This article is excerpted from: Anthropology (13th ed.), by Carol Ember, Melvin Ember, and Peter Perry Green.
We are Xi to think of marriage as monogamous or monogamous, with a man marrying only one woman at a time, but most societies known to anthropologists allow a man to marry multiple women at the same time – polygamy. However, in societies that allow polygamy, most men still marry according to monogamy, regardless of the time of day; There is hardly any society where the number of women is high enough for most men to marry at least two wives. The opposite of polygamy is polyandry, i.e. a woman is married to more than one man at the same time, and there are very few societies where polyandry is practiced. Polygamy and polyandry are the two types of polygamous marriage. Group marriage, in which multiple men are married to multiple women at the same time, is a phenomenon that exists but has not become a Xi practice in any known society.
Polygamy
The Old Testament of the Bible mentions many times that some men had more than one wife: King David and his son King Solomon are just two examples of polygamy. As in the societies described in the Old Testament, polygamy was seen as a sign of wealth and status in many societies. In these societies, only very wealthy men can have more than one wife, and it is believed that the rich should have more than one wife. Polygamy is still viewed as this way in some Arab societies. However, men do not necessarily have to be wealthy to have multiple wives; In fact, in some societies where women make important contributions to the economy, men seem to have enriched themselves by marrying multiple wives.
In the Seva societies of the South Pacific, individuals gained social status through feasting. Pork was the main dish at these feasts, so the Sewar people associated pig farming with prestige. Because in Seva society it is women who are responsible for growing the crops needed to raise pigs, so the Seva people, who value pig raising, also value their wives. While having multiple wives does not in itself elevate a man's status in Seva society, the expansion of pig farming brought about by multiple wives may become a prestige for men.
Polygamous Sewar men appear to be more prestigious, but they also complain about the difficulties of family life with multiple wives. A Sewar man named Sinu described his plight this way:
There will never be a long peace in a polygamous family. If the husband sleeps in one of the wives' house, the other wife gets angry all day the next day. If a man is stupid enough to spend the night at the same wife's house for two days in a row, then the other wife will refuse to cook for him, and she will say, so-and-so is your wife, it would be nice for you to go to her for dinner, because I don't deserve to share a bed with you, and the food I cook is not worth your taste. Wives often quarrel. My uncle used to have five wives, and the youngest wife used to get angry and beat people. On one occasion she beat my uncle's eldest wife unconscious, ran away and was forcibly brought back.
Conflicts between wives who share husbands do not seem to arise in some societies. Margaret Meade, for example, reports on the married life of the Arapechi people on the island of New Guinea, who, although polygamous, are said to have "balanced and contented to the point of having nothing to write about." Why is it that in this society there is little or no apparent jealousy among the wives who share a husband? One possibility is that the man marries a wife who is a sister, i.e., a sister-in-law; Sisters who share a husband may be more likely to get along and cooperate than if they are not sisters because they grew up together. In fact, a recent cross-cultural study proves that persistent conflict and resentment are prevalent in polygamous societies where non-siblings are common. The most common reason for resentment and conflict is that wives are unable to receive adequate sexual and emotional support from their husbands.
Although polygamy is prohibited by law in the United States, there are still some people who practice it ([gf]a9[gf] nik wheeler bettmann corbis, all rights reserved).
Perhaps it is precisely because conflicts between co-couples are so common that polygamous societies have invented Xi that aim to reduce conflict and jealousy between co-couples:
1.Sisters who are co-married always live under the same roof, while co-married children who are not sisters tend to live separately. In the African Highland Tonga, where non-sisterhood is practiced, wives live separately and husbands share their personal belongings and affection among their wives in accordance with strict principles of equality. The Crow Indians practiced sisterhood, and the wives usually lived together in conical tents.
2.Couples have well-defined equal rights with regard to sexual, economic and personal property. For example, the Tanara people of Madagascar require husbands and each wife to take turns for a day. If the husband fails to do so, the neglected wife has the right to sue for divorce and receive divorce alimony up to one third of the husband's property. In addition, all wives had equal access to the land and could let their husbands help in farming when they came to see them.
3.Older wives usually enjoy special prestige. For example, the Tongans of Polynesia would grant the status of "master wife" to the first wife. Her residence is located on the right side of her husband's house and is known as "Father's House". The other wives are called "little wives" and their house is located on the left side of the husband's house. When soliciting opinions, the main wife has the right to be in front of the younger wife, and the husband must spend the night in the main wife's house before going out and when he returns from a trip. Although this rule seems to exacerbate the jealousy of other wives, wives who marry later tend to be favored because they are younger and more attractive. This Xi may be able to compensate for the loss of appeal of the first wife with more prestige.
