polygamy
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia | Date: 2007
Marriage to more than one spouse at a time. Although the term may also refer to polyandry (marriage to more than one man), it is often used as a synonym for polygyny (marriage to more than one woman), which appears to have once been common in most of the world and is still found widely in some cultures. Polygyny seems to offer the husband increased prestige, economic stability, and sexual companionship in cultures where pregnancy and lactation dictate abstinence, while offering the wives a shared labour burden and an institutionalized role where a surplus of unmarried women might otherwise exist. The polygynous family is often fraught with bickering and sexual jealousy; to preserve harmony, one wife may be accorded seniority, and each wife and her children may have separate living quarters. Polyandry is relatively rare; in parts of the Himalayas, where brothers may marry a single woman, the practice serves to limit the number of descendants and keep limited land within the household.
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Related entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses
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Polygamy
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Polygamy Polygamy among the Mormons. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was ... communities in the West. Family and Marriage. Between the mid 1840s and 1890 polygamy was the ideal form of Mormon marriage, but even during this time fewer ...
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polygamy
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polygamy Marriage in which more than one spouse is permitted. More often it is used to denote polygyny (several wives) than polyandry (several husbands). Polygamy is legal in many nations.
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... Court upholds an 1862 federal law banning polygamy. In Utah the Church of Jesus Christ of ... strips the vote from all practitioners of polygamy. This controversy over plural marriage ... men. ” 6 Oct. The sanctioning of polygamy is discontinued by Wilford Woodruff ...
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... object of human worship); and polygamy (a practice kept secret until ... the origin of the Indians, Free Masonry, anti-Catholicism ... poor or for times of shortage. Polygamy. In 1852 Brigham Young publicly ... percentage of participants, polygamy was a continued source of outrage ...
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polygyny
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