Hiya! :3 Since you're basically a chronicler for various alterhuman communities and have been around for years, I'm hoping you have the answer to a question of mine :) Do you know when the term plural/plurality was largely adopted to refer to systems? Or when the term multiple/multiplicity was kind of dropped as an umbrella term in system communities (the inclusive, non medicalist ones at least)?
When I discovered my system almost a decade ago I referenced older resources, and dabbled mostly in the DID/OSDD community. We called ourselves "multiple" at the time, because that's the only term we encountered. We dipped from tumblr for a long while and when we came back "plural" was ubiquitous, especially in the inclusive spaces we now gravitate to. I picked up using it myself because I do actually prefer it, but like... was that a sudden event (that I may have missed by being offline or in the wrong spaces) or a gradual change?
Ironically, both plural and multiple have a long history in the community, it seems. We mostly know of plural history things thanks to old websites (and web archives of old websites). We didn't really dive into the plural community until about 2010-ish, and aspects of the plural community may very well could be older than even the otherkin community even. So there is a lot of history we ourselves just don't know (or we don't have the sources to backup our thoughts, which is something we always strive for when we say/write things).
What we can say is that "plural" has existed alongside "multiple" since at least the early 2000s.
A few examples of things we have on hand include:
2007: An article titled, "Divisions in Plurality, 1.0" was written by Kerry Dawkins for the Ex Uno Plure website. In the article Kerry describes the make-up of the plural community at the time, noting there "seem to be three ‘camps’ – the MPD/DID camp, the natural multiples’ camp and the soulbonders’ camp." Throughout the article the word "system" is used for the different kinds of plurality regardless of origin, for example using the term "soulbonding systems."
Dawkins, Kerry. "Divisions in Plurality, 1.0," Ex Uno Plure, 2007, https://web.archive.org/web/20150306082026/http://www.exunoplures.org/main/articles/divisions-in-plurality-1-0/ .
2004: The webpage, "Multiplicity According to the Qilora," includes the use of "plurality" both in the url and in the text of the page itself; the first question in the FAQ even starting off with "What Is Multiplicity / Plurality?" Qilora, " "Multiplicity According to the Qilora," 2004, http://web.archive.org/web/20041102054238/http://qilora.com/QILORA_POPULUS/plurality_faq.html .
2001: An instance of a webpage from Astraea's Web with the url including “plural” dates back to October 2001. This webpage contains use of both “plural” and “multiple.”
“Astraea's Web Multiplicity Resources & Controversy,” Astraea's Web, 16 October 2001, https://web.archive.org/web/20011021152719/http://www.astraeasweb.net/plural/ .
The plural community's always been very spread out, nebulous, and flexible, but our longstanding vibe and perception has been that plural is the umbrella term describing practically any experience of being "more than one" whether that be DID, DDNOS/OSDD spirit possession, mediumship, tulpamancy, median systems, and more. Whereas "multiple" is more specific to experiences where a body contains more than one distinct and separate persons; a description not all of the formally mentioned things fit within.
BUT! Other people's mileage may vary. If the plural community has been consistent with one thing, its always been consistent on having different opinions and perspectives on what terms mean what (sometimes even in the same system...)
~ Miushra (she/her)
