Glossary:M-Ma

(m) : [anthropology] male; the male sex denoted as a kin type determinant. Cf. (e), (y). Opp. (f).

m- : [anthropology] a prefix that denotes a male speaker of a kinship term. For example, mMoBr denotes the kinship term a male uses to name his mother’s brother. Opp. f-.

M.I. : Monument Inscription, an abbreviation common in the notes of the Visitations in England.[2]

Ma : [Ch] a Chinese surname. Marco Polo adopted Ma as his Chinese surname, and so did many other Westerners entering China during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).[3]

Maat : [Eg] Goddess of Justice in Egypt; the Egyptian goddess of justice celebrated with lesbian rituals.

mab : map : [We] a little child. The word gave rise to the common Welsh particle ab or ap, which normally stands in isolation, and is used as a name element signifying ‘son of.’ Cf. ferch, Mac-, nic, O’-.

mac : [Sc] son; a darling; the young of any animal; a name element common to many Gaelic surnames.

Mac- : Mc- : M’ : Ma- : Mag- : [Sc, Ir] son of. This is an extremely popular Celtic and Gaelic prefix, related to the Welsh mab, which follows a personal name, and precedes the person’s father’s personal name. The prefix corresponds in meaning to filius in Latin, fitz in Norman French, and ap in Welsh. The Scots and Irish long ago made the prefix into a common name element, and adopted the custom of capitalizing it, and attaching it directly to the father’s name. Variants of this prefix may be seen in the surnames Macmillan, MacDonald, McIntyre, M’Daniel, and Maguire. Computer sorting now causes such names to appear at different positions in an alphabetical list, but this was not always the case. Outmoded library card catalogs and indices were prepared using the old rules for alphabetizing proper names, which required that all proper names having variants of the prefix Mac- be organized and sorted as if they were all uniformly spelled Mac-. The old system of alphabetizing may have seemed reasonable at the time it was employed, but it led to considerable confusion, especially in names such as Magill or Maguire. Cf. ferch, mab, nic, O’-.

mac inghine : [Ir] DaSo ≠SoSo; daughter’s son; a descriptive Irish equivalent of the English classificatory term grandson.[4]

mac mhic : [Ir] SoSo ≠DaSo; son’s son; a descriptive Irish equivalent of the English classificatory term grandson.[5]

macaroni : maccherone : [1599 En-It] literally a dumpling, or type of pasta; a fop; a member of the macaronis or macaronies; a young Englishmen well traveled, and acutely affected with foreign mannerisms. Englishmen changed by foreign travel were fairly common in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, but their alien ways provoked derision. The term connotes a composite mixture of ingredients similar to Italian gnocchi, and implies that the subject has generated children of mixed blood. Cf. macaroon, quateroon, octaroon.

macaronic : [1638] exhibiting a mixture of two languages; hybridized; Latinized by the addition of a Latin suffix to a word base in the vernacular, or native language; characterized by a mixture of one language with another.

macaroon : macaron : [1699 Fr] a small cookie made with sugar, egg whites, and coconuts or ground almonds. Cf. macaroni, quateroon, octaroon.

Macouda : [Dahomey] the highest ranking officer of the Dahomey amazons in Africa. Cf. Dahomey concubitor, Macumba.

macrophage : a large white blood cell that acts as a scavenger, ingesting degenerated cells and foreign particles. The macrophage produces messenger proteins, called monokines, that are instrumental in several immune responses.

Macumba : a religion in Brazil, based upon Yoruba traditions brought there from west Africa by slaves. Cf. Macouda, Yoruba.

madam : ma’am : ma dame : [Fr] my dame, a courtesy title used to address ladies of any rank.

madkwahomai : [Kamia] the two male twins of the alien transvestite warharmi. Cf. Kamia, Laguna shaman, warharmi.

madonna : mia ma donna [It] : a courtesy title used to complement women; a name for a picture or icon of the Virgin Mary.

Maenads : women who commonly sacrified their sons. Cf. Actaeon, Diana the Huntress.

Mag Tured : mt : ad +1871 years : the Druidic Age, a period of 3888 years, which commenced after the Second Battle of Mag Tuireadh in Ireland, in 1871 bc. The present Druidic Age is called the Age of Iron and Silver. Cf. Druidic Age.

magazine : magazin : [Fr] storehouse, arsenal; a repository for arms and provisions; a periodical miscellany.

magistrate : magistratus : governor, judge; one publicly invested with authority.

magistri : captains in charge of 20 men. There were 9 magistri per 180 men, in the time of Richard I.

Magna Charta : Magna Carta : [1215] Great Charter; one of a series of charters and confirmations that formed basis of constitutional monarchy in England. The most comprehsive version of the Magna Charta was the Great Charter of liberties that the crown granted to the English people in 9 Henry III (1224’5), which Edward I later confirmed. This was a confirmation and amplification of the original Magna Charta that King John sealed on 15 June 1215. A confederation of barons subdued King John, and forced him to sign the original charter, which enumerated many rights and privileges claimed by the barons. The next monarch Henry III was merely an infant when he acceded to the throne, so the barons conspired to compel the boy king to sign an even more extensive list of baronial rights. As the eventual consequence of the Barons’ Revolt, England acquired the rudiments of constitutional monarchy, and thus, we think of the Magna Charta as marking the inception of American-style democracy. The billionaire Ross Perot purchased one of the extant charters from the time of Henry III, and donated it to the federal government for permanent display at the National Archives in Washington, DC.

magnum : a large wine bottle, double (2x) the standard size of 0.7 liters, or one-fifth gallon.

magnus natu : grandis natu, of considerable age, of advanced age. Cf. natu.

mah : [Hb] confusion, noise; way, journey; what, which, why, how. Cf. ben, ob, seg.

