Isto é " Rito do namoro " de Donald Kingsbury.
Eu não o li pessoalmente, mas o enredo descrito na Wikipedia parece um ajuste sólido.
Geta is a harsh planet settled by humanity centuries before the novel begins.
Geta is much drier than Earth. Terraforming was never, or very minimally, initiated on the planet's biosphere, leaving it very inhospitable to the descendants of the original settlers, who have become mythic, God-like creatures to its denizens.
Apparently the only Earth-life on Geta are humans, bees, and the "Eight Sacred Plants", including wheat, soybeans, barley, and potatoes. Native, "profane" life includes plants, a wide variety of sea-creatures and "insects", but no large land-animals. Each has a different biochemistry, so each is largely toxic to the other. As a result, food is a commodity that is very precious on Geta, and in most places the only source of meat is humans themselves. Cannibalism has insinuated itself into the very fabric of social and religious life.
Ele também é descrito em outros lugares como épico em muitos capítulos curtos.
