Talking About Teyla
A reader asks, "You say Teyla is your favorite character. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're putting into writing her?"
Sure! The first thing is the obvious -- we don't actually know very much. We don't know if she's ever lived anywhere besides Athos. We don't know anything about her mother at all, except that she is no longer part of Teyla's life by the time she is thirteen when her father is taken in the culling. We don't know about previous significant relationships or marriages. We don't even know if Torren is her first child!
So any interpretation of any of these things would be compliant with canon. Canon simply doesn't tell us.
It is certainly very unusual for a woman in her thirties to have had no significant relationships. I think it's reasonable to assume that Teyla has had one or more, and that obviously they ended. Whether that was because of tragedy, or because it didn't work is one of those things that's wide open.
What about her mother? Again, we don't know. She very specifically says her father was taken in a culling, not her parents, so that suggests that something else happened to her mother. Did she die? Leave? Vanish? Again, all those possibilities are valid.
In terms of children, I think it's most reasonable to assume Torren is her only living child. If there were another child somewhere, with its father or fostered with kin or friends, we should have heard about that in five seasons. About a baby who died ten years ago? Probably not. Again, that's wide open.
So, in settling down to write seven books with her as a major character, one has to start making some choices.
The starting place is this: Teyla is not a modern American. We cannot assume that any of her social institutions or assumptions are the same as those most common in the US today. There are many other societies in the world that hers could resemble more. Her people may be polygamous or polyandrous. They may live in extended families or matrilinial kinship groups. They may practice infant arranged marriage, or have no marriage at all. We don't know.
We do know that in order to write seven books that explore her character deeply, we have to start deciding.
And so I began from a sociological perspective. What are some of the most common traits of a nomadic people, since we do know that the Athosians were nomadic and did not build permanent settlements.
To take one example, children must be spaced apart. If you've ever tried to do anything with a baby and a toddler, you know it's very difficult. Now imagine trying to migrate, to travel on foot across many miles, while carrying a hefty ten month old and chasing a three year old who alternates between running off and getting too tired to walk! Nomadic societies prefer to space children further apart, perhaps four years. After all, a five year old can walk and keep up much better than a three year old, and is much more responsible and able to obey. In societies without hormonal birth control, children are usually spaced by having non-procreative sex be socially acceptable and common. Imagine telling a husband that he won't be having sex for four years! But of course there are things people can do without getting pregnant, and in nomadic societies these things tend to be socially acceptable.
In contrast, settled agricultural societies place a premium on having as many children as possible, eight, ten, fourteen! And often in those societies women give birth every year or at least two. In order to keep this accelerated birthrate, these societies usually stigmatize or even criminalize non procreative sex.
So there's an insight there -- the Genii, who are an agricultural society trying to rapidly expand, are probably considerably less sexually permissive than the Athosians.
Thirdly, one thing that has happened worldwide with the transition from an agricultural society to an industrial one is a corresponding drop in the birthrate. The huge farm families of the 19th century have given way as the norm to families of one to four children. But, with no need to space the children out, industrial societies tend to have family patterns of children much closer in age.
Sateda. It's likely that Ronon comes from a society where having fourteen children is also strange. And where siblings are likely to be a couple of years apart, not five years apart.
Anyway, these are examples of the kind of thinking we're putting into the books, and into the development of the Pegasus societies in general and Teyla specifically.
Sure! The first thing is the obvious -- we don't actually know very much. We don't know if she's ever lived anywhere besides Athos. We don't know anything about her mother at all, except that she is no longer part of Teyla's life by the time she is thirteen when her father is taken in the culling. We don't know about previous significant relationships or marriages. We don't even know if Torren is her first child!
So any interpretation of any of these things would be compliant with canon. Canon simply doesn't tell us.
It is certainly very unusual for a woman in her thirties to have had no significant relationships. I think it's reasonable to assume that Teyla has had one or more, and that obviously they ended. Whether that was because of tragedy, or because it didn't work is one of those things that's wide open.
What about her mother? Again, we don't know. She very specifically says her father was taken in a culling, not her parents, so that suggests that something else happened to her mother. Did she die? Leave? Vanish? Again, all those possibilities are valid.
In terms of children, I think it's most reasonable to assume Torren is her only living child. If there were another child somewhere, with its father or fostered with kin or friends, we should have heard about that in five seasons. About a baby who died ten years ago? Probably not. Again, that's wide open.
So, in settling down to write seven books with her as a major character, one has to start making some choices.
The starting place is this: Teyla is not a modern American. We cannot assume that any of her social institutions or assumptions are the same as those most common in the US today. There are many other societies in the world that hers could resemble more. Her people may be polygamous or polyandrous. They may live in extended families or matrilinial kinship groups. They may practice infant arranged marriage, or have no marriage at all. We don't know.
We do know that in order to write seven books that explore her character deeply, we have to start deciding.
And so I began from a sociological perspective. What are some of the most common traits of a nomadic people, since we do know that the Athosians were nomadic and did not build permanent settlements.
To take one example, children must be spaced apart. If you've ever tried to do anything with a baby and a toddler, you know it's very difficult. Now imagine trying to migrate, to travel on foot across many miles, while carrying a hefty ten month old and chasing a three year old who alternates between running off and getting too tired to walk! Nomadic societies prefer to space children further apart, perhaps four years. After all, a five year old can walk and keep up much better than a three year old, and is much more responsible and able to obey. In societies without hormonal birth control, children are usually spaced by having non-procreative sex be socially acceptable and common. Imagine telling a husband that he won't be having sex for four years! But of course there are things people can do without getting pregnant, and in nomadic societies these things tend to be socially acceptable.
In contrast, settled agricultural societies place a premium on having as many children as possible, eight, ten, fourteen! And often in those societies women give birth every year or at least two. In order to keep this accelerated birthrate, these societies usually stigmatize or even criminalize non procreative sex.
So there's an insight there -- the Genii, who are an agricultural society trying to rapidly expand, are probably considerably less sexually permissive than the Athosians.
Thirdly, one thing that has happened worldwide with the transition from an agricultural society to an industrial one is a corresponding drop in the birthrate. The huge farm families of the 19th century have given way as the norm to families of one to four children. But, with no need to space the children out, industrial societies tend to have family patterns of children much closer in age.
Sateda. It's likely that Ronon comes from a society where having fourteen children is also strange. And where siblings are likely to be a couple of years apart, not five years apart.
Anyway, these are examples of the kind of thinking we're putting into the books, and into the development of the Pegasus societies in general and Teyla specifically.