Mahāyāna Buddhism : large-vehicle Buddhism, as opposed to small-vehicle (Hīnayāna) Buddhism.

mahu : [Polynesian] the title of a homosexual shaman or fairy among the Polynesians, which was recognized as a tribal office before colonization.[6]

mahu : mahoo : [1790-1801 Otaheite] the title of a shamanic office in a local Tahitian tribe; an androphilic Tahitian who performs fellatio (‘ote moa) on a chief (tavanau) or superior male, without any reciprocation. The Englishman Morrison described the mahu as an effeminate man, similar in some respects to the eunuchs of India, but not castrated. The mahu plucks his beard, dresses as a woman, and sings with the women in a high voice. The mahu lives as a woman, and enjoys the respect of a woman, and yet lives separately from women. On public occasions, the women accept the mahu as one of their number. Some Tahitians have noted the phenomenon that the mahu is a rare breed, and is often limited to one mahu in each locality, and have therefore concluded that ‘God arranges it like that.’[7] Captain Bligh of H.M.S. Bounty noted the existence of the mahoo, and the London Missionary Society condemnated their practices in 1801.[8] Cf. ‘ote moa.

Maia : daughter of Atlas and by him mother of Hermes or Mercury; associated with Hephaestus, or Vulcan or Volcanus, the fire god; earth goddess; equated with Fauna & Ops; object of sacrifices and feasts on 23 May and 23 August, the first of which coïncides with a tubilustria ‘purification of trumpets used for ceremony’ (23 March & 23 May).

maiden name : the paternal surname of a woman. A woman normally uses her maiden name from birth until her first marriage. It is customary for a woman to cease using her maiden name when she marries, and to adopt in its stead the surname of her husband. In a genealogy, a married woman may sometimes be identified by both her married and maiden surnames, in this fashion: Martha Custis née Lee. A widow or divorcée who enters into a second marriage may be named in this manner: Martha Washington née Lee. The French participle née literally means ‘born’ and corresponds to nata in Latin. It has long been customary for English speakers and writers to employ the French participle, because the rules of chivalry once required all Europeans to use French as a common standard for courtesy titles, and the like. However, the genealogist might sometimes wish to note both married names in the same expression, and this can be accomplished by reverting to a couple of Latin prepositions, in this way: Martha Washington antea Custis née Lee, or Martha Custis postea Washington née Lee. In modern times, divorces have become commonplace, so some divorcées have fully abrogated their married name, preferring to re-adopt their maiden name. Banks and creditors typically ask a customer to state his mother’s maiden name, so that it might be used as a password or code for secure identification in the future.

maiden name retained : [1776- TIME \@ "yyyy" 2004, Iroquois] a matrilineal surname used by an Iroquois family, which the mother retains, and which her children adopt. The Iroquois men traditionally practiced visitational polygyny, and were often reared by their eldest maternal uncle acting as pater, so their genitor’s surname, or their father’s surname, was often forgotten and abandoned.[9]

maiden name retained : [1850-1950, IrAm, DuAm] a natal surname continually retained and used by a woman, irrespective of her marital status. Irish-Americans and Dutch-Americans once recognized their women by their own, natal surnames, and therefore the records of such females might cause confusion. Monumental inscriptions and newsprint obituaries sometimes give the natal surnames of Irish and Dutch women exclusively, with no mention of their married names. These naming practices flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in America.[10]

mail : maille : [Fr] light armor; a coat fabricated with a network of steel, worn for defense against injury; a postman’s bundle.

Maitre d’Hôtel : Master of the Hotel, the Chief Steward of a restaurant. Cf. steward.

majesty : majestas : dignity, power, sovereignty; grandeur, greatness in appearance.

major : an officer ranking above a captain; the lowest rank among field officers; the first proposition in a syllogism.

Major Arcana : trumps; the 22 initial cards of a Tarot deck that match the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The trumps in Tarot happen to precede the 56 cards that incorporate our modern deck of 52 playing cards, so they are distinct from the common cards. Opp. Minor Arcana.

majordomo : majeur dome : [Fr] seneschal, one who occasionally holds the place of the master of the house.

malakos : [Gk] general moral laxity;[13] soft; cowardly, delicate, gentle, debauched; licentious, loose, wanting in self-control. This word has often been translated as ‘effeminacy,’ as a reference to homosexuality, but many have challenged this translation, because Greek writers usually used other words, such as thelydrios and androgynos.[14] Christians prefer to regard this word as a Pauline reference to homosexuality, but contemporaries of Saint Paul often used it in references to heterosexual activity. Thus, the word malakos does not specifically connote homosexuality. The Greeks never used the word malakos to designate homosexuals as a group. Roman and Reformation homophobes frequently tried to associate the word with ‘masturbation,’ but did so without citing any textual precedents.[15] Philo was a Hellenized Jew nearly contemporary with Saint Paul, and he never used malakos as a reference to homosexuals: he used instead the words drontes and paschontes, and paiderostai and paidika.[16]

Malayan : the kinship system of Malaya, having Singapore as its focal point. Migrating Chinese exported their kinship concepts to Indochina and the South Seas. Cf. Chinese kinship.

male : the he of any spieces; the sex that begets young; belonging to what is not female; budget. The word male transmuted into mail, a bundle of letters representing a budget or set of debts and settlements.

male-bonded society : a society in which males remain in their natal groups and grow up together, whereas females migrate to outside groups during adolescence. Humans and chimpanzees create male-bonded societies wherein youngsters and adults rely upon older adult males.

malignant fever: fever with hemolysis; malaria with hemorragic skin rash; meningococcal infection; typhoid, putrid malignant fever.[17]

malt : [1200] grain steeped in water, for germination and softening, and then used for brewing and distilling ale.

malt house : [1548] malte housse; the place where grain is made into malt. Cf. wages of helper in malt house.

mam : ma’am : madam, a polite form of address to a woman, suitable even for addressing a queen.

mam : mamma : [We] a term expressing fondness for one’s mother, said to be the first natural utterance of a baby.

