Dear Mr Opinion.

Talking about PhDs.

I like the following definitions:

BS - Bull shyte.

MS - More of he same.

PhD - Piled higher and Deeper.

Dear Foxy,

Marriage is made in heaven and as such is very precious. It binds two souls in a very beautiful way.

Unfortunately, marriage is often counterfeited on earth for social purposes and then its worth is as any other counterfeit.

What to do? eliminate the social benefits of "marriage" thus reduce the temptation to fake it.

Dear Foxy,

Those definitions have been around ever since I can remember. But they didn't put me off from doing four degrees and they won't divert my attention away from doing another one. The people who might take most pleasure in using those terms are the ones who could never complete a degree (eg. Andrew Bolt). Those who have a degree will always tell you that they would rather have a degree than not have one.

Dear Yuyutsu,

Anthropologists have shown that marriage, across all societies and throughout the ages, is basically a contract. I think you are the one who belongs in heaven where you can fantasize to your heart's content. Can't you just picture what fun you would have jumping from cloud to cloud chasing after fairies and unicorns.

Dear Yuyutsu,

Human sexual relations, unlike those of other animals,
are not restricted to brief breeding seasons. This fact
encourages human mates to form stable, long lasting
bonds. In other species, more over, the offspring are
generally able to fend for themselves quite soon after
being born or hatched.

In contrast, the human infant is helpless and in need of
constant care and protection for several years after
birth - a far longer period of dependency than that found
in any other animal. The fact that women bear and suckle
infants restricts their activity during this period,
making them at least temporarily dependent on the
protection and economic support of males.

The result has been a universal pattern, in which men and
women establish permanent bonds that maximise the efficiency
of their child-rearing and economic activity, hence, marriage
and the family.

Most of us spend our lives in two families in which we play
quite different roles: a family of orientation, the one in
which we are born, and a family of procreation, the one
which we create ourselves. In every society, a family is
expected to be formed through marriage; a socially
approved mating arrangement between two or more people.

The partners
in a marriage are expected to have a sexual relationship;
indeed many societies require that all sexual intercourse
take place within this context, Additionally
marriage imposes certain economic rights and duties on the partners -
for it implies the sharing of a household.

Every society distinguished between offspring born in wedlock
and those born out of wedlock. Legitimate birth is birth
to a mother and a father who are married to each other.
Illegitimate birth is birth to a mother who is not married
to the father.

All societies encourage legitimacy because
it enables them automatically allocate the social roles of
mother and father to specific persons
who are then responsible for the care
and protection of the young.

Dear Foxy,

Nice little summary of the anthropology of marriage.

Just one little thing re your final two paragraphs. The legitimacy factor is mainly to do with inheritance rights within the social group. This could be rights to ownership of property, rights of usufruct, Ego's position within the kinship system, etc.