I am a big fan of the television show “Mystery
Science Theater 3000”
(MST3K), in which the characters watch bad movies and crack jokes. Sometimes
the show included short educational films that were shown in schools fifty
years ago, with subjects like “body care and grooming,” or “why study
industrial arts?”
These films taught children our culture’s basic assumptions. One of
my favorites, “A Date With Your Family,” is a classic example. It taught that
children should be well-mannered and polite; a woman’s role is to be charming
to the men of the family; daughters help with dinner while sons play and do
homework; etc.
This film is hilarious (particularly with the MST3K jokes) because,
with all the changes that have happened in our society over the last sixty
years, the assumptions of 1950’s American culture are obvious.
However, some of the assumptions on display in the film are still
taken for granted, and because they are part of our cultural reality they are
hard to see. One that jumps out at me is the belief that “family = two parents
and children.”
Recently I read an interesting article about cultural assumptions
with the wonderful title, “Of Cannibals, Kings, and Culture,” (how can you not click on that headline?!),
by Adam Etinson. In 1593 the essayist Michel de Montaigne encountered three
Brazilian cannibals at the court of the French king. Montaigne also interviewed
some of the sailors who had been in Brazil, and his subsequent essay, “Of Cannibals,” gives a fascinating account of Brazilian
society, including their polygamous relationships. Of most interest to
Montaigne is that the women liked
this arrangement:
And it is one very remarkable feature in their marriages,
that the same jealousy our wives have to hinder and divert us from the
friendship and familiarity of other women, those employ to promote their
husbands' desires, and to procure them many spouses; for being above all things
solicitous of their husbands' honor, 'tis their chiefest care to seek out, and
to bring in the most companions they can, forasmuch as it is a testimony of the
husband's virtue. Most of our ladies will cry out, that 'tis monstrous; whereas
in truth, it is not so; but a truly matrimonial virtue, and of the highest
form.
Montaigne then cites the Bible as evidence of the virtue of this
type of marriage: Jacob not only had two wives but they both “gave the
most beautiful of their handmaids to their husbands.”
