Now I've gotten you hooked...
One thing struck me as very curious in the Obergefell gay marriage ruling. Justice Roberts, in his dissent, argued that "every culture throughout human history" had repudiated gay marriage. He writes scornfully,
As a result, the Court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the States and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia, for the Kalahari Bushmen and the Han Chinese, the Carthaginians and the Aztecs. Just who do we think we are?
While noting, with some amusement, that he chooses the Carthaginians over, say, the Greeks, he's simply wrong on the facts here. But even more interestingly, it appears that Obergefell's lawyers were also misinformed in the same way: "...Petitioners conced[e] that they are not aware of any society that permitted same-sex marriage before 2001."
In fact, there was at least one such society. What's more, it was in North America, which means that gay marriage is a fine old American tradition. Follow me below the fold for more!
I make a hobby of collecting old narratives of exploration, from Marco Polo through to Mendes Pinto and more. It's not the world's most usual hobby, but it's normal enough that there's a whole society devoted to it. That's why it surprises me that nobody at all - either in this case or, it appears, on the Internet - has picked up on a counter-example that could have strengthened Obergefell's arguments (and who knows, could have made it a 6-3 ruling!).
The example is the Timucua Indians of southern Georgia and northern Florida. They were hit hard by European diseases and the survivors may have assimilated with the Seminole after 1700. But when members of the Narvaez expedition of 1527 overwintered with them, they were still thriving, and explorer Cabeza da Vaca has this to say about their marriage customs:
During the time I was among them I saw something very repulsive, namely, a man married to another. Such are impotent and womanish beings, who dress like women and perform the office of women, but use the bow and carry big loads. Among these Indians we saw many of them; they are more robust than the other men, taller, and can bear heavy burdens.
Let's note with amusement for a second that somehow the gay-married Timucuans were "womanish"
at the same time as being bigger and stronger than other Timucuans.
Cabeza da Vaca clearly considered them "married", albeit in a way he found "repulsive". Consequently, as I said up top, it appears that both Roberts and Obergefell's lawyers were wrong.
I'm not saying that this is the only case of a culture allowing gay marriage. It's simply the case I know of, and it's especially amusing to me because it comes from the red state of Georgia. If you know of any others, let me know in the comments!