Ritva Kurittu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Jane,
>
> Ooops, I answered Stephanie further up and had
> some thoughts rather like yours. No surprise
> really.

I was thinking more of a naturalistic interpretation, along the lines of how predator and prey interact and maintain a balance in nature, more of an instinctual thing. Skinwalkers are human predators, and capable of acting on more than just instinct, of course, but I doubt they are making a conscious choice to "strengthen the tribe" in the benevolent sense implied when you say, "They are fighting for a dying heritage." They seem much more to be acting on a grudge. Strengthening the tribe would in that sense be an unintended consequence of a power trip.

An extension of that thought is that unlike predators that act on instinct, the skinwalkers may choose their victims for non-instinctual reasons, the grudge, for example. Although they haunt the fringes, they don't just prey on the weak or the convenient as an animal would be most likely to do. Sometimes their "quarry," present company surely, are strong people willing to fight back and even to break the taboo if necessary. The skinwalkers may not have a way of knowing that. Or would they? In either case, I do not think choosing a strong victim would support your speculation about an intentional cultural role. The skinwalkers would in that case be jeopardizing their own existence in strengthening the tribe, something I do not think would be part of their conscious intent. They may, however, have outlived their cultural usefulness, which is now subliminally sensed and that may be why the taboo is beginning to be broken and people are prepared to fight back in a more organized way.

I have some additional thoughts on this, but prefer not to speculate further without feedback from the expert witnesses.

> When I say "Amen" I say it as a shortcut to "I
> totally agree, that's my opinon also and I
> couldn't have said it better myself, and ain't
> that the truth!". Because AFAIK Amen does mean
> something like "that is the truth". Or? In other
> words, nothing Biblical about any of my sayings.
> Heheh.

I didn't think you meant it Biblically. It just seems that the skinwalkers are thoroughly vicious in the way they blend animal and human traits and so I wondered why you said "amen" to that. I see now that you were agreeing with Stephanie.

Jane