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|Polygyny () is a form of polygamy entailing the marriage of a man to several women. The term polygyny is from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία (); . A Greek–English Lexicon, Liddell & Scott, γυνή]]
Polygyny is most common in a region known as the "polygamy belt" in West Africa and Central Africa, with the countries estimated to have the highest polygamy prevalence in the world being Burkina Faso, Mali, Gambia, Niger and Nigeria. In the region of sub-Saharan Africa, polygyny is common and deeply rooted in the culture, with 11 percent of the population of sub-Saharan Africa living in such marriages (25 percent of the Muslim population and 3 percent of the Christian population, as of 2019). Polygyny is especially widespread in West Africa, with the countries estimated to have the highest polygyny prevalence in the world as of 2019 being Burkina Faso (36%), Mali (34%) and Gambia (30%). Outside of Africa, the highest prevalence is in Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq.
Historically, polygyny was partly accepted in ancient Hebrews society, in Ancient China, and in sporadic traditional Native American, and cultures. In the Indian subcontinent, it was known to have been practiced during ancient times. It was accepted in Ancient Greece, until the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church.
In North America, polygyny is practiced by some Mormon sects, such as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church).
Polygyny is more common in societies that have the custom of bride price. The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Edited by Robin Dunbar and Louise Barret (2007). Oxford University Press, Chapter 26, "The evolutionary ecology of family size".
Some studies of mitochondrial DNA have shown that there have been more mothers than fathers in the genetic record of the human species, meaning that the proportion of females that have reproduced in each generation has generally been greater than the proportion of men that reproduced. The authors of one 2014 study attributed these findings to widespread polygyny.
In some regions of shifting cultivation where polygyny is most frequently recorded, labor is often starkly divided between genders. In many of these cases, the task of felling trees in preparation of new plots, the fencing of fields against wild animals, and sometimes the planting of crops, is usually done by men and older boys (along with hunting, fishing and the raising of livestock).Guyer, Jane. (1991). "Female Farming in Anthropology and African History". Gender at the Crossroads of Knowledge: Feminist Anthropology in the postmodern Era. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. pp. 260-261. Wives, on the other hand, are responsible for other aspects of cultivating, food processing and providing meals and for performing domestic duties for the family. Boserup argues that though women's work comprises a larger percentage of tasks that form the basis of sub-Saharan life, women often do not receive the majority portion of the benefits that accompany economic and agricultural success.
An elderly cultivator, with several wives and likely several young male children, benefits from having a much larger workforce within his household. By the combined efforts of his young sons and young wives, he may gradually expand his cultivation and become more prosperous. A man with a single wife has less help in cultivation and is likely to have little or no help for felling trees. According to Boserup's historical data, women living in such a structure also welcome one or more co-wives to share with them the burden of daily labor. However, the second wife will usually do the most tiresome work, almost as if she were a servant to the first wife, and will be inferior to the first wife in status. A 1930s study of the Mende people in the West African state of Sierra Leone concluded that a plurality of wives is an agricultural asset, since a large number of women makes it unnecessary to employ wage laborers. Polygyny is considered an economic advantage in many rural areas. In some cases, the economic role of the additional wife enables the husband to enjoy more leisure.
Anthropologist Jack Goody's comparative study of marriage around the world, using the Ethnographic Atlas, demonstrated a historical correlation between the practice of extensive shifting cultivation and polygyny in many Sub-Saharan African societies. Drawing on the work of Ester Boserup, Goody notes that in some of the sparsely populated regions where shifting cultivation takes place in Africa, much of the work is done by women. This favored polygynous marriages, in which men sought to monopolize the production of women "who are valued both as workers and as child bearers."
Goody, however, observes that the correlation is imperfect, and also describes more traditionally male-dominated though relatively extensive farming systems, such as those common in much of West Africa, particularly the savanna region, where more agricultural work is done by men, and polygamy is desired more for the production of male offspring whose labor in farming is valued.Goody, Jack. Polygyny, Economy and the Role of Women. In The Character of Kinship. London: Cambridge University Press, 1973, p. 180–190.
