I was watching “Sister Wives” on TV when I realized what polygamy actually meant. The TV show is about Kody Brown and he has four wives and 16 kids all together. “What is polygamy?” You asked. It is a marriage which includes more than two partners and sometimes even more than that. When a man is married to one or more woman it is called polygyny, and when a women is married to more then one man it is called polyandry. If you don’t know what polygyny is it means “many women”? Polyandry means marriage. Could you imagine having to share your own husband or boyfriend? The lifestyles are not what they used to be. Today, most Americans have one spouse. (Sister Wives)
There are so many misunderstanding about polygamy but I’m here to set it straight and tell you the real meaning and true story behind polygamy. Polygamy has been widely practiced throughout history, although Mormon s don’t practice it today. Polygamy is still known to be practiced in some small areas of Africa, Asia and small areas of north and South America. The reason why Mormons practiced polygamy in the first place was to “multiply” and spread the religion.
Only with god approval and blessing the men would be polygamous. The reason for this is a fertile woman can only give birth once a year. The women would be child bearing constantly for 30 years. Only if the man is fertile and can impregnate a woman any time he wanted or when they had sex at ANY age. By allowing a man to have multiple wives or partners he can have more kids in a year then by just having one a year, and hundreds of children for a lifetime. If a man had only one partner or wife for the 30 years of marriage he can have about 30 kids. If he had multiple partners or wives for insist he was married to...
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... , 24 1885
http://www.helpthechildbrides.com/
Jessop, Ruby. Web. 15 Jan. 2004.
http://usmarriagelaws.com/
U,S marriage Laws. N.p., 15 Jan. 2011.
www.questia.com
Mormon Polygamy. N.p., 15 Jan. 2009. Web. 9 Feb. 2012. .
Wikipedia. N.p., 15 Dec. 2012. Web. 9 Feb. 2012.
Sister Wives
Producer- Timothy Gibbons
Network TCL
September ,26 2010
www.apologeticsindex.org
“The Uses of polygamy”
Author Bateson, Mary C.
New York times February , 24 1885
http://www.helpthechildbrides.com/
Jessop, Ruby. Web. 15 Jan. 2004.
http://usmarriagelaws.com/
U,S marriage Laws. N.p., 15 Jan. 2011.
www.questia.com
Mormon Polygamy. N.p., 15 Jan. 2009. Web. 9 Feb. 2012. .
Wikipedia. N.p., 15 Dec. 2012. Web. 9 Feb. 2012.
Sister Wives
Producer- Timothy Gibbons
Network TCL
September ,26 2010
"We are a peculiar people," Elder Bruce R. McConkie once said (McConkie 25). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of a few "odd" Christian religions. Many of its practices have created much persecution and political reaction, polygamy being one of these. It created much social and political persecution of the Mormons. Most of this persecution came from anti-polygamist Christians.
religious persecution from the rest of America, as they were unable to. lead normal lives in Central America. What is the non-Mormons attitude towards Polygamy? Polygamy (in a large proportion of American’s opinions) was seen to be. wrong in the eyes of God.
Actually, “Mormon” is just a nickname for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (Another nickname is the acronym LDS) A cursory glance at the church’s full name contains Christ’s name. By the very name of their church, members state their belief in Christ.
Polygamy is not something many Americans are accustomed to. Western culture teaches that monogamy, as opposed to polygamy, is the proper, accepted form of marriage. Western culture places that morality into it's people, often from youth.
Fletcher-Stack, Peggy. “Polygamy: Not as Rare as You May Think.” Beliefnet. Beliefnet, Inc., 2011. Web. 19 Dec. 2011. .
While polygamy is illegal in America, there are roughly 30,000 to 50,000 people who live in polygamous families. According to an article in the International Business Times, about “forty thousand people in America are self-described Mormon fundamentalist who practice plural marriage and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Chris of Latter Day Saints remains the largest organized fundamentalist group in the world.” Jeffs grew up in a religious community known as FLDS, a radical branch from Mormonism, but it is not recognized within the mainstream Mormon Church....
