Polygamy

Four overlapping definitions can be adapted from the work of Ulrich Reichard and others:[9] Biologists, biological anthropologists, and behavioral ecologists often use polygamy in the sense of a lack of sexual or genetic (reproductive) exclusivity.

[17] The genetic record indicates that monogamy increased within the last 5,000-10,000 years,[24] a period associated with the development of human agriculture, non-communal land ownership, and inheritance.

[34] Anthropologist Jack Goody's comparative study of marriage around the world utilizing the Ethnographic Atlas demonstrated a historical correlation between the practice of extensive shifting horticulture and polygamy in the majority of sub-Saharan African societies.

[25] Drawing on the work of Ester Boserup, Goody notes that the sexual division of labour varies between the male-dominated intensive plough-agriculture common in Eurasia and the extensive shifting horticulture found in sub-Saharan Africa.

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.

However, the woman may never cohabit with that man, taking multiple lovers instead; these men must acknowledge the paternity of their children (and hence demonstrate that no caste prohibitions have been breached) by paying the midwife.

[60] A 2019 synthesis of these and other data found that the weight of the evidence supports a mating bond that may include polygyny or polyandry, but is most likely to be predominantly serial monogamy.

[63][64] This would correspond to the period necessary to bring a child to relative independence in the traditionally small, interdependent, communal societies of pre-Neolithic humans, before they settled into agricultural communities.

[66] The Musharoff study also found a male bias in Europeans (20% female) during an out-of-Africa migration event that may have increased the number of men successfully reproducing with women, perhaps by replenishing the genetic pool in Europe.

Other fragments in the Buddhist scripture seem to treat polygamy unfavorably, leading some authors to conclude that Buddhism generally does not approve of it[69] or alternatively regards it as a tolerated, but subordinate, marital model.

For example, during the Protestant Reformation, in a document which was simply referred to as "Der Beichtrat" (or "The Confessional Advice" ),[87] Martin Luther granted the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, who, for many years, had been living "constantly in a state of adultery and fornication",[88] a dispensation to take a second wife.

[89] 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."

Also in paragraph 1645 under the head "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.

He supported his premise by showing that their marriages, in which husband was the head, were arranged according to the rules of good management: those who are in command (quae principantur) in their society were always singular, while subordinates (subiecta) were multiple.

"[99] In chapter 7, Augustine pointed out that the Roman Empire forbad polygamy, even if the reason of fertility would support it: "For it is in a man's power to put away a wife that is barren, and marry one of whom to have children.

Further on he notices that the Church's attitude goes much further than the secular law regarding monogamy: It forbids remarrying, considering such to be a form of fornication: "And yet, save in the City of our God, in His Holy Mount, the case is not such with the wife.

In modern times a minority of Roman Catholic theologians have argued that polygamy, though not ideal, can be a legitimate form of Christian marriage in certain regions, in particular Africa.

[Conjugal] communion is radically contradicted by polygamy; this, in fact, directly negates the plan of God that was revealed from the beginning, because it is contrary to the equal personal dignity of men and women who in matrimony give themselves with a love that is total and therefore unique and exclusive.

[107] The 1988 Lambeth Conference of the Anglican Communion ruled that polygamy was permissible in certain circumstances:[108] The Conference upholds monogamy as God's plan, as the idea of relationship of love between husband and wife; nevertheless recommends that a polygamist who responds to the Gospel and wishes to join the Anglican Church may be baptized and confirmed with his believing wives and children on the following conditions: In accordance with what Joseph Smith indicated was a revelation, the practice of plural marriage, the marriage of one man to two or more women, was instituted among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early 1840s.

[110] Polygamy was made illegal in the state of Illinois[111] during the 1839–44 Nauvoo era when several top Mormon leaders, including Smith,[112][113] Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball took multiple wives.

After Joseph Smith was killed by a mob on 27 June 1844, the main body of Latter Day Saints left Nauvoo and followed Brigham Young to Utah where the practice of plural marriage continued.

The LDS Church believed that their religiously based practice of plural marriage was protected by the United States Constitution,[118] however, the unanimous 1878 Supreme Court decision Reynolds v. United States declared that polygamy was not protected by the Constitution, based on the longstanding legal principle that "laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices.

][125][126][127] Unlawful cohabitation, where prosecutors did not need to prove that a marriage ceremony had taken place (only that a couple had lived together), had been the primary tool used to prosecute polygamy in Utah since the 1882 Edmunds Act.

Smith served many missions to the western United States, where he met with and interviewed associates and women claiming to be widows of his father, who attempted to present him with evidence to the contrary.

The practice is illegal in Muslim-majority Turkey, Tunisia, Albania, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan , Uzbekistan, Tajikistan.

According to R. Joseph Karo (16th century author of the last great codification of Jewish law, the Shulchan Aruch), and many other rabbis from Safed, the ban of Rabbeinu Gershom had expired, and therefore even Ashkenazim could marry additional wives.

Late Sephardic chief rabbi Ovadia Yosef supported the legalisation by the Israeli government of polygamy and the practice of pilegesh (the keeping of concubines).

[199] Canada has taken a strong stand against polygamy, and the Canadian Department of Justice has argued that polygyny is a violation of International Human Rights Law, as a form of gender discrimination.

On 13 December 2013, a federal judge, spurred by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups,[212] struck down the parts of Utah's bigamy law that criminalized cohabitation, while also acknowledging that the state may still enforce bans on having multiple marriage licenses.

In order to make it possible for these women to have children, a procedure for application and selection for suitable men (i.e. decorated war heroes) to enter a marital relationship with an additional woman was planned.