Mamboru of Sumba : The Mamboru of northwest Sumba, Indonesia, have a preferred marriage of lineal exogamy between genealogical cross cousins. The male selects a mate from his matrilateral cross cousins, whereas the female selects her mate from her patrilateral cross cousins.[19]

mammillary : mammillaris : belonging to the paps or dugs; denoting two protruberances resembling nipples.

man : Cf. Australopithecus, Cro-Magnon man, Fontéchevade man, Hominidae, Homo erectus, Homo sapiens, Kennewick man, Kenyapithecus, Omo man, Neanderthal man, Pithecanthropus, Ramapithecus, Steinheim man, Swanscombe man, Vertesszöllös man.

management : menagement : [Fr] administration, conduct, prudence; practice, transcaction, dealing.

manciple : manceps : purveyor; steward of the community; purveyor of a college.

mandamus : we command; a writ granted in the king’s name by the Court of the King’s Bench, named after the customary initial word.

manhood : virility, human nature; not womenhood; not childhood; courage, resolution.

Manicheanism : the philosophy based on eastern dualism, which disapproved of procreation, because procreation was believed to entrap souls in evil matter. The Manicheans believed in transcending the material world, and uniting with the heavenly world of good spirits.[21]

Mannlinge : Ph; erastes, older suitor males attracted to effeminate young men. Cf. Urning, Weiblinge. Opp. Dioning.

man-of-war : [Eliz I] an Elizabethan ship of war, built in an exaggerated early Tudor style, or the Spanish Marian style, such as Victory I (1560). The superstructures were too opulent, and the waists were too high, making them dangerously vulnerable to capsizing in turbulent seas. Cf. ship proportions, Sir John Hawkins.

man-of-war : [middle Eliz I] a redesigned Elizabethan warship. Sir John Hawkins began to streamline the royal navy, by elongating the length, shortening the beam, and lowering the waist. Cf. Sir John Hawkins, ship proportions.

manor : mansum [Lt] : manoir [Fr] : the local rule or government of a man who holds land within his fee; the jurisdiction and royalty incorporeal. A manor was the landed estate of a feudal lord, and it usually constituted a small territory dominated by a principle house, and sometimes divided into smaller tenancies called hides. The Danes identified local manors for the purpose of taxation, and assessed taxes or the Danegeld on the basis of the number of hides a manor contained. An equivalent term today for manor might be company or corporation, some private enterprise. Cf. Danegeld, hide.

mansion : mansio : house, abode, place of residence; the lord’s house in a manor.

manslaughter : murder, destruction of a human life; the act of killing someone by participating in the fault, but without any malice of forethought; a crime punishable by forfeiture. Cf. homicide.

manthanein : [Gk] to learn, to stir the spirit of learning. The verb has been associated with Manthami in Sanksrit. Cf. manthami, Prometheus.

mantling : the representation of a mantle or drapery surrounding a coat of arms.

manumission : manumissio : the act of granting liberty to slaves. Cf. Feronia.

manus : hand, the strong arm, force, physical abuse, hand-to-hand fighting, a ground for divorce.

manuscript : manuscriptum : MS. : a book handwritten but not yet printed; any original and handwritten document or piece of music, which might well be archived or cataloged, but which might not yet be transcribed and published.

Mapuchi shaman : machi, usually a woman who apprentices her daughter or niece. The Mapuchi reside in Chile, and also have a class of male shamans who have homosexual relationships.[25]

Mara system : a variant of the eight-section system wherein four phratries stand in place of the eight sections. Cf. eight-section system.

marasmus : infantile debility, a condition wherein a child fails to absorb nutrition from its food; a consumption in which a patient wastes most of his subsistence.

March : /3/ : [ad 8] a month of 31 days; the third month of the Gregorian Calendar, and third month of the Scottish NS Julian Calendar, but the first month of the English OS Julian Calendar, with the New Year falling on 25 March. Cf. April, Marzo [Sp], February.

march : marche : [Fr] military movement; journey of soldiers; a grave and solemn walk; a signal to move.

marcha atras : [Sp] marching backwards; the Heyoka shaman’s trickster dance to mirror and reverse a human’s vision. The dance symbolizes a regression from the male form back to the female. Cf. Heyoka trickster.

marchioness : [address] The Most Honorable the Marchioness of ——; [salutation] Madam; [reference] Your Ladyship.

mare : aged horse; totem mother, the grandmother of an Amazon, compared to the mare. The totem mother nursed her grandchildren during the expeditionary absenses of her daughter.

Maréchal de Vendôme : a homosexual general.[26] This was perhaps Louis Joseph (1654-1712), Duc de Vendôme, son of Louis (1612-1669), Duc de Vendôme. He was called Duc de Penthièvre during his father’s lifetime. His victories occurred between 1693 and 1710.

mariachi : [Sp] gay; gay men, as likened to the festive musicians who dress as troubadours; men who exhibit the festive dress and mannerisms of Mariachi singers.

Marian interlude : the reign of Mary I, during which the English parish records were neglected.[28]

maricona : [Sp] weak Mary; faggot, effeminate androphile. Cf. maricoa, marimacha.

marié … à : [Fr masculine] married, married with, e.g. marié en 1866 à Guislaine Crombez.[29]

marimacha : [Sp] strong Mary, strong female; dyke, gynecophile. Cf. maricoa, maricona.

mariposa : [Sp] butterfly; a common metaphor for a male homosexual. Cf. maricon.

marita : [poetic] Wi; wife; the female correlative of maritus. The word uxor is more often used as the opposite of maritus. Cf. uxor.

maritagium diabolicum : [1465] diabolical marriage, a marriage of spouses having vastly different ages. This expression was used to characterize the marriage between the dowager Catherine Mowbray postea Strangways postea Beaumont née Neville (nata ante 1400)[31] and the young John Woodville (natus circa 1445, decollatus 1469) in January 1465, when Catherine would have been over sixty-five years of age, and John would have been some twenty years.

marital : maritus : Hu : pertaining to a husband. Cf. kin types. Opp. nuptial, uxoral.

mark : [1603] two-thirds of a pound, 13s 4d. The mark was simply an accounting unit in Elizabethan England, for there were no coins minted in that denomination.

