Concubinage
A historical practice of cohabitation without full marriage.
Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between two people in which the couple does not want to, or cannot, enter into a full marriage. It has existed in various forms across cultures and historical periods, often involving a woman of lower social status or a slave. The practice has been both voluntary and involuntary, and its legal and social implications have varied widely, from providing rights and obligations to concubines in some societies to functioning as a form of sexual enslavement in others.
- field
- Social and legal history
- known_for
- A formalized or informal alternative to marriage, often involving slaves or women of lower status
- prevalence
- Global, from ancient Mesopotamia to 21st-century Western legal systems
Lore & Background
Concubinage has been documented in ancient Mesopotamia, where a barren wife might give her husband a slave as a concubine for reproduction, with children considered legitimate under the Code of Hammurabi. In ancient Rome, concubinatus was a monogamous relationship serving as an alternative to marriage, often due to the woman's lower social status; widowed or divorced men used it to avoid inheritance complications. After Christianization, Roman emperors improved the status of concubines by granting property and inheritance rights.
Reader's Guide
Concubinage has been a significant institution across many societies, reflecting and reinforcing social hierarchies based on gender, class, and ethnicity. In China until the 20th century, it was a formal practice with defined rights and obligations, while in Meiji Japan it served as a status symbol. In the Muslim world, slave concubinage was widespread until the mid-20th century, and many rulers of the Abbasid Caliphate and Ottoman Empire were born from such relationships. In European colonies and American slave plantations, concubinage between European men and local or enslaved women created mixed-race populations, such as the Indo community in the Dutch East Indies and Anglo-Indians in India. The term has evolved: in the 21st century, it is used in some Western countries as a gender-neutral legal term for cohabitation, including same-sex partners. Its legacy is complex, encompassing both the exploitation of enslaved women and the creation of new cultural identities.
Did You Know?
- The English term 'concubine' derives from the Latin 'concubina', meaning 'one who lives unmarried with a married man or woman'.
- In ancient Rome, concubinatus was a monogamous relationship that served as an alternative to marriage, often because of the woman's lower social status.
- In the Muslim world, slave concubinage was practiced until the abolition of slavery in the mid-20th century.
- In the 21st century, Switzerland still uses the term 'concubinage' for a legal status of cohabitation without marriage.
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