Human–animal marriage

Human-animal marriage, i.e., marriage between humans and non-human animals, is not recognized by any modern country, but historically, people have married animals as part of religious traditions or to bring good luck, often involving elaborate ceremonies. Such marriages as are allowed by tradition, or within a culture, are often symbolic or ritual, rather than the more usual recognition of a relationship.

Law

No present-day national jurisdiction allows marriage between humans and non-human animals. They are not legally recognized and purported marriage ceremonies have no legislative validity.

Historical cases

Horse

• In some parts of Celtic Ireland, kings (often called "sacred kings") had to wed the local goddess of the land. A druidess was usually chosen to represent the land goddess as the king's wife, but one king in Donegal married a horse, a representative of their local goddess. [1]
• May 1998 - The Jerry Springer Show had an episode titled "I married a horse". The show was ultimately not aired by many stations on the planned date, apparently due to concerns about the acceptability of broadcasting an episode in which a man admitted to a long term emotional and sexual relationship of this kind. The man and his horse later participated in a British documentary on the subject.

Folklore, myth, and popular culture

• A Korean folktale, sometimes known as The Silkworm, tells how silk originated following the King's daughter spiritually marrying a horse, in completion of a promise made in times of trouble. In the tale, the princess was reborn as a silkworm, a creature whose appearance and mannerisms superficially were said to resemble that of a horse. (From Chonsol Ttara Samch'olli, retold by Heinz Insu Fenkl) [2] [3]
• A Cheyenne myth "The Girl Who Married a Dog", states that the group of seven stars known as the Pleiades originated from seven puppies which a Cheyenne chief's daughter gave birth to after mysteriously being visited by a dog in human form to whom she vowed "Wherever you go, I go". [4] [5]
• The Cree people of Waskaganish, Canada, tell the tale of "The Girl and the Dog", in which a girl living alone is visited by a talking dog who she jestingly agrees to marry. The dog hunted for her and she had a hybrid offspring. Finally the woman had human visitors, and resolved to marry one of them, and was killed by the dog in her sleep, out of jealousy. [6] (told by John Blackned)
• One Inuit origin-myth states that the human races originated from the offspring of a girl who married a dog. [7]
• South Park parodied PETA with an episode on PETA members involving human - animal marriage due to the equivalence PETA members put on animals.
• The Decemberist's album The Crane Wife re-tells the Japanese folk-tale of a man who marries a crane in human form

See also

• Animal love
• Loving relationship
• Long-term relationship
• Affectional bond
• Exogamy
• Speciesism
• Anthrozoology
• Zoophilia