Polygamy

Polygamy

Polygamy is the practice of having more than one spouse. There are three different types of polygamy that are usually practised within western societies.

1. Serial polygamy- marriage, divorce, marriage, divorce, marriage, divorce, and so on.

2. A man married to one woman but having and supporting mistresses.

3. An unmarried man with many mistresses.

Up to about a 150 years ago, polygamy was practised commonly and throughout many countries. Most commonly, men would have several women in their family and procreate with most of them. King Solomon was known to have seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. No early society had a limited number of wives. They could be treated how ever you pleased and there were no laws or restrictions to protect them.

When people were asked how they felt about being in a polygynous marriage, most responded that although they didn't like the arrangement, the hardest part was that some wives would be neglected and some were treated better. But some families even functioned better within that type of family. They seemed to be harder workers sometimes than people in other types of families. But there are some harms of polygamy.

Canadian scholar Joseph Henrich believes that polygamy can lead to increased crime, prostitution, anti social behaviour, bad parenting and great inequality between men and women. Polygynous men spend less time with their kids to the point that the children's survival skills are effected. With polygamy, less men will be married because women will be taken by the most popular men, and unmarried men have been proven to be more involved with aggressive, violent and anti-social behaviour. If we live in a monogamous world, there would be less competition for women which would mean men treating the women better, and