How so? Some are polyamorous but not the majority. You're talking about inheritance and family name, etc. Also I'm conceding this because frankly, I didn't make it a point....I really only know about the Navajo doing this.
You're killing me here....you're still arguing for fixed gender roles. I'm glad we're not arguing about berdache because frankly, it's a weird argument...and I don't think you want to have it any more than I do. I think you have probably noticed my point though, that there's this weird sort of "claiming" going on where the lgbtq community is adopting these historical examples of various cultural practices that really shouldn't be viewed as being anything outside the context of what they were in that specific culture as examples of "queer" or lgbtq people and they simply weren't. They've claimed catamites as an example and I know what the catamites of Tiberius did....I don't see why they would want to claim that. They've claimed eunuchs as an example for transgender people and that's simply not correct. These don't have any analogous examples to our culture. When I'm talking about actual homosexual behavior, the idea of Mr. Bear Chases Cub and Mr. Runs Like A Girl going into the wigwam and getting it on seems while the whole tribe is just "cool with it" doesn't seem to carry much weight. Yes, I think those are funny names, don't get offended, lighten up.
Typically, I tend to see the sort of pederastic relationship that existed between men of these tribes and others throughout history (Spartans are pretty well known) as holdover of a sort of universal problem within tribal cultures to begin with, and that's the young age of sexual maturity in men. In some aboriginal cultures for example, this was solved by literally exiling young men from the tribe for awhile. The problem occurs because you have an excess of young men, and they aren't needed for hunting or aren't ready to make war, and can't be watched around the women at all times....generally speaking. In order to keep Todd's son from getting it on with your wife while you're out hunting deer or something and needing to collect his head is a problem that requires solving somehow.
All in all I think male sexuality is easily the most overlooked, understudied, and oversimplified topic which has seen far less progress and research than female sexuality comparatively. My main point here though, is that statistically when we looked these relationships....we are looking at tribes and cultures that simply cannot have enough pedophiles to explain the relationship nor do they have some magical ability to spot homosexuals at an early age.