Marquess : [1385-1386] The first creation was that of Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, who was made Marquess of Dublin in 1385. In response to the outcry of the Earls, Richard II revoked the Patent in 1386, and instead made de Vere into the Duke of Ireland.

marquess : [address] The Most Honorable the Marquess of ——; [salutation] My Lord Marquis; [reference] My Lord, Your Lordship; [royal address] Our right and trusty and entirely beloved cousin; [royal address to a Privy Councillor] Our right and trusty and entirely beloved cousin and counsellor.[33]

marquess : marquis : [Fr] one of the second order of nobility in England, next in rank to a duke.

marquess’ daughter : [formal address] The Right Honorable Lady Mary —— ; [polite address] The Lady Mary —— ; [salutation] Madam; [reference] Your Ladyship. Cf. duke’s daughter.

marquess’ eldest son : ——, Esquire, commonly called the Marquis ——, or Earl ——. Cf. duke’s eldest son.

marquess’ younger son : [address] The Right Honorable Lord John ——, the Lord John ——; [salutation] My Lord; [reference] Your Lordship. Cf. duke’s younger son.

marriage : [1102-Edw VI] clerical marriage, as forbidden by Roman and Anglican ecclesiastical law, from 1102 until the reign of Edward VI.[34]

marriage : [1123 antea] clerical marriage; the same-sex clerical marriage among ecclesiastics in Europe. Pope Leo IX was the first to prohibit same-sex marriages among the clergy, but he was disinclined to punish clerks for homosexuality. The Lateran Synod (1059) ignored all motions against clerical marriage. Clerical marriage was outlawed by the First Lateran Council (1123).[35]

marriage : [1200] the homosexual union of two men, a form of marriage which has lately been legalized again in many parts of Europe, after having been prohibited by Christians since the early thirteenth century. Cf. same-sex marriage.

marriage : [1990 Am] maritagium [Lt]; mariage [Fr]; Hu & Wi, Ph & Er, An & He; coniugium, matrimonium, nuptiæ, conubium, confarreatio, a state of perpetual union of spouses; the act of uniting a man and woman; the act of uniting two spouses of the same sex. In medieval times, 1 in 6 persons never married, and this ratio sometimes increased to 1 in 4 persons during hard economic times. In the United States in the 1990s, more than 50% of all marriages ended in divorce or annulment. A certain number of heterosexual couples have fertility problems, and therefore produce no natal children, whereas about 8% of heterosexual couples remain childless by choice. Cf. bema marriage, biblical marriage, Christian marriage, cross cousin marriage, Danish marriage, heavenly love, institutionalized marriage, morganatic marriage, coëmptio marriage, levirate marriage, oblique marriage, preferential marriage, prescribed marriage, remarriage, same-sex marriage, sororate marriage, uxor more Danico, widow inheritance.

marriage : [ad 30] apostolic marriage; the same-sex marriage of Jesus the Christ and John the Beloved Disciple.[36]

marriage : [Ce] the Celtic forms of marriage, which included (1) temporary marriage, (2) marriage between a husband and wife, (3) marriage between one husband and many wives, (4) marriage between one wife and many husbands. Celtic custom further demanded that the woman would head the family, if her family happened to have greater wealth than that of her husband.[37]

marriage : [Gk] Hu & Wi; the patriarchal marriage of Athens, which was supposedly introduced by Cecrops, founder of the Acropolis, shortly before the Deucalian deluge.[38] Prior to Cecrops, the Athenians purportedly cohabited with their own sexes, and lived as promiscuously as the Spartans.[39]

marriage : alliance; a pairing that serves as an axis for an alliance between two families; an incident of alliance. Cf. alliance theory.

marriage : exchange of spouses and gifts; a union of spouses that often occasions prestations, or property transfers.

marriage : exchange, alliance. Most societies impose cultural restrictions on the ego, limiting the ego’s choice of a spouse to a certain group of individuals, or encouraging the ego to select a spouse from some outside group or moiety.[40]

marriage : the union of two women acting as pater and mater. Some societies permit two women to marry, but in such cases, the sex of one of the partners might be culturally redefined. In such a same-sex marriage, the lover of the male genitor or biological father will usually assume the masculine rôle of pater or social father, whereas her same-sex partner will take the female rôle of mater or social mother.[41] Cf. same-sex marriage.

marriage : visiting marriage, visitational marriage; a marriage sometimes based on duolocal residence, or matrilocal residence. The Japanese were visitational but matrilocal in ancient Japan, at least until the fourteenth century. Opp. companionate marriage.

marriage and children : Hu & Wi & Ch; conjunction made subordinate to procreation. Many societies connect marriage with children, and sometimes regard the initial period of a marriage as a trial marriage that may be confirmed only after the couple has issue.[42] American couples tend to enter marriage solely for affination, and incline to consider procreation as a bonus for the marriage. At least 8% of American couples elect to remain childless, and an extra percentage of pairs have not the fecundity to reproduce. Further, more than 50% of American marriages end in divorce, often before procreation occurs. Perhaps 1 in 6 Americans, or even as many as 1 in 4 Americans (16% to 25%), happen to remain childless, and effectively make procreation subordinate to marriage. These ratios of childless people to parents have not appreciately changed since medieval times, in Western cultures. Cf. trial marriage.

marriage and kinship : a union of spouses complicated by a significant change in status, the acquisition of new, affinal relatives, and the potential for consanguineous descents. Marriage begins as (1) a rite of passage marking one’s change of status, intended to result in (2) acts of procreation or adoption. Marriage may lead to (3) a number or succession of spouses, the development of (4) a stance or attitude toward affines, and (5) ritual exchanges of wealth between families.[43]

marriage as a rite of passage : a union or conjunction of persons supported by ritual and supernatural supports, and regulated by a multitude of norms governing the behaviors of kindred and affines that result from the change in status.[44]

marriage as alliance: [1949] the Levine theory that alliance is based upon exogamy, a system of marriage that defines spouse-exchange groups and prohibits incest. Cf. exogamy.

