Kosmologische Zoogamie

Zur Ehe zwischen Menschen und Tieren

Abstract

While formal marriage between human beings and animals is virtually non-existent as an everyday occurrence in any society, such marriages are extremely widespread in narratives. A concept of marriage as a means to integrate asymmetric differences into virtual wholes allows such stories to be interpreted as explorations of the relations between humans and
non-humans. This is demonstrated in three different sections: first, as mutually exclusive relations between human and non-human socialities in tales of shape-shifters, in particular the swan maiden; secondly, as relations across a socio-ontological hierarchy within society in dog ancestor myths; and thirdly as dangerous erotic relations between hunter and prey in stories of unusual, but real events told by hunters. In all these cases, the necessity to explore the relations between humans and animals with regard to their potentials for kinship contrasts with the impossibility of building lasting relations with actual animals into social structure.