Polygamy

The term polygamy (literally ''many marriages'' in late Greek ) is used in related ways in Social Anthropology and Sociobiology .

In social anthropology, polygamy is the practice of Marriage to more than one spouse simultaneously (as opposed to Monogamy where each person has only one spouse at a time). Like ''monogamy'', the term is often used in a '' De Facto '' sense, applying regardless of whether the relationships are recognised by the State (see Marriage for a discussion on the extent to which states can and do recognise potentially and actually polygamous forms as valid).

In sociobiology, polygamy is used in a broad sense to mean any form of multiple Mating . In a narrower sense, used by Zoologists , polygamy includes a pair bond, perhaps temporary.

FORMS OF POLYGAMY

Polygamy exists in three specific forms, including Polygyny (one man having multiple wives), ''' Polyandry ''' (one woman having multiple husbands), or ''' Group Marriage ''' (some combination of polygyny and polyandry). Historically, all three practices have been found, but polygyny is by far the most common.

Polygyny

Polygyny is a mating practice in which a male simultaneously has more than one female sexual partner.
This is the most common form of polygamy.

Polyandry

Polyandry is a mating practice where a woman has more than one male sexual partner simultaneously

A notable example of Polyandry occurs in Hindu culture in the '' Mahabharata '', where the Pandavas are married to one common wife, Draupadi . Today it is almost exclusively observed in the Toda tribe of India , where it is sometimes the custom for several brothers to have one wife. In this context, the practice is intended to keep land from being split up amongst male heirs. Polyandry was traditionally practiced among Nomad ic Tibet ans, where it meant two poor brothers sharing a wife.

Group marriage

Group Marriage , or ''circle marriage'', may exist in a number of forms, such as where more than one man and more than one woman form a single Family unit, and all members of the marriage share Parent al responsibility for any children arising from the marriage. Another possible arrangement not thought to exist in reality, although occurring in Science Fiction (notably in Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress ), is the long-lived ''line marriage'', in which deceased or departing spouses in the group are continually replaced by others, so that family property never becomes dispersed through inheritance.

Strictly speaking, Cohabitation involving three or more sexually-involved people does not count as polygamy unless the participants at least claim to be married.

Bigamy

Bigamy is marriage to two people at the same time; a person doubly married is a ''bigamist''. Many countries have specific statutes outlawing bigamy, making any secondary marriage a crime.

Note that these laws aren't limited to cases of traditional polygamy, where the spouses know about each other. They also cover cases such as a man who breaks up with his wife, and without divorcing her, marries another woman. It even covers the occasional case of a man who sets up a second family with a second wife, keeping his dual marriage a secret from one or both of them. In both of these cases, the effect of these laws is to protect people from being married under false pretenses.

Trigamy

In 17th to 19th century England, Trigamy referred to someone who had three spouses at the same time.

The term is typically used for comic reference as is alluded to in the Edward Lear poem:

There was an old fellow of Lyme
Who lived with three wives at one time.
When asked, 'Why the third?'
He replied, 'One’s absurd,
And bigamy, sir, is a crime.'

From the modern legal perspective, this is just seen as two counts of bigamy. (A prosecutor with a combinatorics background might indict three times.)

Polyamory

''Main article: Polyamory .''

The term '' Polyamory '' refers to romantic or sexual relationships involving multiple partners at once, regardless of whether they involve marriage. Any polygamous relationship is polyamorous, and some polyamorous relationships involve multiple spouses. "Polygamy" is usually used to refer to multiple marriage, while "polyamory" implies a relationship defined by negotiation between its members rather than cultural Norm s.

In many cities among the West or those of more liberal cities affected by Western culture, in the classified advertisements of local newspapers, it is also common to see couples asking for a third or fourth partner for discreet sexual fun which might be on-off or in regular basis.

Poly relationship

''Main article: Poly Relationship .''

Other forms of nonmonogamous relationships are discussed at Poly Relationship .

POLYGAMY WORLDWIDE

According to the ''Ethnographic Atlas Codebook'' derived from George P. Murdock’s ''Ethnographic Atlas'' recorded the marital composition of 1231 societies, from 1960-1980. Of these societies, 186 societies were monogamous. 453 had occasional polygyny, 588 had more frequent polygyny, and 4 had polyandry.