marriage as monogamy : [496 ad] Hu & Wi; the norm of serial monogomy by which a spouse stands faithfully in marriage to one spouse, until separation, and then stands in marriage to another spouse. Serial monogamy was newly invented and introduced by the Christians, but it radically differed from the polygamous marriages of the Bible. We may date the Western institution of marriage from 496 ad, the year in which Clovis I accepted papal baptism to legitimize his marriage (493 ad). Zealots often proclaim that Christian marriage represents some unbroken tradition of 5,000 years, but have never cited any documentary evidence for their assertion, perhaps because serial monogamy was never practiced by Jews and Muslims, and no record of the Christian form of marriage has survived biblical times. Some speculate that Christians adopted serial monogamy in imitation of a Roman form of marriage.

marriage as polyandry : Wi & Hu(1) & Hu(2); the norm of becoming a bride to more than one husband at a time. Societies that have more men than women tend to permit one woman to marry two or more brothers at the same time.

marriage as polygamy : Sp & Sp & Sp; the norm of having and maintaining multiple wives or husbands at the same time; the marital norm of the Bible and Qur’ân, which was outlawed so strongly and vehemently by Christians and Anglo-Americans that it has been considered unnatural. Cf. polyandry, polygyny.

marriage as polygyny : [1000 bc] Hu & Wi(1) & Wi(2); the norm of having and maintaining multiple wives. When we examine all of the isolated cultures of the world, we find a majority of ethnic cultures happen to endorse polygyny over monogamy. Societies based on Christian and Western forms of marriage have outlawed polygyny, so modern citizens seldom have cause to discuss it or consider it as a legitimate form of marriage. It was nonetheless the normative marriage of the Bible and Qur’ân, and it still occurs among many indigenous people in Africa, India, and Asia.

marriage bond : a monetary pledge or guarantee attesting that a certain marriage being contemplated or planned will have no impediments, and promising that no one will have cause to voice any objection to the match. Normally a parent, brother, or friend of the groom or bride would stand as surety for such a bond, and the filing of the marriage bond would occasion the issuance of a marriage license. The bond was a documentary equivalent for the banns of marriage, and the amount of the bond was often stipulated by state law.

marriage bond : the complex relationship between two spouses, which creates affinal ties between lineages, and consanguineal links with descendants. Cf. link.

marriage criteria in Europe : European societies have small circles of kin and affines, and sustain prohibitions against incest, as negative marriage rules. The ego is often barred from marrying close cousins, but may sometimes marry distant cousins. Europeans have no highly evolved alliance and descent systems, and tend to prefer simple marriages, based upon such superficial criteria as opportunity, companionship, romance, wealth, and power.[45]

marriage license : a document issued by some authority that permits a named couple to marry. Originally, it became fashionable for kings to request such licenses from the pope, and for nobles to request them from the archbishop of their diocese. The license thus became an ecclesiastical instrument and a mark of social prominence. A license issued by the diocese was entirely sufficient, but prior to the Act of Supremacy, English couples would sometimes request a supplementary confirmation from the Vatican. As a license was issued by a high-ranking church official, it eliminated the need for the public banns of marriage, and therefore constituted another notable difference between the aristocracy and the commonry. As people increasingly moved into cities, the banns of marriage became something of a nuisance, so all ranks of society began to request marriage licenses. Civil marriages were disallowed and unthinkable until the Commonwealth, and it was only through social upheaval and revolution that the Americans and the French obtained the right to marry by civil ceremony. Thus, the marriage license gradually came into existence as a civil instrument, and became uniformly acceptable in England, America, and France by the 1840s. Cf. marriage bond.

marriage out of unity : a marriage not authorized by a Meeting of Friends; an outgoing marriage; marriage without meeting; marriage by a priest. This expression and its equivalents were used by Quakers, who had no ministers or priests.

marriage patterns : non-prescriptive patterns for marriage that do not conform to the prescriptive patterns society expects. Cf. terminological patterns.

marriage patterns : prescriptive patterns for marriage that tend to be embodied in kinship terminology. Prescriptions are taken for granted, because the kin category that a male ego is expected to marry has been predefined for him as a kin term. Prescription is thus part of language, so it differs from an explicitly states marriage rule. Cf. terminological patterns.

marriage preferences : elective choices made by the ego when he selects a spouse.

marriage record : a register entry showing the date on which two named spouses were married. Such a record sometimes names the officiant and witnesses.

marriage regulations : prescriptive marriage regulations. Prescriptive rules are typical of Anglo-American marriages. Opp. restrictive marriage regulations.

marriage regulations : restrictive marriage regulations, based on sib exogamy and generation, wherein the partners have freedom of choice. Restrictive marriage rules are typical of Chinese marriage. Opp. prescriptive marriage regulations.

marriage rules : negative marriage rules that forbid the ego from marrying certain kin types. Such negative rules are sometimes congruent with incest prohibitions, but sometimes are different.

marriage rules : positive marriage rules; the tendancy to prefer and promote marriages likely to confer wealth, status, or power on the spouse and his kin group. A person wishing to marry will often consider personality and opportunity as important factors for choosing a spouse, but his kin group will normally focus upon factors that are likely to enhance the collective fortunes of the group. Some societies have formalized positive marriage rules, but most societies have not. Marriage rules most frequently appear as incest prohibitions and negative marriage rules. Anglo-Americans clearly prefer wealth and status, and fictional literature often focuses on these factors in narratives concerning marriage, but the Book of Common Prayer and other authorities tend to ignore positive rules altogether, preferring to emphasize only the negative rules. In a society with formalized positive marriage rules, the ego will normally have a kin term for his prospective spouse, or her kin group.

marriage rules : positive or negative principles that govern the selection of a spouse for marriage. These are rules explicitly stated by some social authority, so they are different from prescription.

marry : marito [Lt] : marier [Fr] : to join a man and woman, join spouses; to take for husband or wife; to enter into a conjugal state. Modern English speakers tend to use the verb marry without sexism, but a cautious writer or translator ought to remember that the verb is cognate with maritus ‘husband.’ Latin speakers used sexist verbs and expressions to separately describe the nuptials or the bridal submission of a woman, in contradistinction to the marriage or matrimony of a man. Cf. duxit, duxo, nubo, nupsit.

marry out of unity : to marry a non-Quaker, to marry outside the Quaker community; a ground for disowning a fellow Quaker.

