Polygynous Marriages Research Articles

The puzzle of monogamous marriage.

The anthropological record indicates that approximately 85 per cent of human societies have permitted men to have more than one wife (polygynous marriage), and both empirical and evolutionary considerations suggest that large absolute differences in wealth should favour more polygynous marriages. Yet, monogamous marriage has spread across Europe, and more recently across the globe, even as absolute wealth differences have expanded. Here, we develop and explore the hypothesis that the norms and institutions that compose the modern package of monogamous marriage have been favoured by cultural evolution because of their group-beneficial effects-promoting success in inter-group competition. In suppressing intrasexual competition and reducing the size of the pool of unmarried men, normative monogamy reduces crime rates, including rape, murder, assault, robbery and fraud, as well as decreasing personal abuses. By assuaging the competition for younger brides, normative monogamy decreases (i) the spousal age gap, (ii) fertility, and (iii) gender inequality. By shifting male efforts from seeking wives to paternal investment, normative monogamy increases savings, child investment and economic productivity. By increasing the relatedness within households, normative monogamy reduces intra-household conflict, leading to lower rates of child neglect, abuse, accidental death and homicide. These predictions are tested using converging lines of evidence from across the human sciences.

Polygyny, Bound Feet, and Perversion

The practices of polygyny and bound feet, now extinct in China, once held in common an underlying structure of perversion. In novels of the Qing dynasty, the man was perverse when he acted as if having multiple wives was not something he desired or initiated, but was something that arrived to him because of external conditions. In particular, women were the agents of polygynous marriage, not the passive participants, because they allowed and encouraged the man to take other wives. I call this form of marriage passive polygyny, where the man passively accepts polygyny. The underlying link between passive polygyny and bound feet has to do with the same logic by which the dominant subject appears to hand the production of a situation – polygyny or bound feet – to the ones who are dominated or, in the case of bound feet, mutilated. Women mutilated themselves and their daughters, but they did so of their own will, by their own methods, and on their own schedule. In households across China from the Song dynasty to the early Republic, mothers initiated and managed the binding of their daughters’ feet. With a bit of modification, the psychoanalytic definition of perversion describes the deep structure of both polygyny and footbinding, and does so in powerful and compelling terms that no one has yet begun to unravel.

Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam

Kecia Ali has already acquired a reputation as one of the most important English-language scholars of Islam and gender of her generation. Her latest book will do nothing to detract from that reputation, and may well solidify her asthe leading scholar of her generation of Islam and gender in the United States.While the title suggests that its contents exhibit a parallel concernwith slavery and marriage, the work is really devoted to showing how theformally separate legal institutions of marriage and slave holding shapedand were shaped by each institution ‒ with their respective doctrines attimes converging, and while at other times, the doctrines diverged. Thebook consists of an introduction, five substantial chapters, and a conclusion.The chapters cover the formation of a marriage and its similarities toand distinctions from concubinage, the only other legal relationship thatmade sexual relations licit. The second chapter treats the interdependencyof claims within marriage, while pointing out the gendered nature of theclaims particular to the husband and the wife. The third chapter focuses onthe wife’s legal claims to her husband’s companionship, particularly in thecontext of a polygynous marriage. The fourth chapter deals with the variousmodes of dissolving a marriage in Islamic law and compares them witha master’s power to manumit his slave. The fifth chapter compares andcontrasts marriage and slavery as particular modes of ownership (milk) ...

Extraspousal Partnerships in a Community in Rural Uganda With High HIV Prevalence: A Cross-Sectional Population-Based Study Using Linked Spousal Data

The role of concurrent sexual partnerships in the HIV epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa is not well understood. Although most infections in Africa occur among married individuals, transmission may occur from both spousal and extraspousal partnerships. This article explores extraspousal partnerships as a form of concurrency, examining the association with HIV status, demographic characteristics, and sexual behaviors in a population-based cohort in rural Uganda. Prevalence of extraspousal partnerships was estimated using cross-sectional data from 2008, and adjusted odds ratios (aOR) were estimated for factors associated with the prevalence of extraspousal partnerships using logistic regression. Among men who were not in polygynous marriages, we used linked spousal data to investigate the association between extraspousal partnerships and wives' serostatus. Extraspousal partnerships in the past year were reported by 17% of married men and 2% of married women. Among both men and women, extraspousal partnerships were associated with not knowing their partners' HIV status (men: aOR = 1.74; 95% CI: 1.13 to 2.67; women: aOR = 1.76; 95% CI: 1.13 to 2.75), and extraspousal partnerships were also associated with increased condom use for men. There was no evidence that men reporting extraspousal partnerships were at increased risk of HIV (aOR = 0.98; 95% CI: 0.48 to 2.01), or that a woman's risk of HIV was associated with her husband reporting extraspousal partnerships (aOR = 0.68; 95% CI: 0.29 to 1.57). For both men and women, extraspousal partnerships were associated with not knowing their partners' HIV status. There was no evidence of an association of extraspousal partnerships with HIV serostatus in this cross-sectional analysis.

