| rdfs:comment
| - The communal plains-dwellers, Alvearanthropus desertus, (also known as socials, fighters or hivers) are desert-dwelling, black-skinned descendants of the original plains-dwellers, from 50,000 years (the 520th Century), that have colonial lifestyles and live in great structures, from Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future. The brother is not coming. He has realized his error and will stay, doing his duty to his mother. The sister eventually realizes this and, still bleeding from cuts and bruised by the stones, walks off into the barrenness to die. The family will survive.
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| abstract
| - The communal plains-dwellers, Alvearanthropus desertus, (also known as socials, fighters or hivers) are desert-dwelling, black-skinned descendants of the original plains-dwellers, from 50,000 years (the 520th Century), that have colonial lifestyles and live in great structures, from Man After Man: An Anthropology of the Future. The harsh hot wind hums over the wispy grass and red-hard soil of the semi-desert, drying out the skin of any creature exposed to it. Climates are changing again and the whole of the world is feeling the effect. Here, the grassland that had once been desert is turning back to desert again. After 40,000 years in which the climate has been relatively settled, in which seasonal rains have been enough to sustain sufficient vegetation for the herds of plain-dwellers, the food chain is becoming unstable once more. Over the years the plains-dwellers have changed, now being the communal plains-dwellers. They still subsist largely on the tough grasses, but now they have begun to vary their diet and lifestyle in a number of ways. They have given up their wandering life and now stay in the few places where they know there is water. Their broad hands, with the bladelike callouses along the edge, have proved to be ideal for digging in the ground, something that was first discovered when they had to dig for water in the cracked and sunbaked hollows that in the rainy season form the muddy waterholes. Soon it was realized that food, as well as water, exists below the surface. Now they dig frequently for the moist tubers and underground stems that keep many of the desert plants alive during the dryness. Occasionally they will also chew and swallow a large insect, or a burrowing mammal or lizard, but these are invariably thrown up and spat out in disgust. The plant-eating digestive system with its bacterial vats is far removed from the omnivorous stomach and intestines of the communal plains-dweller's distant ancestors. Turning his back on the scorching wind, a male communal plains-dweller heads back towards the oasis with his load of tubers. Intermeshing his long fingers makes a kind of basket of his hands, and this can hold a large quantity of food. Now he must guard them against any enemies, for there are other groups of communal plains-dwellers around, and they would stop at nothing to get at somebody else's foodstore. It is not just the dry wind and harsh sunlight that are enemies to the communal plains-dwellers - they must fear members of their own kind. Not their own family, however; the tough conditions ensure that every family is tightly bound and cooperative. There is trouble back at the oasis - he can feel it as soon as he crosses the rocky ridge and descends into the hollow. Home is there, as safe and impregnable as usual, its red baked-clay walls rising like cliffs, with its entrances guarded by his young brothers and sisters; but there is an air of strife about the place. It does not feel as secure and homelike as it normally does. He passes through the entrance with no trouble - his brothers and sisters recognize him instantly, and he enters the shaded courtyard within. Over by the well there seems to be some kind of dispute. He ignores it for the time being. His first duty is to store the food that he has brought, and he does this in one of the cool storage cells dug into the hard clay soil. Then he emerges and goes to the well to see what is happening. It is the usual trouble. One of the younger females, his older sister, has been caught mating. Their mother is understandably enraged, as she is the one who gives birth in this family. The turn will come for the other females when she has become barren, or is dead and gone, but that will not be for a long time yet. Meanwhile the sons and daughters must concentrate on what they have to do to keep the family alive, and not waste their precious time in irrelevant mating. Conditions are too harsh for this. Everyone must do his or her duty, continually, if the family is to survive. There can only be one female giving birth at one time, and she must have the wholehearted support of everyone. Otherwise the birthrate will run away, bringing the family number beyond the present viable level of 20, and the family will collapse through lack of resources. His sister seems abashed. She knows what she has done. It appears that when she was confronted with her crime she turned on their mother and attacked her, evidently in some kind of halfhearted bid to oust her from her breeding position; but the mother is not yet old enough or frail enough for anything like that. Now his sister, bleeding from cuts to the face and shoulders inflicted by their mother's hand-blades, scuttles through the crowd to the entrance of Home. She will never be welcome here again. Already her brothers and sisters are picking up stones to see her on her way. They will be sad to lose her. Her duties as a wetnurse will be missed, but not for long since some of the younger sisters are almost old enough. It is better, on the whole, for the family to lose an unreliable member. Outside the entrance she stops and looks back. The first stone is cast, and misses. The second hits, but she does not go. Outside she will die, unless the older brother who mated with her comes out to join her. Then they may go far away and possibly find another family, if any of the other families will let them. The brother is not coming. He has realized his error and will stay, doing his duty to his mother. The sister eventually realizes this and, still bleeding from cuts and bruised by the stones, walks off into the barrenness to die. The family will survive.
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