Mars : the fifth of seven plants, which returns to the same position every 2 years. Cf. Harmonia.

marshal : mareschal : [Fr] commander-in-chief of military forces; master of the horse, a household officer; the chief officer of arms; someone who regulates the rank or order at a feast or similar assembly.

martial : martialis : fighting, given to war, warlike, brave; not civil, belonging to war.

martial artists female : [Celtic] Buannan the Lasting One, Scáthach the Shadowy One.

martial arts : harpooning, pole vaulting, underwater fighting. Cf. gáe bolg, Scáthach.

masculinism : the male correlative of feminism. Masculinism is the attempt to organize society by patristic rules based upon agism and sexism, or the imposition of patriarchal conventions upon wives, concubines, slaves, and servants. Masculinists pretend to patrism, rise to patriarchy, and venerate ancestors for the purpose of building and perpetuating a unilineal mythology. Masculinism is the male institution of vertical order, by order of age, sex, and domination, which naturally results in the practice of ancestor veneration. Cf. patrism, patriarchy.

mask : masque : [Fr] visor, a cover used to disguise the fact; pretense, subterfuge; revelry, mummery.

masochism : [1870] the propensity of finding sexual satisfaction through degradation, humiliation, and painful stimuli. The word originated in the surname Masoch, due to the description of the character Severin in Venus in Furs (1870) by L. von Sacher-Masoch.[47]

mason : maçon : [Fr] a builder of stone edifices; a member of the society named the Free and Accepted Masons.

Masorah : [Hb] masorah, a commentary on the Bible written by several learned rabbis.

masquerade : mascherata : [It] mummery, a division in which the participants are masked.

mass : missa : the dismissal or sending away of devotees either before or after communion; the eucharist service of the Roman church.

mass murder : a sudden and beserk homicidal rage provoked by one’s dismisal from a job, unrequited love, or other motives. Cf. serial killing, spree killing.

mass suicide : a group or collective suicide. A community of Jews committed mass suicide at the citadel of Masada while beseiged by a Roman legion in ad 70.

mast : a ship’s mast, usually composed of three conjoined segments, namely the lower mast, topmast, and topgallant. Cf. ship.

mastectomy by irons : the Amazon custom of the burning of the right lacteal gland on all girls through the application of hot irons, by 8 years of age.[48]

master : a courtesy title applied to a young gentleman, especially a boy under the age of puberty, or under 14 years. We have an example that Henry le Strange was called ‘master Henry’ when he must have been some 12 years of age in 1537.

master : magister : lord, ruler, someone who has servants; owner, proprietor, director, chief, head; a compellation or respect now applied to an inferior; a courtesy title for a young gentleman; a degree of dignity at a university, as in Master of Arts.

master and mistress worship : the ritual adoration of effigies of the master and mistress, as practiced by the servants and slaves of a Roman household. Cf. cult.

mastivi : big dogs. When kept near forests, large dogs were subject to crippling by expeditatio. Cf. expeditatio.

masturbation : [1621] an erotic stimulation of the genital organs, exclusive of sexual intercourse, that normally results in orgasm. Masturbation is nowhere mentioned in the Bible, but the Roman church routinely condemns the practice, citing the story of Onan as its rationale.

mate : to consort with a spouse while prevented to marry, or after purposely electing not to marry. Cf. consort, marry, mate, partner.

mater : [anthropology] the mother as socially defined, rather than the natal or biological mother. Cf. pater. Opp. genetrix.

Mater Dolorosa : Mother of Sorrows, the immortal mother of a mortal son. We normally know the Mater Dolorosa by her son’s name. The men who stand as examples of generation by immortal mothers include Tammus, Attis, Adonis, Dionysus, Iasion, Ruadan, and Christ. Cf. Anaitis of Ninevah, resins.

Mater Matula : Mater Matuta : a Roman godess who had a feast celebrated by Etruscans.

maternal : maternus : Mo : motherly, befitting or pertaining to a mother. Cf. kin types. Opp. paternal.

maternal endowment : the biological investment a mother makes in childbirth. A child’s genetic endowment might represent a fairly equal balance between paternal and maternal traits, but a mother provides her infant with most of its nourishment and rearing. The mother directly provides the fetus with the stuff of life, or the mitochondrial sustinence needed to promote cellular development, so her contribution of bodily energies to her infant’s life is far greater than the father’s initial contribution. Because the mitochondria tend to pass unchanged from mother to child, the child’s body forms directly from the mother’s cells. Thus, maternal and direct hereditary traits tend to easily pass into the first generation, whereas paternal traits tend to exhibit themselves recessively, in the second generation, rather than the first. Cf. paternal traits, recessive gene.

matertera magna : MoMoSi; soror aviæ, maternal grandaunt, grandmother’s sister.

matertera maxima : MoMoSi; abmatertera, maternal grandaunt; maternal great-great-grandaunt, Schwester der Ururgroßmutter oder Urgroßmuter.

materteral : [1803] MoSi; characteristic of a maternal aunt. Cf. amital, patruel. Opp. avuncular.

mateship : a permanent love affair.[49] Cf. erogamy, marriage, same-sex marriage.

matins with lauds : dawn, the first canonical hour; the first of seven daily services of Christian prayer. Cf. canonical hours.

matriarchies : Cf. Celts, Etruscans, Lycia, Nubians, Nue-kun, Sumatran matriarchy, Carthaginians, Egyptians, Scythians, Teutons and the Volsci under Camilla.