P1-S1.22 HSV-2 prevalence across a pastoral landscape: transmission and transition among the Himba and Tjimba populations

BackgroundSexual partnerships take multiple forms among the Himba and Tjimba people living in Northwestern Namibia, including polygynous and monogamous marriage, and long- and short-term extra-marital partnerships. We hypothesised that HSV-2...

In and out of polygyny: A case of black South African women's experiences of marriage

abstract This focus piece presents an analysis of interviews, used as a methodology to investigate the experiences of 7 black South African women in polygynous marriages. Some of them had since opted out of these marriages, and were staying separately from their spouses. The women's understandings of safe and risky marriages are further explored, with analysis of qualitative interviews conducted within the context of liberal feminism. Gender inequality, biased religious and cultural beliefs, infidelity and ill-treatment were some of the forms of oppression that these married women suffered, where men were usually seen as perpetrators and women as victims. HIV/AIDS was a major risk arising from polygyny and infidelity, because married women in polygynous marriages could not negotiate condom use. The limitations of the sample are fully recognised. However, the analysis provides preliminary data on women in polygynous marriages and a foundation for further research. It was also found that there were other disconcerting voices among the women, suggesting that women continued to stay in unsafe marriages for unguaranteed financial security from men. Those who had moved out of polygynous marriages were seen as disobedient to their culture. The focus concludes that the decision to quit a risky marriage is long and hard to reach due to socially constructed discriminatory practices. It also shows that the decision to stay in a risky marriage is changing among women across marriage types.

Benign concurrency in context and practice: a response to Epstein and Stanton

Benign concurrency in context and practice: a response to Epstein and Stanton

A qualitative study of women in polygynous marriages

Polygyny, the practice of taking more than one wife at the same time is a common practice in several countries including Africa. This study, conducted in Ghana, West Africa, investigated married women's experiences in polygyny and their ways of coping. Using exploratory qualitative methodology, data were collected from 15 married women who consented to in-depth interviews. The study was conducted in the summer of 2005 with approval from an institutional review board and permission from community leaders from the study site. Three themes emerged from the study: infertility, co-wives' relationships and ways of coping. The findings indicated that infertility was the number one reason that women allowed for co-wives in their marriages because this was necessary to protect the marriage rather than divorce. Unhappiness, loneliness, sense of competition and jealousy, and lack of intimacy with the spouse were identified as disadvantages of polygyny. The perceived advantages of polygyny included sharing of house chores and child rearing. The women's ways of coping included the use of religion, faith and a strong sisterly bond formed with the co-wives. Though the majority of the women disapproved of polygyny unions, divorce was not an option. These findings have implications for nursing and policy-makers. Nurses can provide education and implement programmes that teach coping mechanisms and stress management. Policy-makers should be made aware of the implications of polygynous marriages on women's health and well-being. There is the need to conduct more research to investigate the effects of polygyny on women's mental health and the need to develop programmes to support women.

Polygyny and the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa: a case of benign concurrency

Much of our understanding about the effect of concurrent sexual partnerships on the spread of HIV derives from mathematical models, but the empirical evidence is limited. In this contribution, we focus on polygyny, a common and institutionalized form of concurrency for which data are available, and study its relationship with HIV prevalence at the ecological level. First, we describe country-level variation in the prevalence of polygyny and HIV. Second, we test the relationship between HIV and polygyny at the subnational level using country fixed-effects regression models with data from 19 Demographic and Health Surveys. The ecological association between polygyny and HIV prevalence is negative at the country as well as subnational level, HIV prevalence is lower in countries where the practice of polygyny is common, and within countries, it is lower in areas with higher levels of polygyny. Proposed explanations for the protective effect of polygyny include the distinctive structure of sexual networks produced by polygyny, the disproportionate recruitment of HIV-positive women into marriages with a polygynous husband, and the lower coital frequency in conjugal dyads of polygynous marriages. Existing mathematical models of concurrency are not sufficiently specific to account for the relatively benign effect of polygyny on the spread of HIV and require refinements before they are used to inform HIV prevention policies.

