Posted on 08/27/2007 1:22:56 PM PDT by Hi Heels
Gay Unions Sanctioned in Medieval Europe Jeanna Bryner LiveScience Staff Writer LiveScience.com Mon Aug 27, 12:00 PM ET
Civil unions between male couples existed around 600 years ago in medieval Europe, a historian now says.
Historical evidence, including legal documents and gravesites, can be interpreted as supporting the prevalence of homosexual relationships hundreds of years ago, said Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.
If accurate, the results indicate socially sanctioned same-sex unions are nothing new, nor were they taboo in the past.
“Western family structures have been much more varied than many people today seem to realize," Tulchin writes in the September issue of the Journal of Modern History. "And Western legal systems have in the past made provisions for a variety of household structures.”
For example, he found legal contracts from late medieval France that referred to the term "affrèrement," roughly translated as brotherment. Similar contracts existed elsewhere in Mediterranean Europe, Tulchin said.
In the contract, the "brothers" pledged to live together sharing "un pain, un vin, et une bourse," (that's French for one bread, one wine and one purse). The "one purse" referred to the idea that all of the couple's goods became joint property. Like marriage contracts, the "brotherments" had to be sworn before a notary and witnesses, Tulchin explained.
The same type of legal contract of the time also could provide the foundation for a variety of non-nuclear households, including arrangements in which two or more biological brothers inherited the family home from their parents and would continue to live together, Tulchin said.
But non-relatives also used the contracts. In cases that involved single, unrelated men, Tulchin argues, these contracts provide “considerable evidence that the affrèrés were using affrèrements to formalize same-sex loving relationships."
The ins-and-outs of the medieval relationships are tricky at best to figure out.
"I suspect that some of these relationships were sexual, while others may not have been," Tulchin said. "It is impossible to prove either way and probably also somewhat irrelevant to understanding their way of thinking. They loved each other, and the community accepted that.”
The Sex Quiz: Myths, Taboos and Bizarre Facts 10 Things You Didn't Know About You A Brief History of Human Sex Original Story: Gay Unions Sanctioned in Medieval Europe
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And if I recall correctly, the son killed her and her lover for having done it (many years later).
Don't be elated just because faggotry existed, the graves could be evidence society resisted...
Of course it can, anyone can interpret anything any way they want, for example some protestant churches have "interpreted" :
You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.
To mean God condones homosexual relations between men.
I'd highly question this "evidence".
There is no proof these were sexual “gay unions”.
“It is impossible to prove either way and probably also somewhat irrelevant to understanding their way of thinking. They loved each other, and the community accepted that.”
No, it is completely relevant. I can’t find it now, but there is evidence of similar arrangements which had their own ceremony in Christian Syria around 400AD but it was more like a blood brother/sister type of arrangement.
>>Okee doke. Show of hands....how many think Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania is gay and a member of a brotherment?<<
First, I read that as brothermeat.
2nd, lets assume this story is completely accurate.
3rd, lets assume that because something was done in medevil times we should do it today.
Even in that case we are still only talking about two adults making a contractual arrangement for property. Any two adults should be able to do that now.
That is not at all the same as gay marriage equivalent to straight marriage.
A lot of things were ‘sanctioned’ in midieval Europe that the libs would freak out about now, so “Mr.” Tulchin should think about that for awhile.
Allan Tulchin????? ... the internationally recognized Nobel Prize-winning expert in forensic anthropology? The man who is to dusty bones what Carl Sagan was to the stars? The sage whose name was changed to "Indiana Jones" so Spielberg wouldn't get sued?
You mean THAT Allan Tulchin of Shippensburg University?????
While the scene in Brave Heart is one of the few comic moments in the film, it wasn’t true. Although it crossed Longshanks mind on more than one occasion to rid his court of the pantywaist fop. Piers Galveston died of “natural cause” in England. They cut his head off. Looks like Edward III didn’t hold a grudge against Isabella.
This guy is lying, and others will call him on it. Some other guy tried to assert that the old Catholic Church did gay weddings in the dark ages, and was shot down pretty fast. I expect the same will happen to this asshat as well.
What? No equal civil rights for the ladies? No sisterhoods? Oh, the humanity!
I think the phrase is get medieval on your @$$
Man what about Scotland of that same time period....maybe it was William and Wallace. Nights are cold in the Scottish Highlands.
Excellent point!
ROTFLMAO!!!
“For example, he found legal contracts from late medieval France that referred to the term “affrèrement,” roughly translated as brotherment.”
So medieval France sanctioned gay incest?
Seriously, these types of living arrangements (aka partnerships) had nothing to do with sex and if you accused those men of being gay back then they would beaten you senseless.
Having read much medieval history, the type of contract described brings to mind "brotherhoods" such as the Templars or Hospitilars more than pseudo-homosexual unions. Such Orders commonly swore all their worldly goods to the Order.
I am not gay, but I believe in "un pain, un vin, et une bourse," especially the purse part
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