Concubinage

Lore & Background

Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between two people who cannot or do not wish to enter into a full marriage, and it has been regarded as similar to but mutually exclusive from marriage across many cultures. In China, until the 20th century, the practice was formal and institutionalized, with concubines having defined rights and obligations; a concubine could be freeborn or enslaved, and her experience varied greatly depending on her master. During the Mongol conquests, both foreign royals and captured women were taken as concubines, and in Meiji Japan, concubinage served as a status symbol. In ancient Near Eastern societies, concubinage was used primarily for reproduction, as recorded in the Code of Hammurabi, where a barren wife could give her husband a slave concubine, and the resulting children were considered legitimate. This practice was widespread in the Muslim world until the mid-20th century abolition of slavery, and many rulers of the Abbasid Caliphate and Ottoman Empire were born from such relationships. Across Africa, from Egypt to South Africa, slave concubinage produced racially mixed populations, declining only with the abolition of slavery. In ancient Rome, *concubinatus* was a monogamous alternative to marriage, often chosen because of a woman's lower social status; widowed or divorced men frequently took a *concubina* (the Latin source of the English word) to avoid inheritance complications. After Christianization, Christian emperors improved concubines' status by granting them and their children property and inheritance rights usually reserved for wives. In European colonies and American slave plantations, long-term sexual relationships with local and enslaved women were common; in the Dutch East Indies, this created the mixed-race Eurasian Indo community, and in India, Anglo-Indians resulted from European men's marriages and concubinage with Indian women. The term has historically applied almost exclusively to women, though a cohabiting male could also be called a concubine. In the 21st century, some Western countries use "concubinage" as a gender-neutral legal term for cohabitation, including same-sex partnerships.

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.