matriarchy : [obsolete] a unilineal descent group organized by rules of matriliny, matrilaterality, and matrilocality. Although matriarchy is widely held to be the female correlative to patriarchy, it remains nonetheless theoretical, because anthropologists have never discovered any human society on earth that is strictly matriarchal. Even societies that are styled matriarchal, in which matrilineage or uxorilocal residence happen to predominate, usually have important male agents who are central to kinship and rearing, probably because males are keenly interested in agism, sexism, and lineage for purposes of succession. In a real matriliny, it is typically the mother’s brother who assumes the fatherly rôle, and maintains the avunculocal residence, where he rears his sororal nephews as if they were his sons. Writers often use matriarchy incorrectly as an inclusive misnomer, or an umbrella term that covers matriliny and other female features of a system. However, anthropologists and linguists tend to avoid the word matriarchy altogether, and carefully specify the male agencies that support the matriliny, and thereby dilute female authority. It is certainly conceivable that matriarchy might have once been practiced in fairly pure forms, especially among the Amazons. We often find traces of matriarchal order in kinship terminologies. Latin kin terms divide the relatives into paternal and maternal orders, and their use seems to reflect the matriarchal heritage of the Etruscans. Chinese kinship terms likewise show traces of matriarchal organizations, which probably disappeared before 221 bc. A writer should be careful to distinguish descent from authority, and to conservatively place patriarchy in opposition to matriliny. The suffix -archy should not be used unless the system actually confers authority and right. Feminists might incline to employ the word matriarchy as a political device, to promulgate the notion that females and amazons should appropriate to themselves the same social rights and prerogatives claimed by patriarchy. However, it may well be argued that a wholesale transfer of authority from males to females would require females to violate or abandon their own inclusive principles of generational organization. Patriarchy tends to emphasize agism, sexism, and hierarchy as means of social control, but matriliny stresses functional departments among contemporaries living in the same generations. Whereas patriarchy depends upon a fiction of vertical orders, among both the dead and the living, matriliny happens to distribute responsibilities and powers among living relatives of any age, sex, or station. Thus, it is somewhat reckless to maintain an absolute polarity between the concepts patriarchy and matriarchy. Cf. antianeirai, emetchi, oblique marriage, matrism, nature and nurture. Opp. arts and sciences, patrism, patriarchy.

matrice : matrix : womb, the cavity wherein a fetus forms; mold, a device which gives form to something enclosed.

matriclan : a residence group of females, which includes their unmarried male children, as well as any husbands and children who have joined the clan through the custom of uxorilocal residence. Cf. clan. Opp. patriclan.

matriculate : matricula : to enter or admit to the membership of a university; to enlist.

matrifiliation : a child’s identification with its mother’s family. Opp. patrifiliation.

matrifocal family : a household wherein adult males may leave home for prolonged periods to hunt, fight, or labor for any purpose. The absence of the husband creates a matrifocal family by default, but does not necessarily imply any permanent abandonment. Thus, the matrifocal family qualifies as a temporary form of an elementary family, or nuclear family, whereas a matrifocal household may be based upon the permanent absence of the husband.

matrifocal household : a single-mother family with no permanent husband. This kinship system typically arises through poverty, separation, or divorce. Cf. one-parent household, patrifocal household.

matrikin : uterine kin, matrilineal kin; a class of cognates; the descending members of a matriliny. Primitives believed that matrikin contributed human flesh and blood. Opp. agnates, bone, patrikin.

matrilateral cross cousin marriage : the archaic Chinese practice of marriage wherein clan A takes wives from clan B, which takes wives from clan C, which takes wives from clan D, which takes wives from clan A. Thus, five generations are needed to complete the cycle of exchange.[52] Levi-Stauss explained that matrilateral cross cousin marriage is more prevalent than patrilateral cross cousin marriage, because it promotes greater social solidarity. The donor affines and donee affines, or the wife-givers and wife-takers, always stand in the same relationship to one another in matrilateral cross cousin marriage, and therefore the rôles become regular and stable. Patrilateral cross cousin marriage requires each generation to change its rôle from donor, to donee, to donor again, so that form does not have the same stability, and therefore tends to be rarer than the matrilateral form.[53]

matrilateral relatives : mr[54] : maternal relatives, matrilateral kin, cognates connected to the ego through his mother.

matrilineal : opposite of patrilineal; organized around a line of females and their brothers. The Huron and Hopi tribes are matrilineal.

matrilineal descent : Mo >Ch; uterine descent, a system that associates the ego or proband exclusively with relatives connected through a female ancestresses. Cf. uterine descent. Opp. agnation, agnatic descent, patrilineal descent.

matrilineal family : a man daily eats and works at his natal home with his sister and his sororal nieces and nephews, but nightly he visits his wife and his own children, who live with his wife’s brother. Another type of larger matrilineal family may consist of an extended family wherein several husbands co-reside under the leadership of their wives’ mother’s brother, or some other senior affine.[56]

matrilineal family : Si & Br >SiSo; a family organized around opposite-sex sibling links, rather than a married couple. Thus, an opposite-sex married couple will likely conjoin two matrilineal families, namely the husband and his sister with his sororal nephew as heir (Si & Br >SiSo), and the wife and her brother with her son as heir (Si & Br >SiSo).[57] Cf. matriarchy.

matriliny : a limitation of kinship based on descent through women, whereby women remain in the natal group, whereas males migrate. Opp. patriliny.

matrilocal residence : a marriage wherein the couple resides with or near the mother; a norm that requires the groom to leave his parents’ home to live with his bride either in or near her parents’ home. This phrase gave rise to the broader concept of uxorilocal marriage, or residence with the mother’s lineage. Cf. neolocal, residence, uxorilocal marriage. Opp. patrilocal, virilocal.

matrimonium : matrimony, marriage, property acquired through marriage and matrilineal inheritance. Cf. sibi in matrimonium petere, habere in matrimonio, patrimonium, alimony, palimony, testimony, ceremony.

matrimony : matrimonium : marriage, nuptials, the nuptial state; the contract of a man and wife.

matripatrilocal residence : a marital pattern of residence in which the couple initially lives with the bride’s family in matrilocal residence, and then moves to the groom’s family for permanent patrilocal residence. Cf. bride service, bride wealth, residence.

matrism : a social behavior characterized by permissiveness, pro-sexual orientation, and esteem for women.[58] Matrism results in the horizontal organization of society by generation and sibship, and therefore the institution stands in contrast to the agism and sexism used in patrism. Cf. kinship dimensions. Opp. patrism.

matrix : matrice : [Fr] womb, a place wherein anything is generated or formed. The word matrix was later replaced by vulva. Cf. uterus, vulva.

matron : matrona : wife; married woman; an elderly lady, an old woman; a nurse in a hospital.