Goody's observation regarding African male farming systems is discussed and supported by anthropologists Douglas R. White and Michael L. Burton in their article, "Causes of Polygyny: Ecology, Economy, Kinship, and Warfare", where the authors note: "Goody (1973) argues against the female contributions hypothesis. He notes Dorjahn's (1959) comparison of East and
West Africa, showing higher female agricultural contributions in East Africa and higher polygyny rates in West Africa, especially in the West African savanna, where one finds especially high male agricultural contributions. Goody says, "The reasons behind polygyny are sexual and reproductive rather than economic and productive" (1973:189), arguing that men marry polygynously to maximize their fertility and to obtain large households containing many young dependent males."
An analysis by James Fenske (2012) found that child mortality and ecologically-related economic shocks had a stronger association with rates of polygamy in Sub-Saharan Africa rather than female agricultural contributions (which are typically relatively small in the West African savanna and Sahel, where polygyny rates are higher), finding that polygyny rates decrease significantly in line with child mortality rates.
According to scientific studies, the human mating system is considered to be moderately polygynandrous (multiple males and multiple females, all mate with each other), based both on surveys of world populations,Murdock G. P. (1981) Atlas of World Cultures. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh Press and on characteristics of human reproductive physiology.Anderson, M. J.; Dixson, A. F. (2002). "Sperm competition: motility and the midpiece in primates". Nature 416: 496Dixson, A. L.; Anderson, M. J. (2002). "Sexual selection, seminal coagulation and copulatory plug formation in primates". Folia Primatol 73: 63–69.Harcourt, A. H.; Harvey, P. H.; Larson, S. G.; Short, R.V. (1981). "Testis weight, body weight and breeding system in primates". Nature 293: 55–57
A report by the secretariat of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) quotes: "one of the strongest appeals of polygyny to men in Africa is precisely its economic aspect, for a man with several wives commands more land, can produce more food for his household and can achieve a high status due to the wealth which he can command". In Boserup's 1970 discussion of earlier analyses of polygynous systems, for example that of Little's work of the 1930s, that through the hard work, economic, and agricultural assistance of a man's several wives, a husband could afford to pay the bride price of a new wife and further his access to more land, meanwhile increasing his progeny. According to Boserup, writing in 1970, tribal rules of land tenure were still in force over much of the continent of Africa. In this system, members of a tribe which commands a certain territory had a native right to take land under cultivation for food production, and in many cases, also for the cultivation of cash crops. Under this tenure system, an additional wife is an economic asset that helps the family to expand its production.
The economist Michèle Tertilt concludes that countries that practice polygyny are less economically stable than those that practice monogamy. Polygynous countries usually have a higher fertility rate, fewer savings reserves, and a lower GDP. A 2014 study estimates that fertility would decrease by 40 percent, savings would increase by 70 percent and GDP would increase by 170 percent if polygyny were banned. Monogamous societies present a surge in economic productivity because monogamous men are able to save and invest their resources due to having fewer children. Polygynous societies have a higher concentration of men investing into methods of mating with women, whereas monogamous men invest more into their families and other related institutions.
Despite the expenses of polygynous marriages, a 1995 study suggests that men benefit from marrying multiple wives through the economic and social insurance that kinship ties produce. With a large network of in-laws, these men have the ties they need to compensate for other economic shortages.
Polygyny in West Africa, the region of the world where the practice is most common, exists in a societal context where historical factors, such as the slave trade, and the local religion, Islam, interact creating a culture where polygyny is widespread. The slave trade's impact on the male-to-female sex ratio has been cited as a key factor in the high prevalence of polygynous practices in this region of Africa.
In a 2011 doctoral thesis, anthropologist Kyle R. Gibson reviewed three studies documenting 1,208 suicide attacks from 1981 to 2007 and found that countries with higher polygyny rates correlated with greater production of suicide terrorists. Political scientist Robert Pape has found that among Islamic suicide terrorists, 97 percent were unmarried and 84 percent were male (or if excluding the Kurdistan Workers' Party, 91 percent male), while a study conducted by the U.S. military in Iraq in 2008 found that suicide bombers were almost always single men without children aged 18 to 30 (with a mean age of 22), and were typically students or employed in blue-collar occupations. In addition to noting that countries where polygyny is widely practiced tend to have higher homicide rates and Rape statistics, political scientists Valerie M. Hudson and Bradley Thayer have argued that because Islam is the only major religious tradition where polygyny is still largely condoned, the higher degrees of marital inequality in Muslim world than most of the world causes them to have larger populations susceptible to suicide terrorism, and that Houri for Shahid serves as a mechanism to mitigate in-group conflict within Islamic countries between alpha and non-alpha males by bringing esteem to the latter's families and redirecting their violence towards out-groups.
