At Liberty & Power, Mark Brady calls our attention to James Davidson's"Mr and Mr and Mrs and Mrs," a review of the late Alan Bray's The Friend for the London Review of Books. Davidson's review is worth your attention. If you're not familiar with the late John Boswell's pioneering work on Christianity and sexuality in early modern Europe, this is a quick summary. Bray modifies Boswell's interpretation of the rite of adelphopoiesis, or the making of brothers. This is an ancient rite of the church, practiced in both eastern and western Christianity, and which survived in the east into the 20th century. If Benedict XVI had any instinct to reconciliation for gay Christians, he would order up copies of work by Boswell and Bray, both of them devout Roman Catholics, gay activists, and brilliant historians. If Boswell had boldly claimed that the church's homosexual unions were the equivalent of marriage, Bray seems to be prepared to acknowledge to Benedict that they were a"pseudo-marriage." As it is, the existence of the ancient rite is a Roman embarrassment, not to be acknowledged.

Hiram Hover brings us up to date on the plans of a German zoo to sponsor an exhibit of African culture. The BBC, Deutsche Welle, and The Scotsman have news accounts of it. Subscribers to the private listserv, H-Afro-Am and Cliopatria's friends at the excellent anthropology blogs, Ethno::log and Savage Minds, have protested the exhibit, as well they should.

Our colleague, Chris Bray, will report for military duty in two weeks. At Historiblogography, he asks how can the United States have spent $455,000,000,000 (that's with a"b") in its military budget alone in the past year and yet he must accept a friend's second hand M-16 cleaning kit because the military budget doesn't adequately equip men and women in the field.

Ward Churchill's claims to native American ancestry now appear to be certainly false. Kevin Flynn,"Special Report: The Churchill Files; The Charge: Misrepresentation," Rocky Mountain News, 9 June, does an impressive review of DNA and documentary evidence that shows as near certainly as it is possible. Whatever Churchill and members of his family may have believed, he has no native American ancestry. Thanks to Erin O'Connor at Critical Mass for the tip.

Jim Williams - 6/9/2005

The late John Boswell was indeed a fine historian, but when his work on homoeroticism ventured out of the medieval world (his turf) into classical antiquity, he stumbled badly. By no means should his statements in Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality on attitudes towards homoerotic behavior in pagan Rome be taken as accurate.

Rob MacDougall - 6/9/2005

Surely enough braying goes on here already. Oh no, wait, I'm thinking of Front Page Mag. (Rim shot, thank you, I'll be here all week, try the veal...)

Ralph E. Luker - 6/9/2005

One of the proposals for reform in Cliopatrimania is to affix Bray to the end of everyone's name: Sharon Howard Bray, Ralph Luker Bray, etc. It is considered an egalitarian move. We'll have to decide if it means that Chris then becomes Chris Bray Bray or the first work of brays is sufficient.

Sharon Howard - 6/9/2005

I think it's "the late" Alan Bray, so there might be some difficulty with that...

Chris Bray - 6/9/2005

I just think there are way too many people named "Bray" in this post -- can the other one be compelled to change his name?