Concurrency is more complex than it seems

Concurrency is more complex than it seems

Evolution of monogamous marriage by maximization of inclusive fitness

The majority of human societies allow polygynous marriage, and the prevalence of this practice is readily understood in evolutionary terms. Why some societies prescribe monogamous marriage is however not clear: current evolutionary explanations--that social monogamy increases within-group co-operation, giving societies an advantage in competition with other groups--conflict with the historical and ethnographic evidence. We show that, within the framework of inclusive fitness theory, monogamous marriage can be viewed as the outcome of the strategic behaviour of males and females in the allocation of resources to the next generation. Where resources are transferred across generations, social monogamy can be advantageous if partitioning of resources among the offspring of multiple wives causes a depletion of their fitness value, and/or if females grant husbands higher fidelity in exchange for exclusive investment of resources in their offspring. This may explain why monogamous marriage prevailed among the historical societies of Eurasia: here, intensive agriculture led to scarcity of land, with depletion in the value of estates through partitioning among multiple heirs. Norms promoting high paternity were common among ancient societies in the region, and may have further facilitated the establishment of social monogamy. In line with the historical and ethnographic evidence, this suggests that monogamous marriage emerged in Eurasia following the adoption of intensive agriculture, as ownership of land became critical to productive and reproductive success.

Polygynous Muslim Marriages in South Africa: Their Potential Impact on the Incidence of HIV/AIDS

This article examines whether there is any relationship between the institution of polygynous marriages in Islam and the incidence or spread of the disease. It is suggested that, while polygyny may be a contributing factor, it is not the institution of marriage per se that relates to the disease (although the prospect of greater infection intra marriage must be present in polygynous marriages, if the husband is the infecting party), but the conduct of the parties to the marriage relationship, whatever its nature.The focus and thrust lies with the institution of polygyny in Islam, the South African response to polygyny, the (potential) impact of polygyny on the incidence of AIDS, and the contribution that both an informed approach to HIV and an enlightened approach to the application of Islamic values could or would have on the limitation of the disease's spread.

Sex-ratio biasing towards daughters among lower-ranking co-wives in Rwanda

There is considerable debate as to whether human females bias the sex ratio of their offspring as a function of their own condition. We apply the Trivers-Willard prediction-that mothers in poor condition will overproduce daughters-to a novel measure of condition, namely wife rank within a polygynous marriage. Using a large-scale sample of over 95 000 Rwandan mothers, we show that lower-ranking polygynous wives do indeed have significantly more daughters than higher-ranking polygynous wives and monogamously married women. This effect remains when controlling for potential confounds such as maternal age. We discuss these results in reference to previous work on sex-ratio adjustment in humans.

Market forces affect patterns of polygyny in Uganda

Polygynous marriage is generally more beneficial for men than it is for women, although women may choose to marry an already-married man if he is the best alternative available. We use the theory of biological markets to predict that the likelihood of a man marrying polygynously will be a function of the level of resources that he has, the local sex ratio, and the resources that other men in the local population have. Using records of more than 1 million men in 56 districts from the 2002 Ugandan census, we show that polygynously married men are more likely to own land than monogamously married men, that polygynous marriages become more common as the district sex ratio becomes more female biased, that owning land is particularly important when men are abundant in the district, and that a man's owning land most increases the odds of polygyny in districts where few other men own land. Results are discussed with reference to models of the evolution of polygyny.

Coping strategies of young mothers at risk of HIV/AIDS in the Kassena-Nankana district of Northern Ghana.

This qualitative study draws on interpretative principles with emphasis on understanding young mothers' vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and explores coping strategies used to mitigate risk of infection in a poor rural setting of Ghana. Young mothers in their mid-twenties to early thirties and their male partners were purposively selected with the assistance of key informants for repeated semi-structured interviews. Respondents included those in monogamous and polygynous marriages with two or more living children, and those with and without formal education. Young mothers in this study setting are confronted with complex realities as childbearing obligations make protective sex less optional. However, more assertive women insist their husbands use condoms when they perceive themselves at risk. We conclude that the advent of HIV may advance the cause of women's reproductive health empowerment by providing women with very strong reasons to minimize HIV risk within marriage.

