ABSTRACT
Gethenian social life is especially remarkable for the wide and unusual range of options it allows concerning sexual ties and familial organization. Sexual relations, called kemmer, are usually enjoyed in pairs, but promiscuous mating in communal homes, called kemmerhouses, is also very common and fully accepted. Although diversity is often stated as if it were an absolute quality of human societies, it is, of course, actually a relative term and means nothing in isolation. If the world’s cultures were only half as diverse as they actually are, it is a safe bet that we cultural anthropologists would be making their living by emphasizing that diversity and downplaying what we all have in common. The thing to remember is that although human nature may be worthy of more attention and respect than most social scientists give it, even in the absence of genetic engineering, biology is not destiny.
