One social convention that is mentioned in passing in Book One is marriage. There are multiple forms of marriage in the Star Commonwealth of Arcadia. Obviously monogamy is one form of marriage found in the Commonwealth. John Allen Aster's parents, for example, have a monogamous marriage. So did the Imperator, Harry Truman, before his wife died, and he has since been single (and he will continue to be single). Book One also makes passing references to polygamy and group families.
Martin Feldmann's ex-wife, Lisa Feldmann, left him to join a group family. Feldmann's wish that Lisa suffer the nagging of her "co-wives," and the reference to a "group family" indicates something about the nature of Lisa's new marriage.
John Allen Aster's conversation with his father Adam Aster gives us a hint at another type of marriage found in the Commonwealth. John's mother Felicity is concerned that her son is now a middle-aged adult and is still single:
"Really, John, your mother is starting to get a little concerned." Adam Aster was trying not to sound as if he were lecturing his oldest son. After all, John was forty-eight Commonwealth Standard now, the equivalent of fifty-five Earth years, and was just about to enter middle age, at least for a citizen of the Star Commonwealth of Arcadia. And he was more than old enough to have his own family and to be raising his own children. Just ask anyone about that, John thought. Ask the neighbors. Ask anyone at Muski's. Ask any casual observer on the street. Just ask my mother. That was what exactly what John's mother Felicity was worried about. At his age, he should have a good Zen Catholic wife.
Or maybe two.
And a son.
Or two.
And a daughter.
Or two.
Or more!
And he didn't.
John stifled a groan. He knew his father felt caught in the middle and would rather not be there, but to please Felicity he agreed to have this talk with John. As John looked out the window in the darkness he saw his reflection looking back at him, questioning, wondering. He wished his mother would just be content to let him live his own life, that she would be content to let him find someone and get married in his own time. But Felicity felt an obligation as a good Zen Catholic mother to encourage her sons and daughters when she thought they needed encouragement, and in her opinion, her oldest was very much in need of encouragement. She was convinced it just was not natural for a healthy man to remain single so late in life.
Different forms of marriage arise as a natural result of the freedom of voluntary association that is a constitutional guarantee for citizens of the Star Commonwealth of Arcadia. But what are the possible different forms of marriage available to a future society? That's not so different from asking what forms of (voluntary!) marriage are (and have been) possible on planet Earth. Robert Heinlein invented some forms of marriage for his stories, for example, the "line marriage." I decided to do some homework and came up with a few basic types of marriage practiced in the real world:
1. Monogamous heterosexual. This is the form or marriage people in modern western society would be most familiar with.
2. Monogamous same gender. This is something on the rise now in modern western society.
3. Polygyny: One husband married to two or more wives.
4. Polyandry: One wife married to two or more husbands.
5. Polygynandry: More than one wife married to more than one husband in the same family unit. This would be the type of "group family" that Lisa Feldmann joined.
6. Some form of same gender group marriage would seem to make sense in light of #'s 3, 4, and 5.
These are the forms of marriage found in the Star Commonwealth of Arcadia, "with some variations," as the story goes. Other forms of marriage than the six listed above may be defined based on different criteria than what I have used (how many people are in a defined relationship.)
Note that polyamory is not included as a form of marriage here. Polyamory seems too much like a form of marital anarchy, whereas the six forms listed above all involve clearly defined, committed, dedicated relationships within certain bounds. Polyamory has no bounds. That doesn't mean such a thing may not be practiced by some people in the Commonwealth, but it is not one of the recognized forms of marriage in the Commonwealth.
Note that portraying a society that practices multiple forms of marriage, or any sort of societal practice that is different from the "norm," does not mean that a writer is advocating that particular societal practice. It merely means the story is set in a society that is different from what we know. It also makes the story more dynamic, by adding new dimensions for plot twists and turns, and it may provide opportunity for social commentary.
Also note that six different forms of marriage would imply something about religion in the Commonwealth. Religion in the Terra Arcadian Universe will be discussed later. For now, let's just say that some religions, like the Zen Catholic Communion, have no problem with it, while others do.
