Human Diversity (WARNING:unmarked Dragon Keeper spoilers)

[Nuytsia]

I guess the Rainwilders have their 'practical' reasons for leaving their 'deformed' children out in the jungle but it seems like disgust at their sheer physical differences (and their reptilian resemblence?) is a part of it.

Hmmm having read about 3/4 of Dragon Haven I'd have to review, or add to, my thoughts on this a bit....

Dragon Haven

Spoiler

Having just read the bit where Greft is describing the painful physical changes happening to him, I can see that it's not just that those children born with substantial non-human characteristics are going to die young, but also quite likely in a quite painful and possibly quite slow way. So that's a fairly valid reason the more 'human' Rainwilders might be horrified to see someone very strongly marked - it's not just fear of 'difference' by any means (which didn't make total sense to me, when all Rainwilders would have some sort of non-human characteristics)
Also I think someone in DH says right out that really most of those babies die before the age of 1 or something, so people didn't want to devote resources to feeding them etc when they could try for another child right away instead. Hard but I can understand their logic.