Index: configure.in
===================================================================
--- configure.in	(revision 66818)
+++ configure.in	(working copy)
@@ -3283,7 +3283,24 @@
 
 # check for endianness
 AC_C_BIGENDIAN
+AH_VERBATIM([WORDS_BIGENDIAN],
+[
+ /* Define to 1 if your processor stores words with the most significant byte
+    first (like Motorola and SPARC, unlike Intel and VAX).
 
+    The block below does compile-time checking for endianness on platforms
+    that use GCC and therefore allows compiling fat binaries on OSX by using
+    '-arch ppc -arch i386' as the compile flags. The phrasing was choosen
+    such that the configure-result is used on systems that don't use GCC.
+  */
+#ifdef __BIG_ENDIAN__
+#define WORDS_BIGENDIAN 1
+#else
+#ifndef __LITTLE_ENDIAN__
+#undef WORDS_BIGENDIAN
+#endif
+#endif])
+
 # Check whether right shifting a negative integer extends the sign bit
 # or fills with zeros (like the Cray J90, according to Tim Peters).
 AC_MSG_CHECKING(whether right shift extends the sign bit)
Index: pyconfig.h.in
===================================================================
--- pyconfig.h.in	(revision 66818)
+++ pyconfig.h.in	(working copy)
@@ -979,9 +979,22 @@
 /* Define to profile with the Pentium timestamp counter */
 #undef WITH_TSC
 
-/* Define to 1 if your processor stores words with the most significant byte
-   first (like Motorola and SPARC, unlike Intel and VAX). */
+
+ /* Define to 1 if your processor stores words with the most significant byte
+    first (like Motorola and SPARC, unlike Intel and VAX).
+
+    The block below does compile-time checking for endianness on platforms
+    that use GCC and therefore allows compiling fat binaries on OSX by using
+    '-arch ppc -arch i386' as the compile flags. The phrasing was choosen
+    such that the configure-result is used on systems that don't use GCC.
+  */
+#ifdef __BIG_ENDIAN__
+#define WORDS_BIGENDIAN 1
+#else
+#ifndef __LITTLE_ENDIAN__
 #undef WORDS_BIGENDIAN
+#endif
+#endif
 
 /* Define to 1 if on AIX 3.
    System headers sometimes define this.