Circumcision and polygyny are universal; the former is sometimes attributed to Mahommedan influences, but has really prevailed almost everywhere in East Africa from the remotest time.
Polygyny is the rule and each wife is regarded as adding dignity to the household.
It is, indeed, manifest that the levirate-polygyny rule stands to the exogamous principle somewhat in the relation of a part to the whole or of a special instance to a broader principle.
In short, where the levirate-polygyny usages coexist with exogamy, it would be rash to derive a merging and bifurcate nomenclature from the former rather than from the latter.
No doubt an explanation can be patched together on the levirate-polygyny hypothesis.
Darwin, Charles: on monogamy and polygyny among lower animals, i, 96 n.
The more advanced savages and barbarians seem to indulge in this practice to a greater extent than the lower ones, many, or most, of whom are either little addicted to polygyny or strictly monogamous.
But the proportion between the sexes is only one cause out of many to which polygyny is due.
Polygyny is finally checked by the respect in which women are held by men.
One of the chief causes of polygyny is the attraction which female youth and beauty exercise upon a man; and at the lower stages of civilisation women generally become old much sooner than in more advanced communities.
As another obstacle topolygyny we have to note the true monogamous sentiment, the absorbing passion for one, which is not unknown even among savage races.
Again, where female labour is of considerable value, the necessity of paying the purchase-sum for a wife is a hindrance to polygyny which can be overcome only by the wealthier men.
Indeed, in countries unaffected by European civilisation polygyny is likely to prevail wherever there is a majority of women.
Polygyny less prevalent at the lowest stages of civilisation than at somewhat higher stages, pp.
It has been observed in India that polyandry occurs in those parts of the country where the males outnumber the females, polygyny in those {388} where the reverse is the case.
Among the Koch and Old Kukis polygyny and concubinage are forbidden;[124] whilst among some other aboriginal tribes in India a man, though not expressly forbidden to have many wives, is blamed if he has more than one.
It is but an extended form ofpolygyny and polyandry, which, within narrower limits, have prevailed universally among savage tribes.
This and the Malayan exhibit the forms of polygyny and polyandry with which ethnography is concerned; while the Nair and Tibetan forms of polyandry are not only insufficient to explain the systems, but are of no general importance.
The religious sanction of polygyny cannot be looked upon as one of its original causes, but when once established it reacted powerfully to reenforce and maintain the institution.
It even exists in the United States, for all the evidence seems to show that the Utah Mormons still practice polygyny to some extent, although it may be doubted whether polygynous unions are being formed among them at the present time.
Under polygynythe wife who has grown old is discarded for a young wife, and usually ends her days in bitterness.
Some judgment of the social value of polygyny may not be out of place in connection with this subject.
It is safe to say that any widespread practice of polygyny in civilized communities would lead to a reversion to the moral standards of barbarism in many if not in all matters.
The father, too, underpolygyny is rarely cared for by the children, because the polygynous household has never given the opportunity for close affections between parents and children.
That polygyny is still a burning question in the United States of the twentieth century is merely good evidence that we are not very far removed yet from barbarism.
Necessarily the practice of polygyny must disregard the feelings of women, for women are jealous creatures as well as men.
In modern times polygyny still exists among all the Mohammedan peoples and to a greater or less degree among all semicivilized peoples.
Thus in Tibet the upper classes practice polygyny and monogamy, while among the lower classes we find polyandry and monogamy.
While polygyny has been claimed to be due entirely to economic causes, we have seen that these so-called economic causes have only been the opportunities for the polygynous instincts of man to assert themselves.
The practice of wife capture, indeed, and the honor attached to the custom, had much to do in making the practice of polygyny common among certain peoples.
The reason for this is not only the economic one just mentioned, but that everywhere the sexes are relatively equal in numbers, and therefore it is impossible for polygyny to become a widespread general custom.
When this took place polygyny became firmly established as a social institution, very difficult to uproot, as all the experience of Christian missionaries among peoples practicing polygyny goes to show.
Thus the basic cause of polygyny is not economic, but psychological; and given certain moral and economic conditions of society, these polygynous tendencies assert themselves.
It is evident that if we assume that the primitive form of the family was that of a simple pairing monogamy, the burden is laid upon us to show how such different types as polyandry and polygyny arose.
Mr. Darwin, on the other hand, began with Polygyny and Monogamy, 'jealousy determining the first stage.
At present polygyny prevails, professedly and evidently because of the preponderance of females due to the decimation of warriors in battle; but both custom and tradition tell of former monogamy, with a suggestion of polyandry.
Only, indeed, on the basis of a purely external and superficial consideration could one look upon polygyny and polyandry as unconjoinable, because they are, in a certain sense, opposing ideas.
The same is true of America and of Africa, monogamy decidedly predominating in the former and polygyny in the latter.
Thus, from whatever angle we view group-marriage, its polygyny and its polyandry seem to rest on monogamy.
It is everywhere set aside, to a greater or less extent, in favour of the two forms of polygamy--polygyny and polyandry.
Nevertheless, it has a priority over polygynyin so far as it first furnishes the motives for the additional practice, and thus for the very origin, of the latter.
Custom may then either recur to monogamy, or it may advance to a polygyny which is pure and not, as in the case of group-marriage, combined with polyandry.
