Thank you both for that clarification (I admit to not re-reading the book for a couple of weeks, and I don't have my copy with me at the moment). So Russ was still making a point with the use of the suffix "-son", just maybe not the one that I was thinking about! :)

Also, I think that concept of the importance of lineage is still patriarchal, but maybe that's just me :) (And again, because of the contrast which I think Woman on the Edge of Time provides, but I figure it's a bit OT to bring that up in detail just yet ;) )