Polygamy

The definition of the plural marriage contrasts polygamy or polygyny (two or more wives for one husband) and polyandry (two or more husbands for one wife). There have been various societies with polygamous households within continental African populations, and there have been some cases of polyandry in India and the South Pacific islands. Does plural marriage uniformly aim at or succeed in subordinating women? Some authors assert that the effect of polygamy is obviously to degrade the position of women, but others state that this arrangement continues to give a woman a considerable amount of independence.

One can describe polygamy by two characteristics: (1) its incidence and (2) its intensity. For those societies with polygamous husbands, incidence is measured by the relative number of married males with more than one wife in the total population of married males. To identify how many individuals marry more than one wife is useful to the extent that it affects a family's social lifestyle. This may include conjugal relationships (for example, issues of deference, authority, and power), the number of children in the family, or child rearing practices (breast-feeding, postpartum taboo, and schooling) and varies depending on the players: that is, the monogamous and polygamous status of both husband and wife.

Intensity refers to the number of polygynous males with more than two wives. The frequency of polygyny depends on the legal or customary definition of the [Page 1145]field of eligible spouses. This may include matters of inheritance custom, such as the levirat (inheritance of widows), or uxorial rights that the deceased husband had in his wife (or wives). In addition, in some societies sororal polygyny exists where a man marries two or more sisters.

Four matters are particularly interesting: (1) variation among ethnic groups; (2) the status of monogamous and polygamous husbands and wives; (3) the characteristics of individual cowives in a polygamous marriage (senior or junior cowives); and (4) comparisons of the spatial (anglophone and francophone nations) and temporal variations in polygamy. Some illustrations follow.

Age is an influential factor for variation among ethnic groups. Other significant factors are gender, the husband and wife's marriage status (monogamous or polygamous), and matrimonial rank. Plural marriage has been typically a privilege for the elder husband. Based on his wives' mortality rate, a husband oscillated from monogamy to polygamy. The older a man, the greater the number of wives that he might marry. Research suggests that the incidence of nonmarriage is equally low between the sexes. There is little variation in average marital age for each gender, but the size of the various age populations is uneven for the two sexes. In addition, since a women often marry at sixteen while a man marries at twenty-five, there is a surplus of 25 percent of marriageable women.

Cultural and economic factors are influenced by the nature of the power and authority structure of the familial groups found in an ethnic group. An ethnic group has various relevant characteristics. One notices the type of patrilineal descent (father to son) or matrilineal descent (sister to brother) kin groups. One emphasizes the patrilineal transmission of rights from the bride's family to her husband's group; patrilocal rules of residence may also apply. The patrilineal group has a higher level of incidence, intensity, and divorce rates than matrilineal groups. While patrilineal groups receive a bride-wealth and a dowry, the matrilineal group only provides a dowry, which is generally greater than in the patrilineal group. For example, in Côte d'Ivoire there are ethnic groups that are matrilineal (such as Baoule or Agni) and associated with a lower plural marriage incidence. In contrast, there are patrilineal Bete or Malinke that are associated with a higher plural marriage rate.

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