Polygyny benefits Society :: Anthropology

Polygyny benefits SocietyPolygyny, the social location 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 are very few primitive tribes in which a man is not allowed to enter into more than one union. In fact, ethologists now believe that except one to two percent of all species may be monogynic (Tucker). None of the simian species are strictly monogamous our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, example a form of group marriage. Among the 849 human societies examined by the anthropologist Murdock (1957), 75% effective polygyny. Many peoples have been said to be monogamous, but it is difficult to empathize 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 traditional Chinese, and the nineteenth-century Mormons in the United States, bu t the modern practice of polygyny is concentrated in Africa, the heart 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 derivative availability of marriageable females, the need and desire for additional offspring, and the availability of rich roles for subsequent wives. Even in societies that permit polygyny, the conditions of life for the masses sacrifice monogamy the most common form of marriage. The two variations of polygyny are sisterly (the cowives are sisters) and nonsororal (the cowives are not sisters). Some societies also observe the economic consumption 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 several wives because this w ould entail a immense surplus of females over males (Malinowski 1962). Another important point is that in honesty it is not so much a form of marriage basically distinct from monogamy as rather a multiple monogamy. It is endlessly in fact the repetition of marriage contract, entered individualistly with each wife, establishing an individual relationship between the man and each of his consorts (Benson 1971). Where each wife has her fragmentize household and the husband visits them in turn, polygynous marriage resembles very nigh a temporarily interrupted monogamy.