Media Release: Statement on Marriage and the Family from the American Anthropological Association

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2200 Wilson Blvd, Suite 600, Arlington, VA 22201
February 25, 2004, Contact: Paul Nuti
703 528-1902, ext. 3008

Statement on Marriage and the Family from the American Anthropological Association

Arlington, Virginia; The Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association, the world's largest organization of anthropologists, the people who study culture, releases the following statement in response to President Bush's call for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage as a threat to civilization.

"The results of more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships, and families, across cultures and through time, provide no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution. Rather, anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contribute to stable and humane societies.

The Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association strongly opposes a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples."

Media may contact either of the names below:

To discuss the AAA Statement please contact: Elizabeth M. Brumfiel, AAA President (847) 491-4564, office.

To discuss anthropological research on marriage and family please contact: Roger Lancaster, Anthropologist, author, The Trouble with Nature: Sex in Science and Popular Culture , 2003 (202) 285-4241 cellular

Media Coverage Includes:

Multicultural marriage, by Joshua Glenn, Boston Globe, Feb. 29, 2004.

Scientists counter Bush view Families varied, say anthropologists by Charles Burress, AAA member Laura Nader was quoted, The San Francisco Chronicle, Feb 27, 2004

Gay Marriages Fit into This Adaptable Institution op-ed by Robert Myers, USATODAY, March 14, 2004

An Elastic Institution, op-ed by anthropologists John Borneman and Laurie Kain Hart discussing marriage, Washington Post, April 14, 2004.

Anthropologists Debunk "Traditional Marriage" Claim, by Adrian Brune, features AAA statement, Roger Lancaster and Dan Segal, Washington Blade, April 16, 2004

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