This is all the more likely to happen in this case, because the general motives to polyandry and polygyny persist and exercise a constant influence.
Wherever polygyny may be traced back to its beginnings, it always seems to have its origin in the combination of a chief wife with several secondary wives.
Thus, these changes in polygyny reflect the warlike character of the age, as well as a growing tendency toward a return to monogamy.
The ancient Japanese society was polygynous; and polygyny persisted, after the establishment of the domestic cult.
In those parts of the world in which polygyny is recognized as a permissible variation a man is legally held to his natural obligations towards all his sexual mates and towards the children he has by those mates.
Among our European ancestors, alike among Germans and Celts, polygyny and other sexual forms existed as occasional variations.
Tacitus noted polygyny in Germany, and Cæsar found in Britain that brothers would hold their wives in common, the children being reckoned to the man to whom the woman had been first given in marriage (see, e.
Undoubtedly the most common variation from normal monogamy has in all stages of human culture been polygyny or the sexual union of one man with more than one woman.
In no part of the world is polygyny so prevalent as in Christendom; in no part of the world is it so easy for a man to escape the obligations incurred by polygyny.
Almost everywhere," says Westermarck ofpolygyny (which he discusses fully in Chs.
Apart from this the biological masculine traditions point to polygyny much more than the feminine traditions point to polyandry.
Under some circumstances, if all three parties agreed, he saw no objection to polygyny or polyandry.
Our polygyny has no legal existence, and therefore its obligations can have no legal existence.
The sterility of one of the conjoints and incapacity for coitus may also be mentioned as reasons for divorce, although in certain circumstances, as we shall see, limited polyandry or polygyny may be much more humane than divorce.
We have seen that polygynyhas a higher moral character among certain Indian tribes where matriarchism rules, and where the wife is mistress of the house and family.
In fact, in such a social state, polygyny can only constitute an exception.
Polygyny is still more indicated when the sterility of the woman or her repugnance to sexual intercourse cause family disturbances.
What lowers the moral level of polygyny is especially the barbarous system of marriage by purchase, by which the women become slaves burdened with heavy labor, and are in a state of legal dependence.
Although polygyny widely exists among them, seldom are more than two wives found.
True, polygyny is much more widely dispersed than polyandry, being found perhaps among the majority of races both in ancient and modern times.
Polygyny is found, for example, among the Innuit, but monogamy is the rule, though marriages are often of very short duration.
The examples already given demonstrate that she is sometimes treated merely as an object of sale or exchange; and wherepolygyny exists wife-purchase may have a strong tendency to reduce her to slavery.
IX, 463; and WAKE gives interesting proofs of the coexistence of real affection with polygyny and purchase: op.
Among the Kafirs and the aboriginal tribes of North America polygyny usually appears only where the women outnumber the men.
Where polygyny exists it is sometimes the chiefs alone who are "permitted to have a plurality of wives.
Where polygyny existed, or where several wives were taken in succession, the same family might comprise children representing several totems.
Marriage by capture thus conquers the original monogamy, in whose place polygyny appears, either at once, or after a transition-period of community in women.
On the other hand, women object to polyandry, because polyandry enables the best women to monopolize all the men, just aspolygyny enables the best men to monopolize all the women.
In a real marriage of sentiment the wife or husband cannot be supplanted by halves; and such a marriage will break very soon under the strain of polygyny or polyandry.
Now though polygyny prevails throughout the greater part of the British Empire, and is as practicable here as in India, there is a good deal to be said against it, and still more to be felt.
The man alone has any initiative; but he has no access to the woman; besides, as we have seen, the difficulty created by male license is not polygyny but polyandry, which is not allowed.
But polygyny would condemn a great many men, and polyandry a great many women, to the celibacy of neglect.
Hence the resistance any attempt to establish unlimited polygyny always provokes, not from the best people, but from the mediocrities and the inferiors.
The answer is not far to seek: their polygyny is limited.
Consequently, if we are to make polygyny a success, we must limit it.
The natural foundation of the institution of monogamy is not any inherent viciousness in polygyny or polyandry, but the hard fact that men and women are born in about equal numbers.
In Tibet itself polygyny exists side by side with polyandry amongst the wealthy classes, while monogamy is the rule amongst the poor pastoral nomads of the northern steppe.
Strict monogamy seems to prevail even where, as among the Aeta, polygyny is not prohibited.
But it does not follow that polyandry and a matriarchal state always and necessarily preceded polygyny and a patriarchal state.
This transfer of allegiance helped to perpetuate the patriarchal system, and the sanction of religion greatly strengthened the wedded relation, so that divorce and polygyny were unknown in the old Roman period.
Wherever it has survived as a system, polygyny has hindered progress, and wherever it exists in the midst of monogamy it tends to break down civilization.
Neither polygyny nor polyandry were universal, even where they were a frequent practice.
Another variety of marriage that has been less common than polygyny is polyandry.
Polygyny brutalized men, degraded women, and destroyed that affection and comradeship between parents and their offspring that are the proper heritage of children.
In the story of the family male leadership proved most useful and was perpetuated, but the practice of polygyny and polyandry proved in the long run to be hurtful to success in the sturdy struggle for existence.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "polygyny" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word. Other words: bigamy; monogamy; polyandry; polygamy
