Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Polyamory

TallBrad was by my cubicle today and I said to him, "You should let me marry you." To which he replied that he knew that multiple wives was polygamy (it's actually polygyny, polygamy embraces multiple forms of group marriage), and multiple husbands had a name too (polyandry), but he wasn't sure what it was when one guy had multiple spouses of both sexes.

Apparently it's still polygamy (see note above), but the subset is "group marriage", also known as Circle Marriage or polygynandry (proceeded by some polyamory). It is practiced minimally by the Caingang people of Brazil.

Thinking he was just making fun of me because of how I phrased myself (and I deserved it), I noted that I did not have my paperwork filed yet with Dakota County, but I had the hard copies of the letters, so I could do it really quick if he needed a marriage a little weirder that what might be performed by a priest (poker theme!). At which point, he realized I was talking about actually officiating, and not just offering to give up my promise ring for him if he'd make a commitment. So, today a man truly believed I proposed to him...I'm touched, just not literally.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

And I was scared. You don't know how relieved I was when I figured out what you were really asking.

Anonymous said...

How do we really know that you were just proposing to officiate? Maybe you were actually proposing to Brad, and when he reacted in a less than enthusiastic ( or as he phrases it, scared) fashion, you quickly smoothed over the awkward moment by couching it in terms of officiating his wedding...

Anonymous said...

For peace of mind, I am going with the "I was asking to officiate..." scenario.

Anonymous said...

If that makes you feel better Brad, then go with it :)