Primary and secondary (relationship)
- Primary and secondary (relationship)
Primary and secondary (and occasionally tertiary) are words used by some polyamorists to distinguish between different degrees of relationship and to describe participants in those relationships (e.g. "John is my primary").
These terms indicate degrees of entanglement and involvement: 'primary' indicates a closer degree of involvement than 'secondary', and 'secondary' closer than 'tertiary'. However, the "type" of entanglement/involvement described varies according to the speaker. There is no single universally-accepted definition, but the terms generally refer to one or more of the following:
* Emotional involvement: the intensity or depth of participants' feelings for one another.
* Logistic involvement: living and financial arrangements, shared child-rearing, etc.
* Ground rules within relationships: participants might agree that the maintenance of a particular relationship takes priority over others, making that relationship 'primary'.
(It is "not" always the case that the existence of a primary relationship excludes the possibility of other primary relationships; some polyamorists consider themselves to have more than one primary relationship, along with one or more secondaries.)
'Primary/secondary/tertiary' terminology is not universally accepted among polyamorists. Some consider it as demeaning to 'secondaries' and 'tertiaries', or as an undesirable form of pigeonholing, and so prefer not to classify their relationships in this way.
Among those who use these terms, the issue of prescription and description arises. Most prefer to take a descriptive approach, using these terms to convey the nature of their relationships to others but not to decide the nature of those relationships. However, some also use them prescriptively. The distinction may be understood by comparing two rather simplified examples:
"I spend more time with Alice than with Jane, so Alice is my primary partner.""Alice is my primary partner, therefore I should place my relationship with her ahead of that with Jane."
External links
* [http://original.caw.org/articles/bouquet.html A Bouquet of Lovers] Example of prescriptive use of primary/secondary terminology
* [http://www.joshuabardwell.com/An%20Analysis%20of%20Bouquet.pdf An Analysis of Bouquet] Arguments against "Bouquet's" primary/secondary model
Wikimedia Foundation.
2010.
Look at other dictionaries:
Primary source — [ [http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/primary sources.html Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources, UM Libraries] ] [ [http://www.library.jcu.edu.au/LibraryGuides/primsrcs.shtml JCU Primary, Secondary Tertiary Sources] ] is a term used in a number of… … Wikipedia
Secondary data — In research, Secondary data is collecting and possibly processing data by people other than the researcher in question. Common sources of secondary data for social science include censuses, large surveys, and organizational records (Mintel). In… … Wikipedia
Secondary source — In library and information science, historiography and other areas of scholarship, a secondary source [ [http://www.lib.umd.edu/guides/primary sources.html Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources, UM Libraries] ] [… … Wikipedia
Primary education — A large elementary school in Magome, Japan … Wikipedia
primary group — Sociol. a group of individuals living in close, intimate, and personal relationship. Cf. secondary group. [1890 95] * * * … Universalium
Henry of Ghent and Duns Scotus — Stephen Dumont LIFE AND WORKS Henry of Ghent Henry of Ghent was arguably the most influential Latin theologian between Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus, regent as a leading master of theology at the University of Paris for the better part of the… … History of philosophy
Locke: knowledge and its limits — Ian Tipton I That John Locke’s Essay concerning Human Understanding is one of the philosophical classics is something nobody would deny, yet it is not easy to pinpoint precisely what is so special about it. Locke himself has been described as the … History of philosophy
Open relationship — The Purple Mobius symbol for polyamory and non monogamy. An open relationship is an interpersonal relationship in which the parties want to be together but agree to a form of a non monogamous relationship.[1] This means that they agree that a… … Wikipedia
Science and British philosophy: Boyle and Newton — G.A.J.Rogers INTRODUCTION Achievements in the natural sciences in the period from Nicholas Copernicus (1473– 1543) to the death of Isaac Newton (1642–1727) changed our whole understanding of the nature of the universe and of the ways in which we… … History of philosophy
HSL and HSV — Fig. 1. HSL (a–d) and HSV (e–h). Above (a, e): cut away 3D models of each. Below: two dimensional plots showing two of a model’s three parameters at once, holding the other constant: cylindrical shells (b, f) of constant saturation, in this case… … Wikipedia
