[extropy-chat] destroying gardens?

[Amara Graps]

>But I know of no society that has accepted a woman having two or more
>husbands.  Has there ever been such a thing?

Yes.
Spike: You might need to search for the information, however here
is something from me.

Amara

-------cutting and pasting from my extropians post on December 14, 2002,
titled: " Hawaii and the Canaries"

I am terribly curious why sea-faring is not part of every culture
that develops on an island. One would think that, if a human can see
another land mass on the horizon separated by a body of water, that
the human would be drawn to learn what was 'over there', and learn
how to build boats and sail. However this is not at all true in the
Canary Islands.

The Canary Islands are an archipelago of many volcanic islands/islets
(principal islands: Tenerife, Grand Canary, La Palma,
La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura) that are similar
in size and separation from each other as are the Hawaiian Islands.
On Tenerife on a clear day you can see easily see Gomera -- it is as
close (10 nautical miles) as Molokai looks to someone standing on
windward side of Oahu.

Yet the original populations of the Canaries were ignorant of the
art of navigation, and developed in isolation of each other, and at
different rates of cultural (religious and technical too) evolution,
based on different population triggers that brought the different
peoples to the islands in the first place.

This leads to the question of how the people arrived in the Canary
Islands in the first place- in Hawaii, the migration looks pretty
clear to the historians, (from Tahiti, Samoa, etc.), but it's not at
all clear the case in the Canary Islands. The Guanches, that is, the
original people in the Canaries, arrived with their animals: goats,
sheep, dogs, with them as if colonizers, and these people dedicated
themselves totally to agriculture and pasture, and not to the sea.

Even though there is not alot of information available about the
Guanches, there is _something_ and the archeologists and historians
have pieced together some aspects of the life,and are still actively
trying to find answers. In the little book below that I found in a
archeological museum in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, last year, I read
the following about the marriage customs on the different islands that
made me smile, so then a smile for your Saturday:

<begin quote, pg. 66, 67>

"In Grand Canary, men were monogamous. Wives were subjected one month
before matrimony, to a fattening diet, to strengthen them, so that
later they would have strong and robust children.

During the wedding night, the woman could, if she wished, sleep with
a noble of her liking, and if as a result of this union a child was
born, he would be named "Caballero" (gentleman).

The legitimate husband, meanwhile, waiting for the news of a
pregnancy brought about by this irregular union, was not permitted
any carnal contact with her.

In La Gomera, things were easier. There free love existed and so
there were few problems encountered in finding an ideal partner,
either for the man or the woman.

The sacredness of the conjugal condition was not felt here as it was
in the other islands, and in fact there existed a strange custom
called "hospitality of the bed" in which any husband could offer the
delights of his wife to house guests.

It seems that this usage, which it must be said is sometimes found
towns of other nations was also found Grand Canary.

In Lazarote polygamy was normal, and so women there had three
husbands, who alternated each month in their marital duties.

During the abstinence period, the other two husbands were obliged to
revere and serve the wife in all her necessities and desires.

In El Hierro, marriage was contracted by the delivery, as payment,
of a certain quantity of cattle to the parents of the wife.

It is a fact that in almost all the islands a quasi-matriarchy
existed, which made the condition of being a woman always most
favourable.

Respect for women was so high among these people that, on meeting
one in your path, you were obliged to wait until she had passed. You
had to avoid speaking, or look at them without permission. Insulting
a woman was considered a crime worthy of punishment of the utmost
severity."

<end quote>

Reference:

Tenerife: From its Origins to the Spanish Conquest, by Paolo Ludovisi
and Elizabeth Blue, Paolo Ludovisi Publications, Los Realejos,
Tenerife, 1998.


Amara
-- 

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Amara Graps, PhD          email: amara at amara.com
Computational Physics     vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers         URL:   http://www.amara.com/
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"Oh you damned observers, you always find extra things."
    -- Fred Hoyle [quoted by Richard Ellis at IAU Symposium 183]