holy commitment rings, batman!

[cimorene]

i keep seeing the term 'matelotage' come up in pirate stories. english and french dictionaries failed to turn anything up, but at last i googled. and what do you know? it really WAS a formalized kind of gay marriage!

Pirates are hardly part of normal society, but it is of some interest that they had a formal, and sexual, male bonding relationship called matelotage (pp.128-30). This may have originated as a simple master-servant relationship, but Burg leaves no doubt that it came to be seen as a formal and inviolable relationship which gave both parties access and possession of each other's property. Not quite "marriage," but a relationship with clear parallels. -lesbian and gay marriage through history and culture

Most pirates, however, were not very promiscuous. They formed close bonds with one of their comrades, their "messmate." These pairings were considered sacred unions, and the lovers were treated as a couple. Called "matelotage," this bonding had many of the features of mixed-sex marriage, including the inheritance of property by one partner in the event of the other's death. -a 'yaquina bay oysters' page

The 'brethren of the coast', as they were called by the French historians Dutertre and Labat, inhabited a world without women. Even despite their reported lack of personal hygiene, they seem, however, to have entered into same-sex marriages, known as matelotage. -worldsurface.com

ETA: calichan has this to add:

Aside from that, matelotage itself is the art of tying ropes into knots. ^_^ "The art of tying the knot" in other words. ^_~ I've only found pages on that in French.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jp_perroud/matelota.htm

I'm not going to translate the whole thing but... "Matelotage is the art of working with ropes. On ancient sailing vessels, the ropes represented the vital elements for the success of the voyage, the survival of the crew, the ship, and its cargo. The sailors who didn't have quarters benifited from it in rest and repose. In small moments of leisure, they passed them on the bridge. They played with the ropes that hung down from the pulleys on the ship. They thus learned to make rings, carpets, and protective covers for the ?espares? and many decorations from the cords. When a cord was worn out or broken because of wear from passing through the pulley, the sailors were quick to repair or replace it." The rest is pretty much about how to do matelotage yourself (...the ropework, not the pirate buggering). Since matelotage is the art of tying knots and les matelots are sailors... I would venture a guess that their word for sailor came from "people who tie knots." Hm. I'd have to look into that.

Comments

[ajodasso.livejournal.com]

Well, shiver me timbers.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

yeah! :p

[calicokat.livejournal.com]

I posted this in response to someone linking me to your post here, but I'll post it here too so people can find it all in one place! x-posted from twogoodmen!

Aside from that, matelotage itself is the art of tying ropes into knots. ^_^ "The art of tying the knot" in other words. ^_~ I've only found pages on that in French.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jp_perroud/matelota.htm

I'm not going to translate the whole thing but... "Matelotage is the art of working with ropes. On ancient sailing vessels, the ropes represented the vital elements for the success of the voyage, the survival of the crew, the ship, and its cargo. The sailors who didn't have quarters benifited from it in rest and repose. In small moments of leisure, they passed them on the bridge. They played with the ropes that hung down from the pulleys on the ship. They thus learned to make rings, carpets, and protective covers for the ?espares? and many decorations from the cords. When a cord was worn out or broken because of wear from passing through the pulley, the sailors were quick to repair or replace it." The rest is pretty much about how to do matelotage yourself (...the ropework, not the pirate buggering). Since matelotage is the art of tying knots and les matelots are sailors... I would venture a guess that their word for sailor came from "people who tie knots." Hm. I'd have to look into that.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

thanks! fascinating.

[fidgetgoblinfly.livejournal.com]

well then. wow. wow...

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

AVAST!

I like it. Oh yes, this has serious fic possibilities.

[ponderosa121.livejournal.com]

Wow. Fascinating. Thanks for sharing the info. ^_^

[cimness.livejournal.com]

::curtsey::

[taysays.livejournal.com]

..*wibble* That is so *sniff* CUTE! *gets a tissue*

[fuschia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the very enlightening post!!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

:)

[lilithlotr.livejournal.com]

But why is the rum gone?