It is important to remember that while jealousy and conflict in polygamous marriages are often mentioned, jealousy and conflict are not ubiquitous. People who practice polygamy may see great benefits as such a system. A study conducted by Philip Kilbride and Janet Kilbride showed that married men and women in Kenya perceive polygamy as economically and politically advantageous. Polygamous families are usually larger and have an abundant agricultural workforce to produce additional food that can be sold in the market. Such a family also has more influence in the community, and may be able to cultivate individuals who become the best. Connie Anderson found that in South Africa, some women choose to marry men who already have other wives because they help with childcare, household chores, and companionship, and allow her to come and go freely. Some women say they choose polygamous marriage because of the lack of men suitable for marriage.
How do we make sense of the fact that most societies known to anthropologists allow or even tend to be polygamous? Ralph Linton believes that polygamy stems from the impulse of male primates to collect females. But if that's the case, why aren't all societies allowed for polygamy? Other explanations for polygamy have also been proposed. We will discuss only those factors that are statistically strong** in a sample worldwide of polygamy.
One theory is that societies with long periods of postpartum sexual taboo will allow polygamy. In such a society, couples avoid ** until their child is one year old. John Whiting believes that couples avoid ** long after the birth of their child for health reasons. A Hausa woman said
Mothers should not be with their husbands while breastfeeding their children**. If she does this, the child will be thinner, and after weaning, it will not grow strong and it will be unhealthy. If she and her husband** are fine after the child is two years old, because the child is already fully developed, it will be okay for her to get pregnant after two years.
The condition referred to by this woman appears to be Kwahiok's disease. It is a protein deficiency disease that is commonly found in tropical regions and is particularly susceptible to intestinal parasites and diarrhoeal children. By observing postpartum sexual taboos for a longer period of time, the birth interval between children is longer, and women can breastfeed each child longer. If a child gets protein from breast milk for more than a year after birth, the likelihood of developing Kwahiok disease is greatly reduced. Consistent with Whiting's explanation, societies with low staple protein content (the staple food being root crops such as taro, sweet potato, banana, breadfruit, or woody crop fruits) have a longer period of postpartum sexual contraindication. Societies with longer periods of postpartum sexual taboo are also more inclined towards polygamy. Perhaps, the fact that a man has more than one wife is a cultural adaptation to this taboo. As one Yoruba woman said:
During the two years we were away from our husbands, we breastfed our children, and we knew that our husbands would go to find other women. We would rather that woman be the wife of our co-husband so that the husband does not spend his money outside the family.
Even if we believe that men will seek other sexual relationships during periods of long-term postpartum sexual taboos, polygamy may not be the only solution to this problem. After all, all of a man's wives may also be in the postpartum sexual taboo period at the same time. Moreover, there may be outlets for sexual catharsis outside of marriage.
Another explanation for polygamy is to think that it is a response to the phenomenon that there are more women than men. An imbalance in the sex ratio may be the result of frequent wars. Because combatants are usually men rather than women, wars almost always result in more men dying. Given that the majority of adults in non-commoditized societies are married, polygamy may be a way to provide partners for the remaining women. In fact, there is evidence that societies with imbalanced sex ratios tend to practice polygamy, and that men have higher war-like mortality rates in such societies. In contrast, societies with balanced gender ratios tend to practice monogamy, and men have lower mortality rates in war.
The third explanation is that society will allow polygamy when men marry later than women. The view is similar to the explanation based on the sex ratio. The postponement of the age of marriage for men will artificially result in more marriageable women than men. The reason why men delay marriage is not clear, but the factor of delaying marriage can indeed lead to polygamy.
Is one better than the other two in these explanations, or are all three elements – long-term postpartum sexual taboos, an imbalance in the sex ratio of more women than men, and a delay in the age of marriage for men – important in explaining polygamy? To determine which explanation is better, statistical control analysis can be used, which allows us to see whether a factor is still strong after excluding the influence of other possible factors. As far as the question we are discussing is concerned, after excluding the possible influence of the sex ratio, long-term postpartum sexual taboos can no longer be ** polygamy, so it is likely that long-term postpartum sexual taboos are not the cause of polygamy. But whether it is the actual number of women relative to men, or the postponement of the age of marriage for men, it seems that polygamy can be effective. Taken together, the effect of these two factors on polygamy is even more significant.
