In addition to male-female marriages, some societies recognize same-sex marriages. Although they are far from common in any known society, same-sex marriages may be socially approved unions and entail reciprocal rights and obligations similar to those between heterosexual women and men. In some cultures, a biological female or male is expected to take on the opposite gender role and become the wife or husband in the union. Cheyenne Indians allowed a married man to take as a second wife a biological man who belonged to the third-gender “two-spirits.”
It is not clear that Cheyenne male-male marriages involved homosexual relationships, but temporary homosexual marriages are known to have occurred among the Azande of Africa. Before the British took control over what is now Sudan, Azande warriors who could not afford wives often married “boy-wives.” The boy-wives had sexual relations with their husbands and also performed many of the chores traditionally delegated to female wives. As in normal marriages, gifts (although less substantial) were given by the “husband” to the parents of his boy-wife. The husband performed services for the boy’s parents and could sue any other lover of the boy in court for adultery.9
Female-female marriages are reported to have occurred in many African societies, but there is no evidence of sexual relationships between the partners. It seems, rather, that female-female marriages were a socially approved way for a woman to take on the legal and social roles of father and husband.10 Such marriages have existed, for example, among the Nandi, a pastoral and agricultural society of Kenya, as a way to resolve the failure to produce a male heir to property through a regular marriage. A woman, even if her husband is still alive, will become “husband” to a younger female and “father” the younger woman’s future children. The female husband provides the marriage payments required for obtaining a wife, renounces female work, and takes on the obligations of husband. No sexual relations are permitted between the female husband and the new wife (or between the female husband and her own husband). Rather, the female husband arranges for her new wife to have a male consort in order to have children and subsequently becomes the socially designated father. If asked who their father is, children of such a marriage will name the female husband.11