[chikkiboo.livejournal.com]

I did the same research as you, and I hate to slip your knots here, but I remain rather skeptical because I haven't found any references to matelotage as gay marriage that don't lead back to one particular book, Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition by Barry R. Burg. (Its reviews don't seem to indicate that it's a very well-documented bit of research itself - apparently the author tends to take leaps of faith without backing his assertions up with proof. The "if they don't specifically say they DON'T do it, then it must mean that they DO" sort of thing.) If you've found anything that gives printed research sources or primary sources that aren't that book, please, I beg of you, inform me!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

nope, didn't.

in the 'gay marriage through the ages page,' though, which didn't reference that book that i remember, it talked about matelotage possibly being used between two women or between larger groups. and one of the things i read (same one?) indicated that rather than a romantic gay union, matelotage was probably meant to deal with the dispersal of their property after death. the similarities to marriage--certainly the binding partnership--seem to carry across those explanations.

[chikkiboo.livejournal.com]

If you mean the one that was the source of the very first quote in this entry, they reference the book right there. Notice it cites Burg and gives a page number.

[lagoonlady.livejournal.com]

Dismissing Burg out of hand is just as poor scholarship as accepting him without checking his work. The thing to do is to get a copy of the book and examine his use of sources to support the particular point that is of interest.

The one Amazon review you were refering to doesn't say that Burg assumes "if they don't specifically say they DON'T do it, then it must mean that they DO." Rather, it makes a much subtler claim about positive sources not being inconclusive in reference to some Burg's conclusions. That is certainly quite a different claim than not being well-documented. If it were not well-documented, no one could ever ascess whether his sources proved or didn't prove any given points.

Accusing Burg of making "leaps of faith" is a mischaracterization. You won't find any historical scholarship in the whole of the academic world that doesn't do some educated guessing. No work of historical scholarship is possible without it. It is only a matter of how far one is stretching, in general or for the point that interests us here. That we cannot know without consulting Burg ourselves.

Since the field of study is a particularly small one, that no other scholarly book or article has made it into popular world of the web page is not a reason to dismiss Burg, either.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

you mean studnets of the history of caribbean pirates aren't beating down the doors at university history departments?

hunh.

[lagoonlady.livejournal.com]

Well, after the film, there very well may be. I hope so!

[cimness.livejournal.com]

history i wouldn't mind reading!

[xzombiexkittenx.livejournal.com]

The rest is pretty much about how to do matelotage yourself (...the ropework, not the pirate buggering).

Bwahahahaha *keels over laughing*
Damn, I needed that. *giggles* Man oh man, I was all "hmm, interesting" and "plot potential" and so on with the serious thoughts and then I saw that and if I had been drinking, it would have been spat across the room.

[faerywing.livejournal.com]

Some of the early buccaneers of Hispaniola and Tortuga lived in a kind of homosexual union known as matelotage (from the French for 'sailor' and possibly the origin of the word 'mate' meaning companion), holding their possessions in common, with the survivor inheriting. Even after women joined the buccaneers, matelotage continued with a partner sharing his wife with his matelot. Louis Le Golif in his Memoirs of a Buccaneer complained about homosexuality on Tortuga, where he had to fight two duels to keep ardent suitors at bay. Eventually the French Governor of Tortuga imported hundreds of prostitutes, hoping thereby to wean the buccaneers away from this practice. The pirate captain Robert Culliford, had a "great consort," John Swann, who lived with him. Some men bought "pretty boys" as companions. On one pirate ship a young man who admitted a homosexual relationship was put in irons and maltreated, but this seems to have been the exception rather than the rule. It is also significant that in no pirate articles are there any rules against homosexuality.

- http://www.eco-action.org/dod/no8/pirate.html

[chelonianmobile.livejournal.com]

Oh my. In the series represented in my icon, quite a lot of pirates fill the Villain slot, and they also have what I suppose I must call legitimate sailors as good guys. They tend to refer to ALL their shipmates, and random landlubbing friends, as "messmate". I don't think that word means what the author thinks it does.

(I made that icon as a JOKE!)