Patterns of occurrence

At the same time, even within societies which allow polygyny, the actual practice of polygyny often occurs only rarely. To take on more than one wife often requires considerable resources: this may put polygamy beyond the means of the vast majority of people within those societies. Such appears the case in many traditional Islamic societies, and in Imperial China .

Within polygynous societies, multiple wives often become a Status Symbol denoting wealth and power. Similarly, within societies which formally prohibit polygamy, social opinion may look favorably on persons maintaining mistresses or engaging in Serial Monogamy .

Some observers detect a social preference for polygyny in disease-prone (especially tropical) climates, and speculate that (from a potential mother's viewpoint) perceived quality of paternal genes may favour the practice there. The countervailing situation allegedly prevails in harsher climates, where (once again from a potential mother's viewpoint) reliable paternal care as exhibited in monogamous pair-bonding outweighs the importance of paternal genes.

Polygamy & Chinese culture

Throughout the thousand years of history in China, it is common for richer Chinese men to have more than one wife.

Usually various Concubine s. Mainly polygyny.

Emperors, government officials, rich merchants, etc, have anything from 1 to hundreds of concubines after marrying the first wife.

Confucian said, a man can first manage a family (of several divisions), then he can manage a small country, and then, he shall be able to unify & manage a nation.

Hierarchy between wives in China:
Please note that concubines have a lower hierarchy than wives in families & societies.

Off-springs from concubines are usually not entitled to much legacy, land or wealth from father.

=China: Any Polyandry?

There are rarely any cases of one woman having numerous husbands. A few powerful empresses who become regent for young emperors, like Empress Wu Ze Tien of Tang Dynasty, might have secret lovers. Polyandry was still not accepted.

Even in the only matriarchal society, the village of the Mo Suo tribe in the China Lu-Gu Lake area between Sichuan and Yunan, men have to look after all of the children of his woman whoever fathered them. Strictly speaking, for any one woman there was still only one man at any one time.

In mainland China, the People's Republic of China (PRC), polygamy was banned by the communist party in 1960s.

In Mongolia, there have been discussions about re-legalize polygamy.

In Hong Kong, polygamy was only benned recently, in 1971. That means nowadays there are still people who are have multiple wives in Hong Kong & Macau. A famous example is Dr Stanley Ho who owned the original Macau casino. He has 5 wives. His uncle has 12 wives.

In Hong Kong, since work pressure is extremely high & birth rate is the lowest among the world, many Hong Kong businessmen tend to keep a secret concubine across the border in mainland China. One of the reason is that the cost of maintaining a "division 2" there in PRC is lower. Girls in mainland China are also more willing to be a full-time mother at a younger age.

Many popular cultures nowadays keep using period drama to remind people the former glory (and fun) of polygamy(polygyny) practice. A famous example: one of the saga (The Duke Of The Mount Deer ) by Hong Kong famous writer Louis Cha ( Jin Yung ): he assigned 7 willing wives for the very capable leading role Wai-Siu-Bo (Wei-Shao-Bao) who is a successful double-spy good at office-politics & human-relationship. The fiction & subsequent films & TV drama became immensely popular among Chinese societies across the world.

In the Taiwan, polygamy is also illegal.

Polygamy and religion

Hinduism

Both polygamy and polyandry were practiced in ancient times among certain sections of Hindu society. Hinduism does not prohibit polygamy, nor encourage it. The reason for this is because to have more than one wife, again means to be able to support them financially. Historically, only kings, in practice, were polygamous, and this in part because they could afford it. For example, the Vijaynagara emperor, Krishnadevaraya had multiple wives. In actuality Hinduism, and for that matter other Indian religions such as Buddhism & Jainism, actually consent for a man or woman to marry more than one person. The problem is most people cannot afford to have more than one partner, and have the time to raise multiple offspring with multiple partners. This is the reason that polygamy is not practiced in India. And as mentioned before, Indian religions allow women to marry more than one man. But again this is rarely practiced, if ever. However, Muslims in India are allowed to have multiple wives. As of October, 2004, marriage laws in India are dependent upon the religion of the subject in question.^{{Link without Title}} There have been efforts to propose a uniform marital law that would treat all Indians the same, irrespective of religion, but this has not occurred as of yet.