Along with his research on the Tamil Tigers, anthropologist Scott Atran found that Palestinian terrorist groups (such as Hamas) provide monthly , Lump sum, and massive prestige to the families of suicide terrorists. Citing Atran and other anthropological research showing that 99 percent of Palestinian suicide terrorists are male, that 86 percent are unmarried, and that 81 percent have at least six siblings (larger than the average Palestinian family size), cognitive scientist Steven Pinker argues in The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011) that because the families of men in the West Bank and Gaza Strip often cannot afford and that many potential brides end up in polygynous marriages, the financial compensation of an act of suicide terrorism can buy enough brides for a man's brothers to have children to make the self-sacrifice pay off in terms of kin selection and biological fitness (with Pinker also citing a famous quotation attributed to evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane when Haldane quipped that he would not sacrifice his life for his brother but would for "two brothers or eight cousins").
Women participating in polygynous marriages share common marital problems with women in a monogamous marriage; however, there are issues uniquely related to polygyny which affects their overall life satisfaction and have severe implications for women's health. Women practicing polygyny are susceptible to sexually transmitted infections, infertility, and mental health complications. Among the Logoli of Kenya, the fear of AIDS or becoming infected with the HIV virus has informed women's decisions about entering polygynous marriages. Some view polygyny as a means to prevent men from taking random sexual partners and potentially introducing STIs into relationships. Interviews conducted with some of the Logoli tribe in Kenya suggested they feared polygynous marriages because of what they have witnessed in the lives of other women who are currently in such relationships. The observed experiences of some of the women in polygynous unions tend to be characterized by frequent jealousy, conflicts, competition, tensions, and psychological stresses. Some of the husbands fail to share love and other resources equally; and envy and hatred, and sometimes violent physical confrontations become the order of the day among co-wives and their children. This discourages women from entering a polygynous marriage.Gwako, Edwins Laban. "Polygamy Among the Logoli of Western Kenya". Anthropos 93.4 (1998). Web. Research shows that competition and conflict can intensify to unbearable level for co-wives causing women to commit suicide due to psychological distress. Findings show that the wife order can affect life satisfaction. According to Bove and Valeggia, women who are senior wives often misuse their position to obtain healthcare benefits in countries where only one wife can become a recipient. The conflict between co-wives can attribute to the higher rates of mental health disorders and issues such as anxiety, depression, somatization, psychoticism, and paranoia. As well as this reduced marital/life satisfaction and low self-esteem has been shown to be more prevalent among women in polygynous relationships when compared to women in monogamous relationships.
Various methods have been used to reduce the amount of jealousy and conflict among wives. These include sororal polygyny, in which the co-wives are sisters; and hut polygyny, in which each wife has her own residence and the husband visits them in rotation. A clear status hierarchy among wives is also sometimes used to avoid fighting by establishing unequivocally each wife's rights and obligations. Although there are several harmful aspects of this practice related to women, there are some reported personal and economic advantages for women such as sharing household and child rearing responsibilities. Also, wives share companionship and support with co-wives.
Studies of the Ngwa group in eastern Nigeria shows that on average, women in polygynous unions are 22–26 percent less fertile than women in monogamous unions. Data shows that the greater the intensity of polygyny, the lower the fertility of successive wives: 15 percent deficit for first wives; a 37 percent deficit for second wives; and a 46 percent deficit for third or more wives. Studies show that seems to exist because of the widening age gap between the successive order of wives and because of the decreasing exposure to coitus, if all coitus occurs in marriage.
The ecological association between polygyny and HIV prevalence is shown to be negative at the sub-national level. HIV prevalence tends to be 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.
For example, studies in Malawi have shown that for men and women in polygynous marriages, the rate of HIV is between 10 and 15 percent. About 14 percent of Malawi's population is infected with HIV, which causes AIDS, according to official figures. There are approximately 78,000 AIDS-related deaths and 100,000 new infections every year in the country.
A notable critic of polygyny was Thomas Aquinas nearly eight centuries ago. He contended that polygyny is unjust to wives and children. He also argues that it creates rival stepchildren and forces them to compete for attention, food, and shelter. According to Aquinas, polygyny violates the requirements of fidelity between husband and wife.
