Anthropologists Agree: No "Traditional" Marriage
A week or two ago, one of those ridiculous "defense of traditional marriage" organizations issued some statement claiming that anthropologists all agree that marriage is a male/female thing only. (You can find more details in Jim Burroway's post at Box Turtle Bulletin, referenced in the note below.) This is, of course, false on a number of counts.
In response, the American Anthropological Association released a letter repudiating that claim in the strongest terms. This letter deserves wider circulation, so I am reproducing the entire letter* here.
Dear Sir:
My name is Damon Dozier, and I am the American Anthropological Association (AAA) Director of Public Affairs. In this capacity, I am responsible for the Association's full range of government relations, media relations, and international affairs programs. Founded in 1902, the AAA—11,000 members strong—is the world's largest organization of men and women interested in anthropology. Its purposes are to encourage research, promote the public understanding of anthropology, and foster the use of anthropological information in addressing human problems.
I write to address the gross misrepresentation of the position of the anthropological community on gay marriage in your March 3, 2008 Citizen Link press release, “Anthropologists Agree on Traditional Definition of Marriage.” In the release, Glenn Stanton, an employee of your organization who does not identify himself as an anthropologist, asserts that “a family is a unit that draws from the two types of humanity, male and female.”
In point of fact, the AAA Executive Board issued in 2004, the following statement in response to President Bush’s proposal for a constitutional amendment banning gay 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. 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.
I am alarmed and dismayed at this example of irresponsible journalism and deliberate misrepresentation of the anthropological community. In the future it is my hope that your organization will accurately and honestly convey and communicate the views and interests of the AAA, its 11,000 members, and the social science community at large.
Damon Dozier
Director of Public Affairs
American Anthropological Association
2200 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 600
Arlington, VA 22201
703.528.1902
———-
* From "Anthropologists Defend Their Position on Marriage and the Family", AAA Public Affairs Blog, 7 March 2008; the letter was released with additional information at the link given. I first saw the statement described at Box Turtle Bulletin, "Now An Entire Association of Anthropologists Disagrees With Stanton", which also has additional details about the matter.
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[Update a few hours later]
Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin has been keeping track of some interesting details in this matter, if you'd care to see how the "defense of traditional marriage" group not specified above has wriggled in response to the AAA's rebuke:
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I welcome comments -- even dissent -- but I will delete without notice irrelevant, rude, psychotic, or incomprehensible comments, particularly those that I deem homophobic, unless they are amusing. The same goes for commercial comments and trackbacks. Sorry, but it's my blog and my decisions are final.
on Thursday, 27 March 2008 at 21.53
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Wow, basic anthro teaches us that there's several forms of marriage. People just want to believe what they want. *sigh*