Ghost marriage also occurs in Chinese cultures. Sometimes it's just for spiritual/emotional purposes, as when two children who died before adulthood as "married" for the parents' peace of mind. One interesting case in modern times was when a political aide named Teoh Beng Hock was killed during interrogation by government agents. His pregnant partner then married his ghost.
It's hard to believe such an in depth overview of the anthropology of marriage skips the massive elephant in the room: that polygynous societies were widely found to be in a perpetual state of civil war and are unable to develop stable modern institutions. When a substantial part of your young men have no chance of ever buying themselves a wife, the only way they can be recognized and respected as adult men is to join a militia that promises one, or at least gives them guns so they can take the cows they need by force.
The corollary for western monogamous society should be clear: traditional marriage is not strictly repressive, it's also a form of egalitarianism and redistribution of social capital.
If we dismantle marriage and let raw pastoralist dynamics run rampant, we might very well see the same hypergamous tendencies and that many of those excluded from the love market take up "other", less peaceful pastimes.
The Rousseauian romanticization of the hunter gatherer is part of the foundation on which so many authoritarian systems are built. Evidence of high levels of violence and game theory suggest that in societies without state legal systems, even today, status must be achieved through violence, giving access to resources and mating. Hunter gatherers were polygynous, interesting research on dating apps point in this direction. Stephen Pinker argues that violence decreases with modern states. Our major religions evolved marital systems to successfully reduce violence. Given that there is so much at stake, I hope Works in Progress will also platform alternative opinions...
Greg Egan wrote a novella called "Oceanic," where he tried to biologically engineer an egalitarian mating system. At least that's how I remember it, from reading it 20 years ago.
Ghost marriage also occurs in Chinese cultures. Sometimes it's just for spiritual/emotional purposes, as when two children who died before adulthood as "married" for the parents' peace of mind. One interesting case in modern times was when a political aide named Teoh Beng Hock was killed during interrogation by government agents. His pregnant partner then married his ghost.
Got it. I will take this article as good investment advice. Invest in commodities bois.
I enjoyed this piece very much! Fascinating.
It's hard to believe such an in depth overview of the anthropology of marriage skips the massive elephant in the room: that polygynous societies were widely found to be in a perpetual state of civil war and are unable to develop stable modern institutions. When a substantial part of your young men have no chance of ever buying themselves a wife, the only way they can be recognized and respected as adult men is to join a militia that promises one, or at least gives them guns so they can take the cows they need by force.
The corollary for western monogamous society should be clear: traditional marriage is not strictly repressive, it's also a form of egalitarianism and redistribution of social capital.
If we dismantle marriage and let raw pastoralist dynamics run rampant, we might very well see the same hypergamous tendencies and that many of those excluded from the love market take up "other", less peaceful pastimes.
The Rousseauian romanticization of the hunter gatherer is part of the foundation on which so many authoritarian systems are built. Evidence of high levels of violence and game theory suggest that in societies without state legal systems, even today, status must be achieved through violence, giving access to resources and mating. Hunter gatherers were polygynous, interesting research on dating apps point in this direction. Stephen Pinker argues that violence decreases with modern states. Our major religions evolved marital systems to successfully reduce violence. Given that there is so much at stake, I hope Works in Progress will also platform alternative opinions...
Greg Egan wrote a novella called "Oceanic," where he tried to biologically engineer an egalitarian mating system. At least that's how I remember it, from reading it 20 years ago.
https://www.gregegan.net/OCEANIC/Oceanic.html