Polygyny has been criticized by feminism such as Professor John O. Ifediora, who believes that women should be equal to men and not subject to them in marriage. Professor Ifediora also believes that polygyny is a "hindrance to social and economic development" in the continent of Africa due to women's lack of financial control. Standard polygynist practices often leave women at a disadvantage if they make the decision to remove themselves from the polygynist lifestyle. To leave the marriage, women must repay their bride price. Though this is simple in thought, this is not simple in execution. To prevent their wives from leaving, husbands will often keep the bride price at high levels, which is often at an unpayable level for women. In most cases, women do not have access to their children if they decide to leave polygyny, nor are they allowed to take them, due to cultural ideas of ownership in relation to progeny. Marci Hamilton sees polygyny as a form of oppression of women; she wrote: "In polygamy, also not a victimless crime, the practice is built on the subjugation of women to the men's needs and demands. Moreover, for many of the religious polygamists, the women are nothing but the means to a particular doctrinal end – creating more children to increase the man's odds of getting into heaven. Again, the men control the finances and the women are commodities, carrying out the sexual goals of the men. There can be no gender equality in this scenario, which is incapable of being squared with any viable theory of women's rights." First wives in polygynous marriages are often in a difficult situation, when the law or religious code does not require their consent or input for new wives to be admitted in the marriage, so the first wife is forced to accept any new women brought into the family by the husband and to get along with them. Polygyny is criticized because of its asymmetrical, unequal marital arrangement, where the husband has sexual/romantic relations with several women, but the wives can only have such a relation with one man, their husband, which often leads to rigid gender roles in the marriage.
A criticism against polygyny is that in almost all cultures and religious communities that practice it, polygyny is the only form of polygamy that is allowed; and, as such, this violates modern principles of equality between men and women, especially as in many such places females having multiple partners is violently punished through and stoning, or discouraged through female genital mutilation. In the United States, there has been controversy surrounding the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that practices polygyny, after the community has been marred by accusations of child sexual abuse, welfare fraud, and child labor trafficking, that culminated in the life imprisonment of polygynous leader Warren Jeffs.
Unlike those marriages recognized by Sharia, there is no limit to the number of legal wives allowed under customary law. Currently polygyny is most common within Royal family and Nobility families within the country, and is largely practiced by the tribes native to its north and west. Although far less popular there, it is nonetheless also legal in Nigeria's east and south.
Polygyny varies according to a woman's age, religion and educational experience. Research conducted in the city of Ibadan, the second largest city in Nigeria, shows that non-educated women are significantly more likely (58%) to be in a polygynous union compared to college educated women (4%). Followers of traditional African religions are expected to have as many wives as they can afford. Muslim men are allowed up to 4 wives and only if they can be provided for and treated equally. Christians are typically (and expected to be) monogamous.
Among the Ngwa group in Eastern Nigeria, studies show that 70% of polygynous marriages consist of illiterate men and women, compared to 53% in monogamous marriages.
Efforts to abolish the practice and de facto recognition of polygyny have been widely apparent throughout the recent years in Malawi; led mainly by anti-AIDS organizations and feminist groups. An effort led in 2008 to outlaw polygyny in the country was fiercely opposed by Islamic religious leaders, citing the practice as a cultural, religious and pragmatic reality of the nation.
Despite the historical and cultural history of polygyny among Muslim South Africans, polygynous unions are officially illegal on the national level in South Africa. After 1994, various laws such as the freedom of religion in the South African Constitution, the ratification of the UN's Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and a proposed Draft Bill on Muslim Marriages have tackled the issue of Islamic polygynous unions in South Africa.
Proposals have been made to re-legalize polygamy in other ex-Soviet Muslim republics, such as Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
The original wife (or legal wife) was referred to as the 正室 zhèngshì /정실 (main room) both in China, Japan and Korea. 大婆 dàpó ("big woman/big wife") is the slang term. Both terms indicate the orthodox nature and hierarchy. The official wife was called "big mother" (大媽 dàmā), mother or aunt. The child of the concubine addressed the big mother as "aunt".
The written word for the second woman was 側室 cèshì /측실 and literally means "she who occupied the side room". This word was also used in both Korea and Japan. They were also called 妾 qiè/첩 in China and Korea. The common terms referring to the second woman, and the act of having the second woman respectively, are 二奶 ( èrnǎi), literally "the second wife".
