10/14/2023 0 Comments Rich king in to kill a kingdom![]() ![]() In Botswana, women have an interesting twist on the old saying “a woman’s work is never done.” They say “without co-wives, a woman’s work is never done.” Such women claim that having other wives to help meet some of their husband’s demands and to share the child-rearing gives them more freedom than women in monogamous unions.Īn example of this from America can be found among the Plains Indians. Still, in a society where gender roles are very rigid and women do most of the work around the farm and household, some women like having a co-wife. Polygyny is not usually associated with a high status for women, and in many cultures it involved very young women being forced to marry older men. It takes a certain amount of wealth to support more than one wife, but in many pre-industrial societies, having several wives increased a man’s wealth and political power rather than being a drain on his resources. ![]() He stayed with whichever one was nearest when he traveled through the kingdom, thus avoiding the juggling problems that are fictionally portrayed in the HBO series, “Big Love.” The king of the Merina in the highlands of Madagascar had twelve wives, each with a palace in a different part of his country. It was very common for kings and other royalty to have many wives, both as a way to make alliances with other states or noble families and to ensure that they would have plenty of heirs. In other cases, wealthy men accumulated many wives to produce more sons. So a man might marry several wives and have them produce textiles he could trade, or grow food for elaborate feasts he could use to put poorer members of the community in his debt. It tended to occur most frequently in societies where the route to winning wealth and political power was through attracting followers or having lots of sons to hunt for the family head or defend the family’s land. Polygyny was accepted or even preferred in three/fourths of preindustrial traditional societies, though it was seldom practiced by the commoners or lower classes. Less common, but found in some societies such as Tibet, is polyandry, where a woman can have many husbands. ![]() The most common form is polygyny, where a man can have many wives. Historian Stephanie Coontz, Director of Research and Public Education at the Council, has put together the following background information: Background on Polygamy The new HBO television show, “Big Love,” has led many people to contact the Council on Contemporary Families for background on polygamy. ![]()
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