Polygynous marital structure and child survivorship in sub-Saharan Africa: Some empirical evidence from Ghana

Although studies have found children in married families to have better health outcomes than those in other family types, this strand of research implicitly views marriage as monolithic and, by default, monogamous as found in western industrialized societies. In polygynous cultures, there is a need to make a distinction between polygynous and monogamous families, because these marital arrangements might imply varying levels of parental support necessary for optimum child outcomes. Using pooled children's data from the 1998 and 2003 ( N = 4938) Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys, this study investigates the effects of polygynous marital structure on child survivorship and assesses whether the effect is uniform over the entire childhood period. In models that did not allow for age-specific effects of polygyny, children in polygynous marriages were found to have an elevated risk of death. Further analysis revealed that only older children experienced the survival disadvantages associated with polygyny.

Only Children of the Head of Household Benefit from Increased Household Food Diversity in Northern Ghana

In many societies, foods are preferentially channeled to certain members of the household. We studied whether being the child of a powerful household member (head of household or first wife in a polygynous family) was associated with greater child stature in Northern Ghana and how this association varied with differences in household food availability. We used a sample of 464 children between 9 and 36 mo of age in extended households in rural Northern Ghana. Child stature was regressed on household food availability, the status of the child’s father (head of household or other male), the status of the child’s mother (marital order in a polygynous marriage), and the interaction terms between household food availability and parental status. The models were controlled for child age, sex, maternal height, parity, household size, and potential intra-community clustering. Household dietary diversity was associated with child stature (P < 0.05), but this association was limited to children of the head of household. For children of other males, there was no quantifiable association between household dietary diversity and child stature. Children of monogamous mothers were taller than children of second wives (P < 0.05). Our findings show that studies of intra-household allocation need to investigate beyond gender differences. Other structural household factors need to be considered in designing interventions, because they affect impact and even lead to increased intra-household inequality. Our results are relevant for Northern Ghana and as well as for similar settings elsewhere in the world.

Polygyny and women's health in sub-Saharan Africa

In this paper we review the literature on the association between polygyny and women's health in sub-Saharan Africa. We argue that polygyny is an example of “co-operative conflict” within households, with likely implications for the vulnerability of polygynous women to illness, and for their access to treatment. We begin with a review of polygyny and then examine vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections (STIs, including HIV) and differential reproductive outcomes. Polygyny is associated with an accelerated transmission of STIs, both because it permits a multiplication of sexual partners and because it correlates with low rates of condom use, poor communication between spouses, and age and power imbalances among other factors. Female fertility is affected by the interplay between marital rank, household status, and cultural norms in polygynous marriages. Finally, we present areas which have received only cursory attention: mental health and a premature, “social” menopause. Although data are scarce, polygyny seems to be associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression, particularly around stressful life events. It is our hope that the examples reviewed here will help build a framework for mixed method quality research, which in turn can inform decision makers on more appropriate, context-dependent health policies.

THE MALIGNED, MALTREATED MADU: Female Experiences of Polygyny in Three Romantic Syair1

This article considers the theme of female conflict within the context of polygynous marriages in the traditional Malay poems Syair Bidasari, Syair Selindung Delima and Syair Yatim Nestapa. The poems' common foregrounding of female concerns, in particular the problems of madu or co-wives engendered by husband sharing, are considered within the context of their popular female reception. A comparison of the poems' treatment of this theme from a female perspective in contrast to other more prevalent male-oriented pieces of literature, poses questions as to the dominant and more latent discourses discernible in the works. It is argued that while the poems do not challenge the male right to polygyny, they do seek to promote an understanding of the difficulties such marriages may entail for women. Situating these poems within their literary and cultural contexts, this article seeks to ascertain whether a gender-sensitive interpretation is warranted in light of historical and anthropological evidence concerning women's experiences in polygynous marriages.

Symptoms of anxiety and depression and mother's marital status: An exploratory analysis of polygyny and psychosocial stress

Many biocultural studies have examined the fitness consequences of polygynous marriage for women in Africa. Few studies have examined the mental health correlates of polygynous marriage despite the emerging interest by human biologists in mental health outcomes. In this study, we tested for an association between measures of psychosocial stress and marital status in a representative sample of 408 mothers in two Tanzania communities. Results showed no association between measures of psychological distress and marital status. Our results suggest that despite the widely cited reproductive costs to polygynously married women, there do not appear to be accompanying costs to mental health.