I've read (part of) Courtship Rite, and was wondering whether to bring it up; my take was that it was basically a group marriage with bonus trying-to-kill-you in the flirting stage.

I have my doubts about the mathematics of their protein sources, though. It seems a million times more efficient, to me, to breed bugs, (which can convert protein out of starches or, uh, somethin, I dunno, however herbivores do it) than to breed people, (who can more or less only convert protein out of protein). But then again IANAN (I am not a nutritionist).