some additions from academia
First, let me say that I am now VERY cranky at some of these academic IDIOTS who overlook something my professors would've humiliated me for:
where's the damned ABSTRACT??? I mean, it's been SOP for
centuries to offer a brief descriptor of what's about to ensue!!
Anyway...
Less interesting than you'd know from the lurid title, but maybe worth a browse --
SYMPOSIUM: Lawyering For the Mentally Ill -- #353 "The Crime of Polygamy"
I'm trying to find something by
Leanna Wolf, but all I can find is online AND requires some sort of account signup. Maybe you're more patient than me. Here's an overview of older works on nonmonogamy, in a really awkward format --
The Culture of Non-Monogamy
And I'm apprehensive about where this one leads but I love the title --
On Kittens & the Very Invented Culture of Polyamory
And this title kinda says DEVIANTS SUCK but maybe I'm just that cynical, & it at least has an abstract --
Polyamorous Families, Same-Sex Marriage, and the Slippery Slope
It was originally published 2011, yet refers to "relatively unknown family forms" which makes me feel like I'm being pushed into a closet.
But, the author says that such deviance "decenters heterosexual families as the sole measure of legitimacy," which sounds like a GOOD thing.
As an econ wonk, I'm always interested in anything that even
considers the socioeconomic ramifications of intimate networks, so I might have to sign up --
Poly Economics — Capitalism, Class, and Polyamory
Fair warning: might be too Marxist for some, & I generally prefer to not assume any discussion of "class" requires Karl's presence.
(The single best modern work on the subject is also hilarious: Paul Fussell's
Class: A Guide Through the American Status System)
This source is waaaay long in proper titles, so I'll stack 'em up:
- Indiana University - Bloomington
- The Kinsey Institute
- the Continuum Complete International Encyclopedia of Sexuality (CCIES)
Anyway, it's a small monster, published at 1,400 pages + Index -- certainly a GREAT candidate to live online. It's set up as a nation-by-nation thing (which seems as if it'd ignore regional similarities yet assume that borders make this stuff internally homogenous...), so here's the main starting point:
Index
My favorite region:
Outer Space and Antarctica: Sexuality Factors in Extreme Environments
Clearly, they're ignoring the polyfolk who'll be living in the ocean-bottom habitats.
And what about Biosphere 2??
I am surprised at how many of the authors (contributors & citations) I have read (& in fact own published works by) & in some cases corresponded with. A leading resource in the '80s was the University of Minnesota's Program in Human Sexuality, now a neglected corner of the Medical School -- when they pared back their library, I bought DOZEN of the books. Because of this, Dr Francouer was a HUGE influence on my framing of nonmonogamy.
However, the CCIES is clearly just a copy of the book's typesetting code, so is loaded with "bugs," those little squares that stand in for nonstandard characters (accent, umlaut, tilde, cedilla, forced break) & it sometimes feels like I'm reading a page covered with fruitflies.
The biggest problem with this huge database is the weak Table of Contents & the utter inability to bookmark -- the United States chapter is almost 600 screens long at my current (small!) resolution.
So, polyamory is waaaaay down in section 5 ("Interpersonal Heterosexual Behaviors") & at that down in 5.C ("Adult Heterosexuality")... right after sections on Extramarital Sex, & Cohabitation (living in sin
). After some poking at it, I found a direct link:
Polyamory and Alternative Non-Monogamy
It's a good overview, but far too brief.
And I'm sure many will notice the wide separation of things we consider overlapping, starting with bisexuality & gender diversity.
However, what's there tends to be quality -- okay, that might be a little biassed, but check it out. Like, right near the beginning of the section, Fleckenstein points out something that this site seems to need to tell someone on a weekly basis:
It should be noted that polyamory represents an approach to intimate relationships, rather than merely a particular practice. Therefore, it is possible for an unpartnered person, or a person presently celibate, nevertheless to accurately describe him- or herself as being polyamorous in philosophy and approach to relationships.
And I'll note here a topic for possible discussion that I'd almost forgotten --
Smith and Smith (1973) drew the distinction between the recreational and utopian subcultures more clearly, based on the two groups' very different approaches to reconciling what they prefer versus what they will accept.
There were swing clubs that looked very much like amorphous quasifamilial groups, called
utopian swingers & even
communal swingers (though maybe "communitarian" would've been closer).
Well, enough for now.