Mattachine Society : [1948] a gay male organization formed by Henry Hay in 1948. It evolved into an advocacy for the legal rights of male homosexuals.

matter : materia : [1300 Lt] substance that has mass and volume; substance that composes a physical object; physical material that constitutes the observable universal. Energy and matter together form the basis for all objective phenomena in the universe. We presently think of matter as consisting of basically of atoms, divisible into three particles, and subdivisible into quarks. The subatomic levels of matter are further polarized into particles of negative matter and positive antimatter, the combination of which annihilates the matter and generates energy. Cf. antimatter.

maukin : malkin : dishclout; a drag used to sweep ovens; a course and dirty wench who sweeps ovens.

Maundy Thursday : the Thursday before Good Friday; the day that commemorates Jesus the Christ pronouncing his great mandate that we should love one another.

mausoleum : a grand funeral monument; originally the monument erected for Mansolus, King of Caria. Cf. Lycia.

Mawulisa : [Yoruba] the hermaphrodite god of the sun and moon, the parent of Eshu or Afrikete.[59]

maximal lineage : the larger lineage of unilineal and collateral kinsmen who sometimes assemble into a large group for warfare.[60] Cf. lineages and segments. Opp. minimal lineage.

May: /5/ : [ad 8] a month of 31 days; the fifth month of the Gregorian Calendar, and fifth month of the Scottish NS Julian Calendar, but the third month of the English OS Julian Calendar. Cf. April, Mayo [Sp], June.

Mayday : 1 May, a spring celebration of ancient origin, marked by the erection of a maypole, and the dancing of children. The Soviet Union promoted the holiday as International Worker’s Day, so it is widely celebrated throughout the world in countries with communist histories. Cf. Green Man.

Mayflower Compact : [1620] the common agreement, signed by 41 Pilgrims in the cabin of the ship Mayflower on 21 November 1620, that served as a foundation for governance in their settlement. Many regard this document to be the first written constitution in America. The Pilgrims were the ancestors of a lineage society called the Mayflower Descendants.

Mayor : [formal address] The right Worshipful the Mayor of ——; [epistolary address] The Mayor.

mayor : major [Lt] : maieur [Fr] : the chief magistrate of a corporation, such as the Lord Mayor of London, or Lord Mayor of York.

maypole : a tall, painted and decorated pole, erected in some public yard to celebrate Mayday. A maypole is typically equipped with a number of long, pendant ribbons, which boys and girls hold when they perform circular dances around the pole.

mazer : a drinking bowl made of wood, often surrounded by an engraved silver band.

[1] According to Duald Mac Firbis, bard of the O’Briens. Roderick O’Flaherty, Ogygia. Graves 1948, edition 1966: 116-117.

[2] Visitation of Dorset.

[3] Kang-Hu, 1915.

[4] Arensberg 1968: 80.

[5] Arensberg 1968: 80.

[6] Grahn 1990: 323.

[7] Grahn 1990: 127.

[8] Grahn 1990: 126.

[9] Ptak 1995, edition 1997: 12.

[10] Ptak 1995, edition 1997: 11.

[11] Gurney, 562.15.

[12] HL: 298.

[13] Boswell 1980: 339.

[14] Boswell 1980: 339.

[15] 1 Corinthians, 6.9. 1 Timothy, 1.10. Boswell 1980: 106-107.

[16] Boswell 1980: 341.

[17] Gormley 1989: 105.

[18] Plucknett 1956: 444.

[19] Needham 1987. Parkin 1997: 179.

[20] Evans. Grahn 1990: 119.

[21] Boswell 1980: 285.

[22] Grahn 1990: 70.

[23] Ulrich. Eglinton 1964: 484.

[24] HL: 218.

[25] Grahn 1990: 119.

[26] Boswell 1980: 25.

[27] Eglinton 1964: 131.

[28] Oestmann 1994: 242.

[29] LIMO.

[30] Dave B. Strong.

[31] MORL 13.111121111211J.

[32] HL: 369-370.

[33] Debrett’s, 1990: 60.

[34] SONS, sub William le Strange (circa 1154). HL: 88-89.

[35] Boswell 1980: 216.

[36] Aelred. Boswell 1980: 225.

[37] Grahn 1990: 137.

[38] Diner 1965: 146.

[39] Justin. Klearch. Charax. John of Antioch. Diner 1965: 146.

[40] Parkin 1997: 39.

[41] Parkin 1997: 40.

[42] Schusky 1972: 63.

[43] Schusky 1972: 63-64.

[44] Schusky 1972: 63.

[45] Parkin 1997: 123.

[46] Evans. Grahn 1990: 118.

[47] Eglinton 1964: 485.

[48] Diner 1965: 127.

[49] Ford and Beach. Eglinton 1964: 485.

[50] Boswell 1988: 217.

[51] Ennius. Diner 1965: 68.

[52] Lévi-Strauss 1967: 357.

[53] Schusky 1972: 68.

[54] Parkin 1997: 35.

[55] Parkin 1997: 35.

[56] Parkin 1997: 31.

[57] Parkin 1997: 23.

[58] G. Rattray Taylor. Eglinton 1964: 485.

[59] Grahn 1990: 125.

[60] Schusky 1972: 71.

[61] Gurney, 562.15.

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