Polygyny where wives are of equal status had always been illegal in China, and had been considered a crime in some dynasties. In family laws from Tang to Qing Dynasties, the status of a wife, concubines and maid-mistresses could not be altered. However, concubinage was supported by law until the end of the Qing dynasty of the imperial China (1911). In the past, Emperors could and often did have hundreds to thousands of concubines. Rich officials and merchants of the elite also took concubines in addition to legal wives. The first wife was the head or mother wife; other wives were under her headship if the husband was away. Concubines had a lower status than full wives, generally not being seen in public with their husband and not having rights to decisions in the house. Children from concubines were considered inferior to those of the wife and did not receive equal wealth/legacy from their father. However they were considered legitimate, therefore had many more rights to inheritance of status and wealth than illegitimate children conceived outside a marriage.
Polygamy was de facto widely practiced in the Republic of China from 1911 to 1949, before Kuomintang was defeated in the Civil War and retreated to Taiwan. Zhang Zongchang, a well-known warlord, notably declared he had three 'unknowns' – unknown number of rifles, unknown amount of money, and unknown number of concubines.
Chinese people men in Hong Kong could practice concubinage by virtue of the Qing Code. This ended with the passing of the Marriage Reform Ordinance () in 1970. Kevin Murphy of the International Herald Tribune reported on the cross-border polygamy phenomenon in Hong Kong in 1995. In a research paper of Humboldt University of Berlin on sexology, Doctor Man-Lun Ng estimated about 300,000 men in China have mistresses. In 1995, forty percent of extramarital affairs in Hong Kong involved a stable partner. "Hong Kong" , The International Encyclopedia of Sexuality
Period drama and historical novels frequently refer to the former culture of polygamy (usually polygyny). An example is the Wuxia novel The Deer and the Cauldron by Hong Kong writer Jin Yong, in which the protagonist Wei Xiaobao has seven wives (In a later edition of the novel, Princess Jianning was assigned as the wife, while others are concubines).
The Bosniaks population in neighbouring Raška, Serbia, has also been influenced by this trend in Bosnia. They have suggested creating an entire Islamic jurisdiction including polygamy, but these proposals have been rejected by Serbia. The top cleric, the Mufti of Novi Pazar, Muamer Zukorlić, has taken a second wife.
Chechen politician Ramzan Kadyrov actively advocated for polygynous marriage to gain legal recognition. Muslim leaders such as Talgat Tadzhuddin also pushed for the legal recognition of polygynous marriage.
Polygyny was legalized and documented in unrecognised Chechen Republic of Ichkeria but Russian authorities had annulled these polygynous marriages after they regained control over territory of Ichkeria. Later Ramzan Kadyrov, President of the Chechen Republic, has been quoted on radio as saying that the depopulation of Chechnya by war justifies legalizing polygamy. "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do: The Economic Case for Polygamy", Pilegesh.org blog Kadyrov has been supported by Nafigallah Ashirov, the Chairman of the Council of Grand of Russia, who has said that polygamy is already widespread among Muslim communities of the country.
In Ingushetia in July, 1999 polygyny was officially recognised and allowed by edict of president of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev and registration of polygyny marriages had been started allowing men to marry up to four wives as it relates to Muslim tradition. But this edict had been formally suspended soon by edict of President of Russia Boris Yeltsin. One year later this edict of Aushev had been cancelled by the Supreme Court of Ingushetia because of contradiction with Family Code of Russia.
Although non-Muslim Russian populations have historically practiced monogamy, Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky offered to legalize polygyny to encourage population growth and correct the demographic crisis of Russians. Zhirinovsky first proposed to legalize polygyny in 1993, after Kadyrov's declaration that he would introduce an amendment to legalize polygyny for all Russian citizens. Vladimir Zhirinovsky Op-Ed: "When One Wife Is Not Enough" , The St. Petersburg Times
Mormon fundamentalism believes in the validity of selected fundamentalism aspects of Mormonism as taught and practiced in the nineteenth century. Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints' teachings include plural marriage, a form of polygyny first taught by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.
