Talk:Kerista

What does "bro" mean?

The term "bro" is linked to a disambiguation page for the term, and none of the links there seem to fit in this context. Does anyone know what it's supposed to mean here?

'Bro Jud' was John Presmont's Keristan name. All Kerista members received theatrical names at the time they joined, usually from a ouija-like 'alphabet board'. The Keristan names were usually two words, the main word usually three letters. Bro is of course short for brother. I believe Jud's name originated from the old Keristan Tribe from the 60's. In the 50's in New York, John Presmont had been nicknamed 'King John', for his demeanor at bohemian gatherings & swinging parties. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 133.40.145.158 (talk) 02:12, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

let's slow it down

Objections about content should be in Talk, not the main page. Thanks.

Keristans and Group Marriage

The Keristans did practice group marriage.

• The Best Friend Identity Clusters (BFICs) meet the definition of group marriages proposed by relationship resarchers (such as Joan and Larry Constantine in their book Group Marriage; see also studies by James Ramey and by Sheldon Salsberg). Group marriages are usually defined as a group of three or more adults who agree they are married or have a commitment functionally equivalent to marriage. The BFICs were commitments functionally equivalent to marriage because they were joined with the intention of lifelong commitment and considered themselves families:
  • "LIL: Right. The family structure that we have is called polyfidelity, and as the word sounds, it's fidelity to a group of people in family units. Now, of the 15 adults who are in our community, we are not all in the same family, so we are not all sleeping together. There's one family of eight adults, another of three, another of two, and there are two individuals who are not members of any family." http://www.kerista.com/kerdocs/donahue.html
  • "BFIC - Short for 'Best Friend Identity Cluster', the formal name of a Keristan family. A BFIC (pronounced 'bee-fick') starts with a group originator and grows to a maximum of 36 adults. Each member joins the group with a current intention of lifetime involvement and a nonpreferential feeling of deep affection for all other members." http://www.kerista.com/kerdocs/glossary.html
• The word "polyfidelity", which the Keristans coined, is commonly regarded as a form of group marriage in the polyamory community. For example:
  • "Kerista advocated for a highly structured form of group marriage among sexually closed groups, and invented the term 'polyfidelity' for this arrangement." http://www.lovemore.com/history.php
  • "Polyfidelity. A form of polyamory involving a closed group marriage (or marriage-like relationship), in which all adult members are considered primary to each other. As coined by Kerista community (1971-1991), this also included the expectation that all adults of compatible sexual orientations would be sexual with each other, but today many polyfides do not expect this." http://www.aphroweb.net/polyterms.htm see also http://ncpoly.org/PolyTerms.html
• Other Wikipedia pages refer to polyfidelity as a form of group marriage.
  • "Previous to the Kerista Village experience, people would have likely called this arrangement 'complex marriage' or simply a 'group marriage'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyfidelity
  • "Polyfidelity, which involves multiple romantic relationships with sexual contact restricted to specific partners in a group (which may include all members of that group) (e.g. group marriage)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyamory
• Other published sources describe polifidelity as group marriages. For example:
  • "Nearing (1992) discussed polyfidelity (closed group marriage)." http://www.ejhs.org/volume8/cook2.htm
  • The book The 60s communes: hippies and beyond by Timothy Miller refers to polifidelity as group marriages (see page 135) http://books.google.com/books?id=wVLu4F1aOgcC&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135&dq=keristan+Group+marriage&source=bl&ots=FBb3sqjDFg&sig=-CtApf9OBG3t_2CL4ElvEP03Ni8&hl=en&ei=z7u6TMSYDI6nngf-z_nXDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&sqi=2&ved=0CDIQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=keristan%20Group%20marriage&f=false
  • The book America's Alternative Religions by Timothy Miller (see page 425) http://books.google.com/books?id=y3Mt7QlXrRwC&pg=PA425&lpg=PA425&dq=eve+furchgott+%22group+marriage%22&source=bl&ots=Q037Ac6Www&sig=4d7-8qbdTfCLUsJ4jFcBaKtsaQc&hl=en&ei=mca6TIjUDo_9ngea0uzqDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=eve%20furchgott%20%22group%20marriage%22&f=false