Hetaerism  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

(Redirected from Hetaeristic)
Jump to: navigation, search

Related e

Wikipedia
Wiktionary
Shop


Featured:

Primitive promiscuity or original promiscuity, is the 19th century hypothesis that human race originally lived in a state of promiscuity or "hetaerism". 19th-century anthropologists (such as Johann Jakob Bachofen) believed there was a theoretical early state of human society characterized by the absence of the institution of marriage in any form. Women were the common property of their tribe, and the children never knew their fathers.

Friedrich Engels analysed Bachofen's views as follows:

"(1) That originally man lived in a state of sexual promiscuity, to describe which Bachofen uses the mistaken term "hetaerism";
(2) that such promiscuity excludes any certainty of paternity, and that descent could therefore be reckoned only in the female line, according to mother-right, and that this was originally the case amongst all the peoples of antiquity;
(3) that since women, as mothers, were the only parents of the younger generation that were known with certainty, they held a position of such high respect and honor that it became the foundation, in Bachofen's conception, of a regular rule of women (gynaecocracy);
(4) that the transition to monogamy, where the woman belonged to one man exclusively, involved a violation of a primitive religious law (that is, actually a violation of the traditional right of the other men to this woman), and that in order to expiate this violation or to purchase indulgence for it the woman had to surrender herself for a limited period."

Hetaerism

Hetaerism or hetairism can mean:

  • A term employed by 19th-century anthropologists (such as Johann Jakob Bachofen) to indicate a theoretical early state of human society characterized by the absence of the institution of marriage in any form. Women were the common property of their tribe, and the children never knew their fathers. Sometimes known as "Primitive promiscuity".
  • A term used to describe ancient Greek customs according to which a man's wife was forbidden to accompany him to many public events, including the banquets or "symposia" which made up such a large part of Greek social life. At such occasions, men sought out the company of courtesans or "Hetaerae" instead.

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Hetaerism" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

Personal tools