Polygamy A Cross-Cultural Analysis

Polygamy remains one of the key topics in various societies. It is through cultural practices, beliefs and also on the individuals’ choices that people decide to be committed to polygamy lifestyles. Polygyny remains widespread across the world. Over seventy percent of the societies known to Anthropologists permit men to marry more than one wife. There are consequences to each type of marriage that certain individuals might adapt to. Women who have entered into polygamous marriages have different experiences that can be enriching to those who practice monogamy.This paper highlights what people in polygamous marriages face on a daily basis. It argues that there are more disadvantages for women who are in polygamous marriages than there are for their counterparts in monogamous relationships. The paper further suggests that the patriarchal power structure appears to play a powerful and effective role in polygamous marriages in our societies. However, there is also a realization that many people practsing polygamy are happier. There is also an exploration of the complexities of polygamous marriages from a worldview with the hope of understanding the nature and evolution of polygamous marriages. Keywords: Polygamy, Polyandry, Co-wives, Egalitarianism

Polyandry is the umbrella term for one woman maintaining sexual access to more than one man. This work is a comparison of forty-three societies as examples of the six types of polyandry practiced around the world. In some types, the sexual acts are part of a marriage contract involving three or more people. In some types, the marriage involves only two people, but the sexual access of the wife extends beyond the marriage. In one type, the extra-marital sexual activity is expected, and not entirely voluntary by all parties. This survey is the first to describe all six types with examples of each. Keywords: associated polyandry, familial polyandry, fraternal polyandry, polykoity, secondary polyandry, walking marriage

Emory Law Journal, 2015

Questions about polygamy are likely to dominate Western family law in the next generation. Two generations ago, contraception, abortion, and women’s rights were the hot topics. This past generation, children’s rights and same-sex rights have dominated public deliberation and litigation. On the frontier of Western family law are hard questions about extending the forms of valid marriage to include polygamy and extending the forums of marital governance to include religious and cultural legal systems that countenance polygamy. This Article analyzes the 1,850 year tradition of Western laws against polygamy and the growing constitutional and cultural pressures to reform these laws today. I show how the traditional Western cases against polygamy and same-sex unions used strikingly different arguments drawn from the Bible, nature, rights, harm, and symbolism. I conclude that, because these arguments are so different, Western nations can responsibly hold the line against polygamy, even if they choose to accept same-sex marriage and its accompanying norms of sexual liberty, domestic autonomy, equality, and nondiscrimination. I reject ideological arguments, pro and con, that anti-polygamy laws are a form of traditional Christian morality. I reject slippery slope arguments, from the right and the left, that acceptance of same-sex marriage must inevitably lead to acceptance of polygamous marriage. And I reject arguments from domestic and international sources that religious freedom norms command the accommodation, if not validation, of religious polygamy. The West may, and in my view should, politely say no to polygamy. An Appendix to the Article provides a detailed guide to different forms and terms of plural marriage discussed and prohibited in the West—real polygamy, constructive polygamy, successive polygamy, and clerical polygamy.

Dialectical Anthropology, 2007

Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, 2016

Journal of Islam in Asia <span style="font-size: 0.6em">(E-ISSN: 2289-8077)</span>, 2012

In Islam, a Muslim male is allowed to have up to four wives provided all wives are treaty equally and do not suffer from any kind of discrimination. The divine injunction of equal treatment is actually for protecting rights of the wives. It is for this reason that many Muslim countries have enacted laws for providing protection to wives. One of the notable legal principles is that a man, who has a wife, cannot marry with another female without permission of the first wife, and so on; or he can do so if allowed by the court of competent jurisdiction. Some other countries, like Tunisia, have banned polygamy. This, in effect, is denial to the right guaranteed in the Sharʑah to both Muslim males and females, as in certain circumstances polygamy brings happiness to the family. For example, if wife is suffering from some kind of contagious disease and the husband is deprived of fulfilling his sexual desire, in view of the ban, he will have to divorce his first wife in order to marry with...

Polygamy is a hotly contested practice and open to widespread misunderstandings. This practice is defined as a relationship between either one husband and multiple wives or one wife and multiple husbands. Today, 'polygamy' almost exclusively takes the form of one husband with multiple wives. In this article, my focus will centre on limited defences of polygamy offered recently by Chesire Calhoun and Martha Nussbaum. I will argue that these defences are unconvincing. The problem with polygamy is primarily that it is a structurally inegalitarian practice in both theory and fact. Polygamy should be opposed for this reason. (This paper has been published and different from attached file - please contact me for paper.) Follow Thom on Twitter - @thom_brooks

Alshehab Journal, Algeria, 2022

Abstract : Marriage to more than one wife (Polygamy) is a practice as old as the history of man, and is allowed in Islamic Shariah law. This article aims to posit some benefits of polygamy to human in contemporary human race and detect some mis-understanding of western countries on polygamous nature of Islamic marriage and the failure they encounter in introducing new form of marriage based on their innovation (Same-sex relation). Finally, the research finds out that based on the establishment of new form of so called same-sex relation and transformed it into marital relationship have gotten contemporary human race into contracting diseases. The research also recommends that it is only through proper scholarly teaching of principle of marriage (polygamy) that problem of widow women and right of women can be protected.

Capital University Law Review, 2003

2015

For more than 2,500 years, the Western tradition has embraced monogamous marriage as an essential institution for the flourishing of men and women, parents and children, society and the state. At the same time, polygamy has been considered a serious crime that harms wives and children, correlates with sundry other crimes and abuses, and threatens good citizenship and political stability. The West has thus long punished all manner of plural marriages and denounced the polygamous teachings of selected Jews, Muslims, Anabaptists, Mormons, and others. John Witte, Jr carefully documents the Western case for monogamy over polygamy from antiquity until today. He analyzes the historical claims that polygamy is biblical, natural, and useful alongside modern claims that anti-polygamy laws violate personal and religious freedom. While giving the pro and con arguments a full hearing, Witte concludes that the Western historical case against polygamy remains compelling and urges Western nations t...