In the 21st century, several sources have claimed as many as 60,000 fundamentalist Latter-day Saints in the United States,Martha Sonntag Bradley, "Polygamy-Practicing Mormons" in J. Gordon Melton and Martin Baumann (eds.) (2002). Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia 3:1023–1024. Dateline NBC, 2001-01-02. with fewer than half of them living in polygamous households.Ken Driggs, "Twentieth-Century Polygamy and Fundamentalist Mormons in Southern Utah", , Winter 1991, pp. 46–47. Others have suggested that there may be as few as 20,000 Mormon fundamentalistsIrwin Altman, "Polygamous Family Life: The Case of Contemporary Mormon Fundamentalists", Utah Law Review (1996) p. 369.D. Michael Quinn, "Plural Marriage and Mormon Fundamentalism" , 31(2) (Summer 1998): 1–68, accessed 27 March 2009. with only 8,000 to 15,000 practicing polygamy.Stephen Eliot Smith, "'The Mormon Question' Revisited: Anti-Polygamy Laws and the Free Exercise Clause", LL.M. thesis, Harvard Law School, 2005. The largest Mormon fundamentalist groups are the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church) and the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB). The FLDS Church is estimated to have 10,000 members residing in the sister cities of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona; Eldorado, Texas; Westcliffe, Colorado; Mancos, Colorado; Creston and Bountiful, British Columbia; Pringle, South Dakota, and Montana. "The Primer" – Helping Victims of Domestic Violence and Child Abuse in Polygamous Communities. A joint report from the offices of the Attorneys General of Arizona and Utah.
In July 2022, a Mexican judge in the state of Puebla's Eighth District Civil Court authorized the country's first threesome group marriage.
Polygamy in Thailand was legally recognized until 1935. Myanmar outlawed polygyny from 2015. In Sri Lanka, polyandry was legal in the Kingdom of Kandy, but outlawed by British after conquering the kingdom in 1815. When the Buddhist texts were translated into Chinese, the of others were added to the list of inappropriate partners. Polyandry in Tibet was common traditionally, as was polygyny, and having several wives or husbands was never regarded as having sex with inappropriate partners.
The Parabhava Sutta states that "a man who is not satisfied with one woman and seeks out other women is on the path to decline". Other fragments in the Buddhist scripture seem to treat polygamy unfavorably, leading some authors to conclude that Buddhism generally does not approve of it The Ethics of Buddhism, Shundō Tachibana, Routledge, 1992, or alternatively regards it as a tolerated, but subordinate, marital model. An introduction to Buddhist ethics: foundations, values, and issues, Brian Peter Harvey, Cambridge University Press, 2000,
Most Christian theologians argue that in Matthew 19:3–9 and referring to Genesis 2:24, Jesus explicitly states a man should have only one wife:
In the New Testament, scriptures state that polygamy should not be practiced by certain church leaders. 1 Timothy says that certain Church leaders should have but one wife: "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife (), vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach". Verse 12 has similar advice regarding deacons having only one wife. Similar counsel is repeated in the first chapter of the Epistle to Titus.
Periodically, Christian reform movements that have aimed at rebuilding Christian doctrine based on the Bible alone ( sola scriptura) have at least temporarily accepted polygyny as a Biblical practice. For example, during the Protestant Reformation, in a document referred to simply as Der Beichtrat (or The Confessional Advice ), Letter to Philip of Hesse, 10 December 1539, De Wette-Seidemann, 6:238–244 Martin Luther, whose reformation caused a schism in the Western Christian Church leading to the formation of the Lutheran Church, granted the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, who, for many years, had been living "constantly in a state of adultery and fornication", a dispensation to take a second wife. The double marriage was to be done in secret, however, to avoid public scandal.James Bowling Mozley Essays, Historical and Theological 1:403–404 Excerpts from Der Beichtrat Some fifteen years earlier, in a letter to the Saxon Chancellor Gregor Brück, Luther stated that he could not "forbid a person to marry several wives, for it does not contradict Scripture." (Ego sane fateor, me non posse prohibere, si quis plures velit uxores ducere, nec repugnat sacris literis.)Letter to the Chancellor Gregor Brück, 13 January 1524, De Wette 2:459.
The Lutheran World Federation hosted a regional conference in Africa, in which the acceptance of polygynists and their wives into full membership by the Lutheran Church in Liberia was defended as being permissible. The Lutheran Church in Liberia, while permitting men to retain their wives from marriages prior to being received into the Church, does not permit polygynists who have become Christians to marry more wives after they have received the sacrament of Holy Baptism.
