Free love and save the world: An anthropological analysis of how a free love culture is defined, maintained and communicated in the polyamorous community, Tamera, Portugal

Sammanfattning: This thesis investigates the social structures and discourse behind a culture of free love in a rural community in Portugal called Tamera. It describes how emotions and communication regarding personal romantic and sexual relationship are dealt with, as well as the incentives behind creating such a culture. Throughout the analysis I describe the political theory and vision behind the project Tamera and how these ideas are, or are not, manifested in reality. Based upon participatory observation and empirical examples I explain the history and development of the project; the space, organizational structure and demography of Tamera; and the tools and institutions applied to communicate around issues of love, sexuality and relations. I provide ethnographic descriptions of the social institutions: social transparency, the forum, studying and teaching, the texts of Dieter Duhm, and the language, followed by discussions of their use. Additionally, I include my personal reflections, criticism and feedback to Tamera. Findings show that the vision of free love is ideologically contextualized in the writings of Dieter Duhm based on the belief that there cannot be peace on Earth as long as there is war in love, and that there is war in love as long as we do not deal with our inner violent structures, Tamera underlines the importance of personal development. Through encouraging intimate physical contact, practicing social transparency and the forum, Tamera creates a culture in which polyamory thrives. Members maintain their commitment to the community by studying and teaching the basic ideas of the project and also through using a language and discourse which affirms the worldview and political theory behind the project – for better and for worse. Tamera provides practical tools for honest communication which can serve as inspiration for the current feminist movement that tries to rethink gender roles. Tamera provides tools for creating a culture that supports individual choices of lifestyle activism, and thus moves these lifestyle choices from belonging predominantly to the private sphere to belonging to the public and political sphere. Drawing upon the theory of Foucault, the worldview on which the project is founded has to a large extend created the discourse we see in Tamera today, while simultaneously the discourse of today continues to change and thus to recreate the worldview.