 |
 |
| Roger Lancaster, an anthropology professor at George Mason University, said the
modern idea of marriage is only 200 years ago and was developed at the time of
the Industrial Revolution. (Photo by Leigh H. Mosley)
|
|
|
| | |
|
American Anthropological Association
2200 Wilson Blvd, Suite 600
Arlington, VA 22201
703-528-1902
www.aaanet.org
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| | |
HOME > NEWS > NATIONAL NEWS
By: ADRIAN BRUNE COMMENTS
 
continued...
equivalent
to marriage vows, and to me, these single-sex orders provide the larger evidence
of the sanctioning of same-sex unions,” Palacios said. “They also
procured children in the sense of establishing schools, orphanages and hospitals,
which mirrored or paralleled the intent of marriage.”
The American Anthropological Association created its statement denouncing
Bush at the suggestion of Dan Segal, another anthropologist who points to the
application of marriage to same-sex couples in both a classical and modern
context.
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.
Though some conservative politicians decry same-sex marriages as opening the
door to polygamy, polygamy is actually the time-tested method of sexual bonding,
anthropologists said. Outlawed in the United States in 1879, it still survives
among some Mormons and is practiced consistently in the Muslim world.
Bush’s model of marriage — the heterosexual nuclear family — actually
evolved during the Industrial Revolution, as transient populations, mass education,
the women’s rights movement and the creation of leisure time tested marriage’s
tradition, according to Lancaster.
Women also moved up in status from property to partner, and children from
a source of labor to the treasured outcomes of a loving bond. Early 20th century
magazines, such as the Ladies’ Home Journal, seized upon this idea and
circulated it through mainstream America, scholars noted.
Though all don’t necessarily support same-sex marriage, most anthropologists
and social scientists agreed that the American Anthropologic
|
