The Negative Implications of Polygamy
Affinity for human beings to live in pairs is entirely natural. An idyllic marriage is characterised by peace, harmony and trust. Tenderness becomes the driving force for the two participants to perfect their life for the present and thereafter. On the contrary, a discontented marriage is one that leads to despair and disillusionment and negatively affects the people involved. Polygamy is said to be practice that leads to the same.
Defined as the condition of marrying multiple wives at the same time, polygamy has been a tradition that has been prevalent for centuries in many cultures namely Islam and Hinduism. Several sacred books and scriptures provide abundant evidence of the fact that polygamy was
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It is a stagnant and a one sided tradition that simply does not encourage growth of an individual. Ancient scriptures have only provided evidence as to how polygamy favours men. If we study ancient India, we realize that polygamy was practiced by the rich and the powerful. The Yagnavalkya, a Hindu law book, stipulates that men should only marry a woman who hasn’t been married before. However, the same rule was not mentioned in the case of a woman. This very fact is perfectly depicted in the book ‘Palace of Illusions” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, wherein Bheeshma’s brother says that a woman who has embraced another in her heart is not chaste whereas he himself was to get married for the third …show more content…
“The husband is the family member who is most successful in fulfilling his needs and desires. He has access to more than one sexual partner every night, whereas his wives will need to take their turn,” Masjaliza noted. Hence, it comes as no surprise that 65% of the husbands interviewed, recommended polygamy as a family institution. But only 25% of first wives and about 50% of second wives held this view. For that reason one can say that polygamy as an institution gratifies the male psyche.
On the flip side, women in polygamous relationships often suffer from negative emotions. A survey of 100 Arab women found that many of them experienced feelings of neglect and jealousy. Polygamy subordinates women and fails to treat them as equals to men. Firstly, polygamy produces male dominated marriages where the wife is voiceless. Secondly, it forces women into subordinate roles which results in unworkable families, full of strife, abuse and
This is ironic because the anti-polygamists believed in the Bible, but not polygamy, one of its teachings. Many of God’s righteous followers in the Old Testament practiced polygamy. Abraham married Hagar, Sarai’s handmaiden (Genesis 16:1-3). Jacob was married to Leah, Rachel, Billah, and Zilpha, all at the same time.
All the way through Migdim's incident with arranged marriages, we can understand the old customs that has to do with marriage. It is obvious that, although women were believed to be obedient, they were capable to effectively convince men. Yet, today there seems to be a sign toward polygamous marriages that are eventu...
Furru Chenta has two wives. Sia Chenta, his first wife and mother of two children, said that having another wife is benefical for her because they can share the house work. When Furru told her that the housework was being too much work for her on top of the two kids and that he was considering taking on another wife her only stipulation was that he treats both wives as equals. In this specific case there wasn’t much jealousy amongst the two. Although, N’tata, the younger wife has less respect for Sia. Sia said that when Furru wants to spend the night with her and it is not her turn she turn him down and when N’tata openly said she will spend nights with him when it’s not her turn because she believes she is his favorite. But when they were at the market and got other opinions from women they said that having more than one wife just causes problem and sometimes even death. When Furru was questioned which wife was his favorite he said that he doesn’t have one and that they’re equal. Polygamy is not practiced exclusively to Muslims half of the polygamist is Animist or converted Christians who practice polygamy in secret. Due to wars and immigration there is twice as many women as men. For the most part women who don’t obtain and education are amongst those who believe polygamy is functional. Polygamy is beneficial to women in Africa because less women as single and widowed but is also very dysfunctional because it can cause for divorces and many other problems within a family. Not all places in Africa are the big decisions left to the
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.
Beside the social stigmatism to polygamy, monogamy has many benefits for the human race. Although some may argue, as humans, we aren’t exactly designed to be a perfectly monogamist species, it my personal opinion that we have the adept skills to make monogamy work and be a valuable way of life. Of the about 4,000 mammal species on Earth, only a few dozen form lifelong monogamous pair bonds (Jeffries). That equates to approximately 3% of all mammals participating in monogamous activities. Professor Roger Rubin reports in his paper “Alternative Family Lifestyles Revisited …Communes”?, family...
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
Slonim-Nevo, Vered, and Alean Al-Krenawi. 2006. “Success and Failure among Polygamous Families: the Experience of Wives, Husbands, and Children.” Family process 45(3):311-330. doi: 10.1111/j.1545-5300.2006.00173.x.