Behavioral ecologists have also suggested that there are ecological reasons why men and women tend to be polygamous. When resources are sufficient, men may prefer polygamous marriages, as having multiple wives is likely to have more offspring. If the appropriation of resources is highly fragmented and all in the hands of men, then a woman may be willing to marry a man who has many resources, even if the man already has a wife.
A recent study of foragers concluded that forager societies in which men control fishing and hunting are more likely to practice polygamy. This finding is consistent with the previous theory, but to the surprise of the researchers, the male control of the food collection point is not a factor that is not polygamous. As far as theories about the divergence of resource appropriation and its impact on marriage are concerned, the main problem is that many societies, especially "modern" ones, rarely practice polygamy, despite the wide disparities in wealth. In this regard, behavioral ecologists can only argue that the non-practice of polygamy is the result of social constraints.
But why do these societies impose such constraints?Gender ratio theory can explain why polygamy is not practiced in most commodified modern societies. First, highly complex societies have standing armies, and in terms of proportion, the war mortality rate for men in complex societies is rarely as high as in simple societies. Second, with commodification, individuals are more likely to support themselves without resorting to marriage. Illness in the environment can also be a contributing factor.
Bobby Lowe argues that a high incidence of a disease will make "healthy" men less common. In such a situation, it may be more advantageous for a woman to marry a healthy man who already has a wife, and it may be more advantageous for a man to marry more than one woman who is not related because their offspring are more likely to have genetic variations (and resistance to disease). In fact, societies with many pathogens are more likely to practice polygamy. A recent cross-cultural study compared the severity of disease and the imbalance in the sex ratio, two explanations of polygamy. Both are supported. In complex societies with more densely populated populations, the number of pathogens is better for polygamy. In sparsely populated non-state societies, the sex ratio is more powerful against polygamy. Nigel Barber uses data from modern countries to test such claims. He found that sex ratios and pathogen pressure can also lead to polygamy in modern countries.
Polyandry
George Peter Murdoch's "World Ethnographic Sample" includes four polyandry societies (less than 1 of the total). When husbands are brothers to each other, we call them brothers, and if they are not brothers, they are called non-brothers. Some Tibetans, Toda, and Sinhalese practice brotherhood. Some Tibetans who practice brotherhood do not seem to be particularly concerned with biological paternity, and they do not try to determine which of their children's biological father is a brother, but rather treat all children equally.
One possible explanation for the polyandry Xi is that women are insufficient. The Todah have female infanticide, while the Sinhalese have female infanticide, but they deny the existence of female infanticide. The link between female deficit and polyandry may explain why polyandry is rarely found in ethnographic records;From a cross-cultural perspective, it is rare to have too many men.
Another explanation is that polyandry is an adaptive response to extremely limited resources. Melvin Goldstein studied Tibetans living in north-western Nepal at altitudes of more than 3,600 kilometres. Arable land there is extremely scarce, with most households having less than 0 arable land4 hectares. Locals say they practice brotherhood to prevent the division of family pastures and livestock. Brothers who marry together can keep the family farm without the limited land being divided by their respective wives. Polyandry also inhibits population growth. There are as many marriageable women as there are marriageable men. But nearly 30 percent of women are not married, and even if they do, they have far fewer children than married women. As a result, the introduction of polyandry has reduced the number of people who need to be fed and has raised the standard of living of polyandry families. In contrast, if monogamy were practiced and almost all adult women were married, the birth rate would be much higher, and people would have to feed more people with very limited resources.
Polyandry Xi is still practiced in some Tibetan communities, but monogamous families have outnumbered polyandry. This is because when a brother marries a woman, the younger brother may later choose to marry another and start a separate family. In some families, polyandry is not possible because of a single son or daughter. Wealth increases the likelihood that younger brothers will live separately, but most polygamous families lack farmland, herds, and opportunities. In fact, in polygamous societies, the number of monogamous marriages also exceeds polygamous marriages at any given time. However, the reasons for this situation in polygamous societies are different. In most polygamous societies, polygamous marriages are dominated by non-sisterly marriages, with a man first marrying monogamous. If he wants to marry another wife, he needs more resources (dowry is common), so remarriage often occurs later in life.
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