the demy story

[Pierre Abbat]

On Sunday 19 October 2003 20:14, Jean-Joseph Cote wrote:
> The winner is:
> > demy - n. - Either of two divisions of a people, such that a member
> > of one demy can only marry a member of the other.
>
> from Pierre.  Correct guess 2, Amy 2, Elliott 1, Linda 2 = 7 points.
> Amy:  Hrm, so they're in different demygraphics?  But sounds plausible,
> heck, 2 points.
> Fran: This is sort of like the fact that my grandmother, of the turtle
> clan, could marry my grandfather, of the snipe clan, but could not marry
> another turtle clan member.  But there were also bear clan, hawk clan,
> beaver clan, wolf clan, etc. so it wasn't two divisions.  The Iroquois
> clans had two "moieties," but they didn't necessarily have to do with
> marriage...I remember reading that when someone died, the clans of the
> moiety s/he belonged to would be the "grievers" and the other moiety
> would be the "condolers" and prepare the body for burial.
> Elliott:  DEME, but I like the concept of marriage equivalence classes.
> One point.
> Linda: Dunno why neither, but 2 points.  By the way, the white-throated
> sparrows, which look a lot alike, both male and female, are divided into
> two groups--one has white stripes on the head,and the other has buff.  If
> you are white, you mate with a buff, and vice versa.  Probably prevents
> inbreeding.
> Jean-Joseph: I guess the way things generally are in the USA right now,
> an example would be "male" and "female", yes?

Yes, this is called a moiety. I picked this def for plausibility - both "demi" 
and "moitié" mean "half", so you put the two halves together and make a whole 
and climb out of it.

phma
-- 
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