[QUOTE=Oslo Ostragoth]
Err, I don’t think this is completely right. The rest of this is my understanding, not Gospel:
Jaffa carry an young parasitic goauld, which has the advantage to the jaffa of healing injuries and disease and extending life, in their abdomens until it matures. Then it leaves and the jaffa dies. It then enters the nervous system of another person, who is called the host by SG-1 et al, and subsumes the host’s personality.
The thing about Teal’c no longer having one sounds right.
[/QUOTE]
Not quite true. Once the Goa’uld larva reacehs maturity, it is removed an implanted in a host. A Jaffa is NEVER considered a host. More of a “carrier” or a walking set of luggage, I guess. Anyhow, the Jaffa is then usually given a new larva to nurture to maturity. However, the life-extending process of the Goa’uld does not last forever, and at some point (usually after a couple hundred years) the Jaffa will not be eligible for a new larva, because he will be too weak.