Polygamy

Not to be confused with Polygyny, Polyamory, or Polysexuality.
For polygamy in non-human animals, see Animal sexual behaviour § Polygamy. For polygamy in plants, see Plant reproductive morphology. For the racehorse, see Polygamy (horse).

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Polygamy (from Late Greek πολυγαμία polygamía, "state of marriage to many spouses")[1][2][3][4] is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, it is called polygyny. When a woman is married to more than one husband at the same time, it is called polyandry. In sociobiology and zoology, researchers use polygamy in a broad sense to mean any form of multiple mating.

In contrast to polygamy, monogamy is marriage consisting of only two parties. Like "monogamy", the term "polygamy" is often used in a de facto sense, applied regardless of whether a state recognizes the relationship.[note 1] In many countries, the law only recognises monogamous marriages (a person can only have one spouse, and bigamy is illegal), but adultery is not illegal, leading to a situation of de facto polygamy being allowed without legal recognition for non-official "spouses".

Worldwide, different societies variously encourage, accept or outlaw polygamy. In societies which allow or tolerate polygamy, polygyny is the accepted form in the vast majority of cases. According to the Ethnographic Atlas Codebook, of 1,231 societies noted between from 1960 to 1980, 588 had frequent polygyny, 453 had occasional polygyny, 186 were monogamous, and 4 had polyandry[5] – although more recent research found some form of polyandry in 53 communities, which is more common than previously thought.[6] In cultures which practice polygamy, its prevalence among that population often correlates with social class and socioeconomic status.[7] Polygamy (taking the form of 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.[8]

  1. ^ Harper, Douglas. "polygamy". Online Etymology Dictionary. "Polygamy | Etymology, origin and meaning of polygamy by etymonline". Archived from the original on 1 February 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  2. ^ πολυγαμία. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
  3. ^ "πολυγαμία". Dictionary of Standard Modern Greek (in Greek). Center for the Greek Language. Archived from the original on 1 February 2016.
  4. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2002). "s.v. πολυγαμία". Dictionary of Modern Greek (in Greek). Lexicology Centre.
  5. ^ Ethnographic Atlas Codebook Archived 18 November 2012 at the Wayback Machine derived from George P. Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas recording the marital composition of 1231 societies from 1960 to 1980
  6. ^ Starkweather, Katherine; Hames, Raymond (2012). "A Survey of Non‑Classical Polyandry". Human Nature. 23 (2): 149–72. doi:10.1007/s12110-012-9144-x. eISSN 1936-4776. ISSN 1045-6767. OCLC 879353439. PMID 22688804. S2CID 2008559. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015.
  7. ^ Golomski, Casey (6 January 2016). Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 17 February 2019 – via ResearchGate.
  8. ^ Kramer, Stephanie (7 December 2020). "Polygamy is rare around the world". Pew Research Center. Archived from the original on 7 April 2022. Retrieved 14 February 2022.


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