In the United States, marriage is a commitment two people make for the rest of their lives. The average American marriage lasts seven years. Well over half of all marriages end in divorce (Francouer, 72). Statistics in the infidelity have rose fifty percent since the 1970s and is rising all the time. The divorce count in this country is now up to one out of every three-marriage end in divorce. Serial polygamy is a common lifestyle for those who are divorced and then become remarried. The relationship between a husband and wife should be sacred and trustworthy. Without the trust and honesty there is no marriage. Monogamy is the loving, sharing, and devoting one's self to another person for the rest of their life. Monogamy should be the most important aspect in a marriage.
Despite these notable numbers, polyamory remains misunderstood and much maligned. Largely due to our unwarranted and yet seemingly unwavering faith in the sanctity of monogamy, polygamists often feel tremendous pressure to hide their private lives, for fear of losing the respect of friends and family. By creating a stigma around having multiple partners, we as a society are committing nothing less than discrimination. Despite all of the arguments that its opponents have hurled against the lifestyle, p...
Many people would happily accept an opportunity to have their daily stress reduced by employing help with not only their children but also with daily household responsibilities of cooking and cleaning. Especially in this fragile economic state the average family living in America cannot afford the luxury of hiring a house cleaner, cook or nanny. However, there are polygamists families in America have the abilities of multiple adults contributing to the same household because of the lifestyle choice of having multiple spouses. The extra help comes at a price for woman, by having to share her husband with other woman and raising her children in the difficult and uncommon lifestyle. Polygamy takes a total acceptance and understanding of it by the mothers, in order for polygamy not to have a negative psychological impact on her children. Children are the innocent victims of polygamy; consequently, they grow up witnessing a tense environment filled with their mother’s insecurities and rivalries with the other wives, which sequentially end up harming the child in the end. Furthermore, polygamy can be psychologically damaging to children because of the increased rates of not only welfare fraud, domestic violence, and underage marriages but also child abuse and neglect.
Although what we were told by God, in many primitive civilizations marriage was primarily industrial. During early times husband and wife were not much together; they did not even eat together very often.(The Marriage Institution 1). Their marriages were always planned by their parents and in some cases brides were bought. Polygamy was also frequent in the early history of marriage. Although, as civilization progressed monogamy became the idealistic goal of human sex evolution.(The Marriage Institution 6). In addition, as civilization advanced, marriage became more seriously regarded and the wedding ceremony became recurrent. The marriage ceremony grew out of the fact that marriage was originally a community affair and also primitive man had no records, so the marriage had to be witnessed by many people.
Abstract- In today’s society marriages are falling apart rapidly. The matrimony is considered to be volatile and sensitive to relationship and is threatened by infidelity Married couples loses interest in each other’s personalities and this is the start of infidelity.
“Polygyny is the marriage of one man to more than one woman at the same time” (Powell 167). This structure of marriage is prevalent among the families of Okonkwo’s village, and Okonkwo himself has three wives. A man with many wives was looked upon in a better light than a man with only one wife or no wife at all. In the novel, Okonkwo is said to have had a hard start as a young man because “he neither inherited a barn, nor a title, nor even a young wife” (Achebe 18). Men view wives as a means to gain titles and respect as well as extra labor power for thier combines. Women bring a number of benefits to a man: sexual services, reproductive power, labor, farms for women’s crops, in-laws with goods, land, and livestock. Men typically have only one wife if they lacked wealth (Amadiume 30-31). This is a feminist issue because the people of the village treat women as property that can be inherited. A feminist critic sees how polygyny devalues women and treats them the same as animals. According to Nigerian law, a woman is categorized “as an object who is not quite human” (Bazza 176). In Nigeria, if a woman is involved in polygyny and her husband divorces her for whatever reason, she cannot remarry and often turns to prostitution or extreme poverty for herself and her children (Kunhiyop 44). There is no good that comes from polygyny for
Polygamy is a system of marriage that allows people to have more than one spouse at a time (Ferris & Stein, 2016, p.355). Polygamy is often overlooked and a form of taboo. Individuals that have a polygamous arrangement are married to the first spouse and their other spouses are considered to be spiritual partners. People find more than one spouse so that they are able to balance work and life. Having more than one spouse helps ease the stress of overworking to provide for their family and also missing special moments that people want to have with their families (Ludwig, 2011). Such as a baby’s milestone or an anniversary, no parent or adult wants to miss one of those. The illegality of polygamy is what kept these groups from joining mainstream
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