ANTHROPOLOGISTS DEBUNK "TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE": From the Washington Blade

[IMO, one of the fluffiest of these pieces I've seen. I certainly hope Prof. Palacios was misquoted or quoted out of context, since his point is especially irrelevant. ...Oh, if you want a really interesting piece on John Boswell and adelphopoeisis (which I think would intrigue even those who disagree with its author's conclusions), try this. --Eve]

...It's folklore that appeals to many Americans--one that the media facilitate and many politicians moralize, according to many anthropologists. They say this timeless tale has one significant problem: In a great many civilizations, at least until the present era, marriages were arranged in the interests of kinship networks, not at the whim of lovers. And, throughout history, they have taken on a wide variety of forms, including same-sex partnerships. ...

In a statement released last month, the 11,000-member American Anthropological Association gave Bush failing marks on his understanding of world societies and criticized his proposed ban on same-sex marriage.

"The results of more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships and families, across cultures and through time, provide no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution," the association's executive board said.

"Rather, anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contribute to stable and humane societies."

Scholars of both texts and worldwide cultures agree that it is nearly impossible to formulate a precise and generally acceptable way to define the flexible nature of marriage, according to the AAA. ...

Other academics didn't consider Boswell controversial for his inferences on early marriage, but for his assertions that liturgical ceremonies in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches sanctioned gay unions. For a period of more than 1,000 years, between A.D. 500 and 1500, these churches in Europe performed the Adelphopoiesis, or "the making of brothers," he determined in his 1994 book, "Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe." ...

Centuries after the Greeks and early Christians sanctified same-sex unions, Native Americans still practice a widespread same-sex tradition known as the berdache, in which two spirit males--men who are not tied to one gender--marry, provided they undergo a social and spiritual transformation, Lancaster said. One spouse might identify as female, but both remain biologically male.

Many modern societies don't even draw a distinction between homosexual and heterosexual in their pairings, Lancaster said, choosing a more free association regarding sexual or kinship ties. The Nuer of Sudan, as well as other African societies, institutionalized female same-sex marriages to preserve the lineage of one woman's family. These same-sex unions also exist in the form of cohabitation after an occasional "ghost marriage" of a woman to a dead man.

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posted by Eve at 10:04 PM | link

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