Re: Polyandry
Richard A. Goodman (rag@hooked.net)
Fri, 22 Nov 1996 23:58:13 GMT
Shannon Adams <shannon_adams@byu.edu> wrote:
>AnonEMoose wrote:
>>
>> Michael J. Weaver <aikido@cris.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Polyandry is a form of Polygamy where the Woman has multiple husbands.
>> > Note in Polyandry societies this right does NOT equally apply to males.
>> > Does anyone know if this is still legally practiced in any
>> > society/country today? Thank you.
>>
>> Apparently in most cases of polyandry a group of brothers
>> shares a wife, and the woman is not necessarily really all that
>> dominant. There's a guy called "Peter Prince of Greece"
>> who spent years tracking down the cases of polyandry.
>"The commonest form of polyandry is adelphic or fraternal polyandry
>where the joint husbands are brother. Polyandrous marriage has been
>reported for parts of India and especially the Himalayas, as well as in
>isolated cases in other parts of the world. It has been associated in
>some cases with shortage of women due to female infanticide, though it
>should be noted that in other cases female infanticide is associated
>with polygamous marriage patterns. Berreman (1978) has interpreted
>Himalayan polyandry in terms of land shortage, as a means of limiting
>family expansion by assigning several males to one female. Since the
>woman's reproductive capacity is the same no matter how many husbands
>she has...Berreman suggests that polyandry serves to adjust the labour
>force to available land."
>"Polyandry" in _Macmillan Dictionary of Anthropology,_ Charolotte
>Seymour-Smith, London, Macmillan Press LTD, 1986, p.228.
>Does this help at all?
>Shannon
Polyandry was also practiced in traditional Marquesan culture.
Rich G.
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