldn't you think that, understanding that, the people might quit hunting themselves?


No, because humans find themselves intellectually superior to animals. Killing an animal is no big thing because they aren't intelligent, feeling creatures. Even if there is evidence to the contrary. :)

At least that's one explanation I have heard.

[jgesteve.livejournal.com]

I agree... there's the whole sentience issue which is being missed. It would be one thing if the Wraith were somehow unaware of the humans' sentience... but they aren't... I'm 100% certain that the Athosians would stop hunting a particular animal if they all of a sudden discovered its sentience, whereas the Wraith would just go on eating.

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

... sapience, you mean? because i'd argue that the athosians know animals can feel cold, hunger, pain, fear, etc.

[jgesteve.livejournal.com]

That may be the correct term, however, in the world of Sci-Fi sentience has almost always been used in its place. After all the Star Trek prime directive says nothing about interfering in the development of sapient beings...

<--- is really upset he got rid of his Sheppard "Bitch Bitch Bitch" icon...

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

heh. fair enough, then. like i have the first idea about the text of the prime directive. (i've heard of it, which is a start ...)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Vegetarianism is a luxury for the technologically advanced and the wealthy. Most of the societies we've seen are not on that level.

When you're hungry, irony is not a factor.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

True vegetarianism isn't something you find in hunter-gather societies, like the Athosians got knocked down to. Most of their calories would have come from plants, but the windfall of high protein, high fat nutrition that hunting gives is not something people living that close to the edge can ignore.

Even the planets that have subsistence agriculture-level societies can't ignore meat as an occasional supplement. The margin is just too narrow.

[kmg-365.livejournal.com]

in a fight between the wraith and the reavers, who would win

My vote goes to the reavers, but only because I think that the wraith are hella-lame, and the reavers scared the poop out of me. Well, not literally, but they were a pretty frightening enemy. When I see the wraiths, I think goth. When I see reavers, I think "that dude is going to eat my intestines while I watch."

I haven't watched anything other than the first few eps of SG:A. Aren't the wraith near-invincible?

[merrycontrary.livejournal.com]

My vote goes to reavers, too. Not because I don't like the Wraiths as baddies, but because the reavers just scare the shit out of me.

I'd say that some acknowledgment of the parallels between two (Athosian and Wraith) hunter gatherers would be nice on a narrative level, but I agree that survival would be a first priority for the Athosians. Then again, we've never seen them hunt. Maybe when they kill game they say something about respecting the beast that had to die so they could live or something.