Note: Manu Samhita (Manu Smriti), also referred to as the Laws of Manu, or the Law Book of Mankind, is the ancient Vedic Scripture upon which later Hindu laws (under the British rule) were formulated.
It is clearly outlined in the Laws of Manu that all classes, including the Brahmin class, were allowed to take more than one wife. In delineating the laws of both inter-class mariages and inheritance laws Manu first specifies the laws as pertaining to the Brahmin class. A Brahmin's first wife is to come from a Brahmin family, yet his second wife can be from either Brahmin family or Ksatriya . His third wife can be from either Brahmin, Ksatriya or Vaishya . His fourth wife can be from any class, including that of Sudra . Although some speculate that the Brahmin class were never allowed more than one wife, this is not at all supported in the Manu Samhita or in various Vedic scriptures where there are stories of many Brahmin sages who are said to have more than one wife.

Also, 500 years ago in India was the advent of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Together with Lord Nityananda Prabhu, he inaugurated the Sankirtan Movement , the congregational chanting of Hare Krishna , throughout India. ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness, or the Hare Krishna Movement ), originates from the teachings of Lord Caitanya ). It is noted that Lord Nityananda Prabhu took two wives. Both wives were sisters. Also Shyamananda Pandit, a scholarly brahmin of the time, also took two wives as well.

In more recent history, the Founder-Acharya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, who, in the 1970's was popularily known as the religious ambassador from India, many times cited the need in society for the acceptance and practice of polygamy for the purpose of protecting all women via proper religious marriage. He had taught that not all men were fit for married life, but that all women must be married for their religious and social protection (as women can become pregnant, and as such must be maintained and cared for - this precludes the need for their protection from unwanted pregnancies and for this religious marriage is recommended to keep women and society socially chaste and pure). Thus, he had said, it is the best system if those men who have succeeded in married life to marry as many wifes as they can maintain.

Judaism

Although classical Jewish literature indicates that polygamy was permitted, the various segments of Judaism have now outlawed polygamy. The first was and Mizrahi groups only discontinued polygamy much more recently, to the point that the State Of Israel had to make provisions for polygamic families immigrating after its 1948 creation. Many Jewish families from countries such as Iran and Yemen were assimilated to the general common culture of a family made up of a man, two or more wives, and their children.

Christianity

Saint Augustine saw a conflict with Old Testament polygamy, and wrote about it in ''The Good of Marriage'' (chapter 15, paragraph 17), where he stated that though it "was lawful among the ancient fathers: whether it be lawful now also, I would not hastily pronounce. For there is not now necessity of begetting children, as there then was, when, even when wives bear children, it was allowed, in order to a more numerous posterity, to marry other wives in addition, which now is certainly not lawful." He declined to judge the patriarchs, but did not deduce from their practice the ongoing acceptability of polygamy. In another place, he wrote, "Now indeed ''in our time'', and ''in keeping with Roman custom'', it is no longer allowed to take another wife, so as to have more than one wife living added ."

Periodically, Christian reform movements that have aimed at rebuilding Christian doctrine based on the Bible alone ('', vol. 2, p.459. # DLXXII - 572. Latin text). The radical Anabaptist s of Münster also practiced polygamy, but they had little influence after the defeat of the Münster Rebellion in 1535 . Other Protestant leaders including John Calvin condemned polygamy, and sanctioned polygamy did not survive long within Protestantism.

"On February 14, 1650, the parliament at Nürnberg decreed that because so many men were killed during the Thirty Years’ War, the churches for the following ten years could not admit any man under the age of 60 into a monastery. Priests and ministers not bound by any monastery were allowed to marry. Lastly, the decree stated that every man was allowed to marry up to ten women. The men were admonished to behave honorably, provide for their wives properly, and prevent animosity among them." Larry O. Jensen, A Genealogical Handbook of German Research (Rev. Ed., 1980) p. 59 {Link without Title} .

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