It should be noted that societies outside the Commonwealth have varying marriage norms. As will be seen in a later installment to The Girl From the El Dorado Star System, the theocratic Eschaton, an independent star nation outside the Commonwealth Sphere of Influence where the state religion is Fundamental Baptochrislem, recognizes only heterosexual monogamy and polygyny as a matter of religious law. On the other hand, the Great Society of Terra Max, another independent star nation outside the Sphere of Influence, recognizes no forms of marriage whatsoever. (But then, the Great Society banns all forms of religion as well.)
The Human Relations Area Files (http://hraf.yale.edu/) is one place to research this topic. The Ethnographic Atlas identifies the forms of marriage practiced in 1,231 societies. Only 186 were monogamous. (! A surprise! Well, no...yes...no...yes...) 453 societies practiced occasional polygyny. 588 societies practiced polygyny more frequently. 4 societies practiced polyandry. (Other studies indicate that the number of societies that currently practice polyandry is over 53 [outside of the Himalayas].) In the real world, humans are open to a wide variety of marital arrangements.
In a real world, marriage can also involve divorce. In the Commonwealth, divorce can happen in interstellar fashion:
...Lisa Feldmann had left her husband, simply walked away from their life of twenty years together, joined a group family, and departed for a new life in the Montezuma star system outside the Commonwealth Sphere of Influence. She didn't even bother to file for divorce. Feldmann did though, six months after she left, citing abandonment, and mental and emotional cruelty. The divorce was unopposed, of course, Lisa being about twenty-five lyts away in a frontier star system, and he never heard from her again. May she bask in an abundance of nagging from all her co-wives, Feldmann thought.
Agnes Aster's husband, Calvin Aster, also got a divorce:
...Consider Aunt Agnes back in Barnstable. She was certifiably insane, and had driven Uncle Calvin away years ago. In fact, Calvin fled to another star system, an independent star system at that, outside of Commonwealth jurisdiction, and got a divorce.
In Book Two: The Girl Who Had a Mission, we learn details about Calvin Aster's escape from the tyranny of his mentally ill dominating wife. By fleeing to another planet in another solar system, he was able to file for divorce unopposed after filing for citizenship in a different star nation. He presumably has lived happily ever after.
Another aspect of marital relationships in the Commonwealth (at least between males and females) is that it is not at all uncommon for the woman to propose. Early in Book One: The Man Who Had to Die, Robyn Kydervail proposes to Tom Aster, and he accepts, and they plan to elope by going interstellar:
"Robyn? What are you saying?"
"You can leave this place and come with me. Start your life over again. We can have a place of our own. Start our own family. Raise our own kids. Live far from here."
"Robyn,...I...uh...are you proposing to me?"
"Yes." She smiled. "I am proposing to you. Tom." She stopped and turned in front of him to face him. "Let's get married. After I finish my current job. We can leave this planet, go elsewhere, and get married. We can be together for the rest of our lives. And that can be a very long time." ...
"Uh, I , uh, well,..." Suddenly he seemed to become certain, sure or himself, determined. "Yes. Yes. Let's do it. Let's get married." Then his face clouded over. "But not here. Not in Barnstable. It's just that my mother-"
"Don't worry about that. We don't need to get married in Barnstable. I was going to suggest we go somewhere else anyway," Robyn said.
"Where?" asked Tom.
"Oh, I thought maybe Morgan's Planet," Robyn replied.
"Where?" asked Tom. "I always thought my knowledge of astro geography was fairly good, but I've never heard of it. Where is it?"
"Not many people on Terra Arcadia have heard of it. It's an independent world in the El Dorado star system. A few lyts outside the Commonwealth Sphere of Influence," Robyn explained. "Well, actually it's more than nineteen lyts away from here. It's not that bright a star, but if you knew where to look at night, you'd see it about three quarters of the way above the horizon around midnight." Robyn stretched out her arm and pointed up to a spot in the southeastern sky. Tom looked up, although there was nothing there to see now but gray snow clouds. "Right about there. My family's from there," Robyn said. "We've been on Morgan's Planet for hundreds of years. Since the first settlement, actually."
And so life goes on in the Star Commonwealth of Arcadia. Hopefully the reader has found this discussion interesting and entertaining, not to mention thought-provoking. And if it should inspire and motivate someone to tackle the keyboard and start writing their own stories, then so much the better. Be sure to check out The Girl From the El Dorado Star System, Book One: The Man Who Had to Die at Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/451622). Book Two: The Girl Who Had a Mission is nearing completion. Books Three and Four are in the works.
peace, J
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