On the other hand, the Roman Catholic Church criticizes polygyny in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Under paragraph 2387 of "Other offenses against the dignity of marriage" of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it states "is not in accord with the moral law". Additionally, paragraph 1645 of "The Goods and Requirements of Conjugal Love" states "The unity of marriage, distinctly recognized by our Lord, is made clear in the equal personal dignity which must be accorded to husband and wife in mutual and unreserved affection. Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love which is undivided and exclusive." There are small numbers of Roman Catholic theologians that claim polygyny can be an authentic form of marriage in certain regions such as Africa.Vittorio Messori (1985). The Ratzinger report: An exclusive interview on the state of the Church — Pope Benedict XVI, Ignatius Press, p. 195.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, there has often been a tension between the Western Christian insistence on monogamy and the traditional practice of polygamy. In some instances in recent times there have been moves for accommodation; in other instances, churches have resisted such moves strongly. African Independent Churches have sometimes referred to those parts of the Old Testament that describe polygamy in defending the practice.
Based on verse 30:21 of Quran the ideal relationship is the comfort that a couple find in each other's embrace:
Polygyny is allowed in the Quran but if a man fears he cannot deal justly with them he should only marry one. This is based on verse 4:3 of Quran which says:
There are strict requirements to marrying more than one woman, as the man must treat them equally financially and in terms of support given to each wife, according to Islamic law.
Muslim women are not allowed to marry more than one husband at once. However, in the case of a divorce or their husbands' death they can remarry after the completion of Iddah, as divorce is legal in Islamic law. A non-Muslim woman who flees from her non-Muslim husband and accepts Islam can remarry without divorce from her previous husband, as her marriage with non-Muslim husband is Islamically dissolved on her fleeing. A non-Muslim woman captured during war by Muslims, can also remarry, as her marriage with her non-Muslim husband is Islamically dissolved at capture by Muslim soldiers. This permission is given to such women in verse 4:24 of Quran. The verse also emphasizes transparency, mutual agreement and financial compensation as prerequisites for matrimonial relationship as opposed to prostitution; it says:
Muhammad was monogamously married to Khadija, his first wife, for 25 years, until she died. After her death, he married multiple women, mostly widows," Prophet Muhammad and polygyny", IslamWeb. for social and political reasons.Sahar El-Nadi, " Why Did the Prophet Have So Many Wives?," OnIslam.net He had a total of nine wives, but not all at the same time, depending on the sources in his lifetime. The Qur'an does not give preference in marrying more than one wife. One reason cited for polygyny is that it allows a man to give financial protection to multiple women, who might otherwise not have any support (e.g. widows). However, the wife can set a condition, in the nikah, that the husband cannot marry another woman during their marriage. In such a case, the husband cannot marry another woman as long as he is married to his wife. According to traditional Islamic law, each of those wives keeps their property and assets separate; and are paid mahr and maintenance separately by their husband. Usually the wives have little to no contact with each other and lead separate, individual lives in their own houses, and sometimes in different cities, though they all share the same husband.
In most Muslim-majority countries, polygyny is legal with Kuwait being the only one where no restrictions are imposed on it. The practice is illegal in Muslim-majority Turkey, Tunisia, Albania, Kosovo and the countries. Kazakhstan is the only country among the Central Asia states namely to not criminalize polygyny.
Countries that allow polygyny typically also require a man to obtain permission from his previous wives before marrying another; they may require the man to prove that he can financially support multiple wives. In Malaysia and Morocco, a man must justify taking an additional wife at a court hearing before he is allowed to do so.
Since the 11th century, Ashkenazi Jews have followed Gershom ben Judah's ban on polygyny (except in rare circumstances). Frequently asked questions, Judaism and Polygamy. Some Mizrahi Jews (Middle Eastern) Jewish communities (particularly Yemenite Jews and Persian Jews) discontinued polygyny more recently, after they immigrated to countries where it was forbidden or illegal. Israel prohibits polygamy by law, Penal Law Amendment (Bigamy) Law, 5719-1959. and Mizrahi Jews are not permitted to enter into new polygamous marriages in Israel, though existing polygamous marriages may be maintained. Polygamy may still occur in non-European Jewish communities that exist in countries where it is not forbidden, such as Jewish communities in Iran or Morocco.
Polygyny in eusocial insects means that some insects living in colonies have not only one queen, but several queens. Solitary species of insects take part in this practice in order to maximize their reproductive success of the widely dispersed females, such as the bee species Anthidium maculosum. Insects such as red flour beetles use polygyny to reduce inbreeding depression and thus maximize reproductive success.
There is primary polygyny (several queens join to found a new colony, but after the hatching of the first workers the queens fight each other until only one queen survives and the colony becomes monogynous) and secondary polygyny (a well-established colony continues to have several queens).
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