science

Human–animal marriage

Human–animal marriage is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Human–animal marriage rather than just read about it. In short: Human–animal marriage is a marriage between a human and a non-human animal. This topic has appeared in mythology and magical fiction.

Key takeaways

Human–animal marriage belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Human–animal marriage to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Human–animal marriage from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Human–animal marriage is a marriage between a human and a non-human animal. This topic has appeared in mythology and magical fiction. In the 21st century, there have been numerous reports from around the world of humans marrying their pets and other animals. Human–animal marriage is often seen in accordance with zoophilia, although they are not necessarily linked. Although animal-human marriage is not mentioned specifically in national laws, the act of engaging in sexual acts with an animal is illegal in many countries under animal abuse laws.

Folklore The practice of animal-human marriage has made appearances in folklore and several mythological stories where it is often understood to mean a deity-human marriage involving gods or heroes. Many tribes of the Native Americans in the United States trace the origin of humanity to marriages between other animals and humans. The indigenous Cheyenne have a story of animal-human marriage in "The Girl who Married a Dog". In other Native American myths, animal spirits frequently assume human form. In many cases they are not seen as literal animals, but representatives from the animal kingdom. The Chinese folktale "The Goddess of the Silkworm" is an example of a tale where a woman marries a horse. A similar Irish legend tells of a king who marries a horse, symbolizing a divine union between the king and the goddess of the land. The most famous animal-as-bridegroom story that has survived in modern times is Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve. According to Bernard Sergent, "human–animal marriage is a union that is too remote as incest is a too close one. Compared to a balanced marriage, between humans but from another clan or another village, that is to say–depending on the society–within the framework of a well measured endogamy or exogamy, incest transgresses the norm because it is an exaggerated endogamy, and animal marriage transgresses it because it is an exaggerated exogamy."

Cases In many, if not most, jurisdictions, there is no legal precedent for marrying another animal, however; several individuals claim to have done so. In 1992, an American man named Mark Matthews married his horse. He wrote a memoir describing the concealment of his zoophilia from his Methodist family. In 2005, an American man ordained with the Universal Life Church married humans and their pets. A British woman who married her dog created the website MarryYourPet.com, after she became ordained to marry humans with their pets, and has performed about 100 ceremonies. In 2005, another British woman reportedly married a dolphin. The Sudanese goat marriage incident made headlines in 2006, when a man was forced to marry a goat after being caught in a sexual interaction with it. Other reports of marriage include animals such as dogs, cats, frogs, and a dolphin. Other incidents of human animal relations took place in 2010, when 18-year-old Balinese man Ngurah Alit was found having sexual intercourse with a cow, who he claimed flirted with him. As part of a Pecaruan ritual, the man was forced to marry the animal. The ceremony was thought to cleanse the village of the immoral act of bestiality. The cow was drowned in the ocean, while Alit's clothes were symbolically submerged in the sea as well. In 2013, a Brazilian man reportedly married a goat in a Satanic church after his plan was rejected by his evangelical church. In 2014, internet hoaxer Paul Horner staged a ceremony where he married his pet dog at the Chapel of Our Lady at the Presidio in San Francisco. Many news outlets reported the incident as reality.

See also Pet humanization Choupette Human bonding Human-animal hybrid Selkie Speciesism Anthrozoology Zoophilia Vase de Noces

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Human–animal marriage

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Human–animal marriage claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Human–animal marriage before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Human–animal marriage ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Human–animal marriage

In research: Human–animal marriage appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Human–animal marriage in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Human–animal marriage is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Animal ethics, Animal law, Human–animal interaction, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Human–animal marriage outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Human–animal marriage in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Human–animal marriage means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Human–animal marriage out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Human–animal marriage in simple terms?

Human–animal marriage is a marriage between a human and a non-human animal. This topic has appeared in mythology and magical fiction.

Why does Human–animal marriage matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Human–animal marriage?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Human–animal marriage.