Everything about Line Marriage totally explained
Group marriage is a form of
polyamory in which more than one man and more than one woman form a
family unit, with all the members of the group marriage being considered to be married to all the other members of the group marriage, and all members of the marriage share
parental responsibility for any children arising from the marriage.
Line marriage is a form of
group marriage found in fiction in which the family unit continues to add new spouses of both sexes over time so that the marriage doesn't end.
Group marriage is sometimes falsely called polygamy or even
polygynandry, from a combination of the words
polygyny and
polyandry. But polygynandry and polygamy can only be considered group marriage under certain circumstances.
In modern cultures
Group marriage occasionally occurred in
communal societies founded in the 19th and 20th centuries. An exceptionally long-lived example was the
Oneida Community founded by
John Humphrey Noyes in 1848. Noyes taught that he and his followers had undergone
sanctification; that is, it was impossible for them to
sin, and that for the sanctified, marriage (along with private property) was abolished as an expression of jealousy and exclusiveness. The Oneida commune practiced sexual communalism and shared parental responsibilities, and in effect functioned as a large group marriage until sometime in the period 1879-1881.
The
Kerista Commune practiced group marriage in San Francisco from 1971 to 1991.
It is difficult to estimate the number of people who actually practice group marriage in modern societies, as this form of marriage isn't officially recognized or permitted in any jurisdiction, and illegal in many. It is also not always visible when people sharing a residence consider themselves privately to form (or self-identify as) a group marriage. With the legalization of
Same-sex marriage in
Canada and some parts of the
United States, some members of the
polyamory movement are talking about a reform movement to also allow group marriage.
In fiction
Interest in, and practice of
nonmonogamy is well-known in modern
science fiction fandom. Group marriage has been a theme in some works of
science fiction — especially the later
novels of
Robert A. Heinlein, such as
Stranger in a Strange Land,
Friday,
Time Enough For Love, and
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.
Stranger in a Strange Land describes a communal group much like the
Oneida Society.
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress describes line families in detail. The characters argue that the line family creates economic continuity and parental stability in an unpredictable, dangerous environment. Manuel's line marriage is said to be over 100 years old. The family is portrayed as economically comfortable because improvements and investments made by previous spouses compounded, rather than being lost between generations. Heinlein also makes it a point that this family is racially diverse. A passing reference to Heinlein's marriage forms is made in
David Brin's Infinity's Shore, where a
sapient bottlenose dolphin crewmember is noted as belonging to a "line marriage, one of the Heinlein forms."
Group marriages of three partners (called triples) are described as commonplace in the 1966 award-winning novel
Babel-17 by
Samuel R. Delany. The novel's protagonist, a female starship captain Rydra Wong, once lived in a triple, until one member died and another was put in stasis for an incurable illness. Other crew members, especially those who worked in close three-person teams, are noted for this type of relationship.
Line marriage is also commonly practiced in
Joe Haldeman's 1981 novel
Worlds. Haldeman describes how individual families joined forces, both in bed and on paper, in order to avoid inheritance taxes. Many of these consensual corporations were made up of three-mate marriages called triunes.
Group marriage is briefly addressed in the 1989 Star Trek novel, by
J.M. Dillard (published by
Pocket Books). A minor character, Lt. Nguyen, enters into a group marriage and is portrayed as a relatively normal occurrence within the society of the Star Trek world.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Line Marriage'.
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