Re: Bastards--long

Bryant (mycol1@unm.edu)
4 Sep 1996 08:50:31 -0600

In article <LXSLyAwZqMQM091yn@io.com>, Lars Eighner <eighner@io.com> wrote:
>>Bryant asked:
>>I have learned of only one culture in which women could play the
>>role of husbands (Sioux, I recall). What are the others?
>
>Many of the Bantu-speaking peoples have these customs.
>Female-female marriage was very widespread in sub-Saharan Africa.

Thank you very much, Lars. That's fascinating.

I wonder if there are any ecological parameters that correlate with the
practice, which might be compared to those encountered by the North
American Sioux, who also practiced female/female marriage.

>It was not that request, but the prejudicial way in which you
>frame your questions. Moreover, requesting information on matters that are
>common knowledge and so widely discussed suggest
>disingenuousness

It is not common knowledge that marital infidelity in non-ritual contexts
is widely understood to be a source of pleasure to husbands, is it? It
has certainly not been presented in any of the anthro courses I've taken
(not that I'd immediate buy just anything taught in such courses anyways,
since I got a gutfull of Mead's misinformed ethnographies in intro anthro).

If it is indeed common knowledge, then I ask that somebody else jump in
and name the groups where this is the case.

>observations and a number of societies not covered in Blackwood
>can be found in Williams' chapter on Woman-Woman marriages.

Thanks. I've snipped your overwhelming list of references on lesbian
marriage. As for the first request for info I made, you needn't chase
down a bunch of cites--just (please) name a few of the groups so that I
can chase down refs myself. Thank you.

Bryant