 What is the significance of the Maternite?
] I was wandering among the tall grass of the slopes, listening to the soft whistling of the wind; allowing the grass to caress my toga and thighs. It was a day soft and clear; a day accepted by the young, cherished by we old. I do not, of course, believe in the gods per se; still there is a grandeur in the very stones that transcends their human sculptors, and it is no wonder to me that many cling tenaciously, and ignorantly, to the old religion. In whose names Man killed and plundered, while struggling up. In whose names Man finally left this earth, to seek his cousins among the stars. Gone now are all the ancient evils, wars, emergencies. "Sias," they were saying, "the Maternite's gone." Then turned to me, and said calmly, "The watcher at the Maternite Machine, it appears, has been drunk. Everything has evaporated in Maternite. In moments of emergency, it is wise to speak with caution. They are of an age to enter manhood, and have all the energy such young men do. They were aware that they stood in the midst of an unprecedented happening; indeed, an emergency. They were created so long ago, indeed, that the ignorant believe them to have been constructed by the gods themselves. Indeed, the watcher is more a tradition than a necessity. I hastened to the City Hall and found the Conclave assembled, waiting for me to bring them to order.
 It determines how many children will be born in the span of a year
 It determines how many children will be born in the span of a year  It reduces the prevalence of female biological sex organs  It produces enough breastmilk to sustain newborn infants  It decides which of the elders will be sacrificed to the gods