Genealogie manželství

• Authors: Marcus Sharon

Title variants

EN

THE GENEALOGY OF MARRIAGE

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

The article investigates the practice of female marriages in 19th century Great Britain and United States and argues that female marriages provided model for more progressive forms of the legal marriage between men and women. Unlike homosexuality in the 20th century, the same-sex relationships between women in the 19th century often enjoyed social recognition and some women in female marriages occupied prominent social positions. Because they were considered to rest on contract, female marriages served as inspiration for the contractual view of marriage advocated by many supporters of the Victorian marriage reform. The contribution of women in female couples to the success of the marriage reform was further underlined by their belonging to influential social networks. The author also argues that while the structuralist anthropology of mid-20th century, represented through the work of Claude Levi-Strauss, had limited understanding of homosexuality as a socially legitimate phenomenon, the Victorian anthropology of the second half of the 19th century was relatively more open regarding the same-sex relationships. It is contended that authors as diverse as Henry Maine, Johann Bachofen, or Frederick Engels provided impulses in their work both for a positive evaluation of the same-sex relationships and for a more egalitarian understanding of marriage.

Keywords

EN

FEMALE MARRIAGES; GLBT STUDIES; SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY – HISTORY OF; SOCIAL HISTORY OF MARRIAGE; VICTORIAN STUDIES

Discipline

• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Sociologický časopis. Czech Sociological Review
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 45
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 671-707
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Marcus Sharon

• Sharon Marcus, Columbia University, New York, United States; http://dlib.lib.cas.cz/4739/

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09CZAAAA07052