Analysis Of Roman Epitaphs Alters Concept Of 'Family'

University Of Calgary ^ | 2-11-2004 | Dr Hanne Sigismund

[Antoninus]

When all my uncles were coming home from WWII, we went through a spell of about 5/6 years where my great-grandfather, grandfather, parents, sister, three uncles (two unmarried, one married with a little girl) and an unmarried aunt all lived in the old family homestead. They were the best years of my childhood.

Big families are such a blessing. It's too bad that more people don't realize it.

[Little Bill]

In Rome when a slave was freed he joined the Family of his Master, thus the ianus in the last name of later Romans, meaning loosey of the family of.

[Little Bill]

I have a Greek friend whose father in law, retired, sits in his store and estimates the cash flow, to be sure that his daughter is treated correctly, strange but true.

[Devil_Anse]

Bottom line: SOMEBODY in that society was engaging in normal sexual relations, or there wouldn't have been any wet nurses, etc.--there wouldn't have been any population at all.

There are all kinds of reasons why marriage includes a pledge of fidelity to the person you marry. IMO, the number one reason it evolved that way was to prevent a man from unknowingly having the expense (not just monetary expense) of rearing another man's biological offspring. It's only fair that a person should only be obligated to expend effort on behalf of his/her own biological offspring. (I'm not saying there's anything wrong with VOLUNTARILY taking care of another person's biological offspring.)

So fidelity is important to heterosexual marriages. IMO, it is less important to homosexual couplings--and oh, BROTHER, is that evident in their behavior.

So if we call homosexual pairings "marriage", then we do indeed change the nature of marriage, making fidelity less important. I mean, who cares if homos cheat on each other?

And without at least a serious attempt at fidelity, what the hell reason is there for getting married in the first place?

[blam]

"And without at least a serious attempt at fidelity, what the hell reason is there for getting married in the first place?"

Yup. With more and more people accepting that it is the responsibility of the state to care for their 'chilrun', marriage is obsolete, huh?

[Devil_Anse]

Looks that way. I mean, if we're going to live in communes, we don't need things like "moms" and "dads".

In the future, people will get babies only by picking an anonymous father (by reading his description); then people of indeterminate gender, wearing clean white lab coats, will artificially inseminate the most likely female candidates (those who pay the most money) with the semen of the chosen men. Thus, sex will also become unnecessary (although masturbation will continue--in fact, male masturbation will be more necessary than sex.) In fact, sex may even eventually become prohibited by law.

This will be a much more civilized atmosphere, since all babies will be planned with excruciating care, and men and women will no longer have to degrade themselves by touching each other.

Such a great civilization it will be!

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

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