Polygyny benefits Society :: Anthropology

Polygyny benefits SocietyPolygyny, the social arrangement that permits a man to have more than one wife at the same time, exists in all parts of the world. From our present knowledge, there be very few primitive tribes in which a man is not allowed to enter into more than one union. In fact, ethologists now believe that only one to two percent of all species may be monogamous (Tucker). None of the simian species are rigorously monogamous our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, practice a make water of group marriage. Among the 849 human societies examined by the anthropologist Murdock (1957), 75% practiced polygyny. M whatsoever peoples have been said to be monogamous, but it is difficult to infer from the data at our disposal whether monogamy is the prevalent practice, the moral ideal, or an institution safeguarded by sanctions (Malinowski 1962). Historically, polygyny was a feature of the ancient Hebrews, the traditionalistic Chinese, and the nineteenth-century Mormons in the United States, but the modern practice of polygyny is concentrated in Africa, the Middle East, India, Thailand, and Indonesia. The extent to which men are able to acquire multiple wives depends on many factors, including the economic prosperity of the mans family, the prevailing bride price, the differential availability of marriageable females, the need and desire for additional offspring, and the availability of productive roles for consequent wives. Even in societies that permit polygyny, the conditions of life for the masses make monogamy the most common form of marriage. The two variations of polygyny are sororal (the cowives are sisters) and nonsororal (the cowives are not sisters). Some societies also observe the custom of levirate, making it compulsory for a man to marry his brothers widow. It must be remembered that any form of polygyny is never practiced throughout the entire community there cannot exist a community in which every man would have some(prenominal) wives be cause this would entail a huge surplus of females over males (Malinowski 1962). Another important point is that in reality it is not so much a form of marriage fundamentally distinct from monogamy as rather a multiple monogamy. It is always in fact the repetition of marriage contract, entered individually with severally wife, establishing an individual relationship between the man and each of his consorts (Benson 1971). Where each wife has her separate household and the husband visits them in turn, polygynous marriage resembles very virtually a temporarily interrupted monogamy.