Polygamy

Prevalence of Polygamy

Current Western governments recognize only monogamy, but that is not the case worldwide. Among the 1,231 societies in the Ethnographic Atlas Codebook, 186 (15 percent) were monogamous, 453 (37 percent) had occasional polygyny, 588 (48 percent) had more frequent polygyny, and 10 (less than 1 percent) had polyandry.

The foregoing does not mean that 85 percent of the world's population supports polygamy. Many polygamous societies are small, underdeveloped cultures. Nonetheless, polygyny is considered to be a legitimate form of marriage in Algeria, Benin, Chad, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kuwait, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Togo, and Tanzania, as well as among the Bedouin-Arabs in Israel and Xhosa in South Africa.

The prevalence of polygyny also does not mean that a male may choose any female as an additional wife. In many polygamous societies, the first spouse must consent to the choice of a second spouse. Fifteen percent of societies in which multiple wives were common also emphasized sororal polygyny, limiting the male to his wife's sisters, such as Native American Sioux and the Zulus of Africa. At other times, an additional spouse is obligatory. In 69 percent of polygynous societies, a man was expected to marry the widow of his brother and to raise the nephews and nieces as his own. In 62 percent of polygynous societies, the cowives live in separate dwellings.

The original religious teaching of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) encouraged men to have at least three wives. Polygyny is illegal in the United States, and the LDS church hierarchy banned the practice of plural marriage in 1890 as part of Utah's application for statehood. Nonetheless, polygyny continues to be practiced in some fundamentalist LDS sects, primarily located in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

Islam permits polygyny with up to four wives. Some Muslim immigrants in the United States from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia bring multiple wives with them during the immigration process, concealing the females' identity as sisters or daughters. Other Muslim men take a second, third, or fourth wife in Islamic religious ceremonies that are not recognized by civil law, leaving the later wives and children in jeopardy in matters of health care, social security, and inheritance.

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