Then the article connects to how fraternal polyandry is similar to nineteenth century marriage in England. Even though they are similar, Tibetan “believe that in this way fraternal polyandry reduces risk of fission, monogamous marriage among brother need to necessarily precipitate the division of family estate” (“When Brothers Share a Wife”). Then the article goes into how the author of this article, Melvyn C. Goldstein, asked the Tibetan people on why they marry this way. Some said it makes the family more stable and other said that is keeps conflict from affecting
Polygamy is considered illegal in the United States, which would make it a deviant practice. That fact is on the bottom burner for me when considering this situation. Forcing someone to theoretically spend the rest of their life with someone not of their choosing is definitely out of the norm in my opinion. On to...
Several studies have shown that polygamy is more likely to present harmful effects, especially towards women and children, then monogamy. Women in polygamous marriages are at higher risk of low self-esteem, and depression, then women in non-polygamous relationships. Other studies show that polygamy can be detrimental to women’s overall marital satisfaction. This only heightens during a women’s pregnancy. Women are more likely to feel vulnerable or depression while pregnant, because their husbands become more likely to pay attention to the other (non-pregnant) wives. Women in polygamous marriages have no opinion when it comes to deciding on the number of wives her husband adds to their family. This forced passivity contributing to feelings of powerlessness and emotional abuse. Polygamy can be physically damaging as well as emotional; Women in polygamous marriages are at a greater risk of contracting sexual diseases, including AIDS. Men in polygamous marriages are more likely to partake in extramarital sex and are at greater risk of contracting sexual diseases and infecting their wives. The wives are not the only ones affected by polygamy; children from polygamous families may be at a greater risk of several harmful effects. For example, research has shown that it is more common for children of polygamous families to be exposed to a higher incidence of marital conflict, family violence, and family disruptions than children of monogamous families’. As a result, children from polygamous marriages are at a greater risk of both behavioral and developmental problems. As you can see, there are numerous factors that prove polygamy among marriage can be damaging emotionally and physically on both the wives, and children
The Western Religious leaders and moralists believe only one spouse for life is the highest form of marriage. Some of the most "primitive" peoples are strictly monogamous in their ideals, while some "highly advanced" cultures have moved away from the stri...
Polyamory, like polygamy, refers to the state of conducting multiple romantic relationships at once; however, there are many distinctions between the terms. The most blatant difference is that polygamy specifies the participants are all married to each other, whereas polyamory encompasses a spectrum of relationships ranging from casual to committed. Furthermore, polygamy has its roots in religious and highly patriarchal systems, such as the Abrahamic faiths or the notorious Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Quite distinctly, the lifestyle we now know as polyamory grew out of the hippies’ free love movement in the 1960s, with considerably different values. In its modern form, it is a secular alternative lifestyle that is gradually gaining in popularity. It is estimated that there are over half a million openly polyamorous families in the United States alone.
“Polygamy is defined as a marriage in which a spouse of either gender has more than one mate at the same time. Polygamy is considered a valid form of marriage in many countries and communities around the globe” (Al-Krenawi). However, polygamy is illegal in the United States. Those who practice polygamy in America can only be “legally” married to one spouse; therefore, the subsequent spouses in a polygamist relationship hold a “singl...
As Utah polygamist Tom Green recently learned, laws against multiple spouses are still liable to be enforced. Green, who boasted five wives and an estimated twenty-five to thirty children, was convicted of four counts of bigamy (and one count of nonsupport). He was not a particularly sympathetic defendant: one of his wives was only fourteen when he married her, and he could not support all the children he promiscuously fathered. So, it’s probably not fair to say he was prosecuted because of his religious beliefs, but he was prosecuted in spite of them. He is not a particularly virtuous man, but he is, after all, a religious one.
In today’s society the assumption asserts that there must be only two adults integrated in a relationship, however in polygamous environments, having more than one spouse is traditional. Some may argue that Polygamy is simply just an alternate lifestyle. This, however, ceases to be true. Young girls are being forced to marry older men and sometimes relatives. Little boys are often abandoned because it appears to be competition for older men. Children are victims of sexual and physical abuse. Whereas, for women, they generally become stripped of their money and experience competition against the multiple wives a husband. Although Polygamy is viewed as immoral by society, the main focus point should be saving young children and women because
(Bâ, 2008, p. 38). This speech reveals that both wife and husband have the obligation of supporting the polygamy. Modou’s obligation is to God as he intentionally wanted Modou to marry again while according to Tamsir, Ramatoulaye’s obligation is to allow the marriage to occur and accept the situation as it is her duty to support her husband’s decisions. Furthermore, Mawdo also married again. His and Nabou’s marriage is to some extent similar to Modou’s.