Definitions of Marriage?

[Molyneux]

I've heard a lot of people (mostly fundies, but not all) say things along the lines of "Marriage is between a man and a woman, always has been, always will be", and I was wondering...does anyone know of any societies that possessed marriage (or some similar social construct), where it applied to groupings other than one man and one woman? Mormons need not apply...

[Zero]

I've actually heard of unions between men and other men within the bible, although I'd have to look for a bit on the source. Fundies typically ignore stuff like that, though, so don't think that'll be too usefull.

[Civil War Man]

IIRC, Pre-Christian Greece and Rome had gay marriage.

[Rye]

I've heard a lot of people (mostly fundies, but not all) say things along the lines of "Marriage is between a man and a woman, always has been, always will be", and I was wondering...does anyone know of any societies that possessed marriage (or some similar social construct), where it applied to groupings other than one man and one woman? Mormons need not apply...

Lots of polygamy throughout history. Hell, look at the bible, look at how many wives the patriarchs had, and the extra-marital concubines in addition to all those wives.

Lots of people through the ages have had wives for breeding with and boyfriends on the side, and, I think, the native americans had some transgendered shamans (called two-spirit people or something along those lines if you want to google for it) that were highly prized as male wives.

Also, from the wikipedia article on polyandry: Polyandry is fairly common in Tibet (Polyandry in tibet), Zanskar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. It is also encountered in some regions of China (especially Yunnan- the Mosuo people), and in some Subsaharan African and American indigenous communities (notably the Surui of northwestern Brazil). It has been reported among the Nairs of Kerala, the Nymba of North India, and the people of Ladakh (a region of northern India adjacent to Tibet).

That said, I don't think the world has ever had monogamous homosexual marriage ever.

[Boyish-Tigerlilly]

There are a lot of south american and amazonian cultures, or even cultures in asia that utilize varying marital and gender structures. I cannot remember the exact name off hand, but I think the Arari are one example. There are some cultures where marriages are relatively free and people are able to engage in polandry, polygany etc.

There are also some cultures where gender neutral marriages take place. If I could only find my anthropology book!

[SPOOFE]

IIRC, Pre-Christian Greece and Rome had gay marriage.

I'm pretty sure they didn't, although I wouldn't be surprised. The ancient Romans actually believed that a man could only truly love another man.... but still married, due to a sense of duty or somesuch. There's also the "siring an heir" aspect.

[Darth Wong]

I've heard a lot of people (mostly fundies, but not all) say things along the lines of "Marriage is between a man and a woman, always has been, always will be", and I was wondering...does anyone know of any societies that possessed marriage (or some similar social construct), where it applied to groupings other than one man and one woman? Mormons need not apply...

Even if they were right about marriage historically being heterosexual, so what? That's a textbook Appeal to Tradition fallacy, of exactly the same sort once used to justify slavery because "there has always been slavery".