The term polygamy (literally many marriages in late Greek) is used in related ways in social anthropology and sociobiology. In social anthropology, polygamy is the practice of marriage to more than one spouse simultaneously (as opposed to monogamy where each person has only one spouse at a time). Like monogamy, the term is often used in a de facto sense, applying regardless of whether the relationships are recognised by the state (see marriage for a discussion on the extent to which states can and do recognise poten ...

Including:

• Polygamy - Forms of polygamy
• Polygamy - Related terms
• Polygamy - Bigamy
• Polygamy - Trigamy
• Polygamy - Polyamory
• Polygamy - Poly relationship
• Polygamy - Polygamy worldwide
• Polygamy - Patterns of occurrence
• Polygamy - Polygamy and religion
• Polygamy - Legal situation
• Polygamy - Multiple divorce and marriage for polygamy
• Polygamy - Recent polygamy cases
• Polygamy - Current proponents and opponents
• Polygamy - How polygamists find more spouses
• Polygamy - Mormon fundamentalists - aggregate in communities
• Polygamy - Muslims & traditionalist cultures
• Polygamy - On the Internet - polygamy personals
• Polygamy - Polygamy in fiction
• Polygamy - Bibliography

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See also:

Monogamy, Monogamy - Human monogamy, Monogamy - Monogamy in the animal world

Read more here: » Monogamy: Encyclopedia II - Monogamy - Human monogamy

Polygamy exists in three specific forms, including polygyny (one man having multiple wives), polyandry (one woman having multiple husbands), or group marriage (some combination of polygyny and polyandry). Historically, all three practices have been found, but polygyny is by far the most common. A notable example of polyandry occurs in Hindu culture in the Mahabharata, where the Pandavas are married to one common wife, Draupadi. Today it is almost exclusively observed in the Toda tribe of India, where it is sometimes the custom for sev ...

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Polygamy, Polygamy - Forms of polygamy, Polygamy - Related terms, Polygamy - Bigamy, Polygamy - Trigamy, Polygamy - Polyamory, Polygamy - Poly relationship, Polygamy - Polygamy worldwide, Polygamy - Patterns of occurrence, Polygamy - Polygamy and religion, Polygamy - Legal situation, Polygamy - Multiple divorce and marriage for polygamy, Polygamy - Recent polygamy cases, Polygamy - Current proponents and opponents, Polygamy - How polygamists find more spouses, Polygamy - Mormon fundamentalists - aggregate in communities, Polygamy - Muslims & traditionalist cultures, Polygamy - On the Internet - polygamy personals, Polygamy - Polygamy in fiction, Polygamy - Bibliography

Read more here: » Polygamy: Encyclopedia II - Polygamy - Forms of polygamy

Marriage is a relationship between individuals which has formed the foundation of the family for most societies. Marriage can include legal, social, and religious elements. In western societies, marriage has traditionally been understood as social contract between a man (husband) and a woman (wife), while in other parts of the world polygamy has been the most common form of marriage, usually in the form of polygyny (a man taking several wives) but occasionally in the form of polyandry (a woman taking several husbands). In some western ...

Including:

• Marriage - Definitions
• Marriage - Types of marriages
• Marriage - Western world
• Marriage - Eastern world
• Marriage - Polygamy monogamy and polyandry
• Marriage - Traditional cultures
• Marriage - Marriage today in Belgium The Netherlands Canada Spain
• Marriage - Unique Practices
• Marriage - Recognition
• Marriage - Rights and obligations
• Marriage - Marriage restrictions
• Marriage - Termination
• Marriage - Weddings
• Marriage - Marriage and religion
• Marriage - Marriage and economics
• Marriage - Criticisms of marriage
• Marriage - Pragmatic marriage
• Marriage - Romantic Marriage Vs. Pragmatic Marriage

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Hinduism and Polygamy: Hindu view on Polygamy

Polygamy and polyandry were prevalent In ancient India, but it is doubtful whether they were ever popular in the public opinion. It was practiced mostly by the warrior castes and rich merchants. Many Hindu gods are also depicted as polygamous, with two or more wives. The goddesses are not actually wives in the physical sense but pure universal energies who assist their gods to maintain dharma (good order) in the universe. They do not possess physical bodies, though they can appear in human form if they want to. Present day Hindus consider both polygamy and polyandry primitive and archaic, remnants of an old society that still haunt the lives of a few unfortunate victims. In India Hindus acknowledge polygamy as both illegal and immoral. 

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While Buddhist practice varies considerably among its various schools, Marriage is one of the few concepts specifically mentioned in the context of Sila (Buddhist behavior discipline). One of the five precepts that even lay practitioners are expected to follow to the best of their abilities - specifically the third - is a promise to abstain from sexual misconduct. While it is generally understood that what constitutes "misconduct" from a Buddhist perspective is widely dependent from the local cultural reality (e.g. is polygamy "miscon ...

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This article is in need of attention. You can help Wikipedia by editing it into a better article. Please also consider changing this notice to be more specific. Please remove this notice after the article has been expanded. Details are on this talk page or at Wikipedia:Requests for expansion. Traditionally marriage in ethnic Chinese societies (婚姻, pinyin: hūn yīn) has been an arrangement between families. Originally Chinese culture allowed for romantic ...

Including:

• Chinese marriage - Introduction
• Chinese marriage - Marriage in a Confucian Context
• Chinese marriage - Prehistoric Chinese marriages
• Chinese marriage - Marriages in Early Societies
• Chinese marriage - Sibling marriages
• Chinese marriage - Inter-clan marriage and antithetic marriage
• Chinese marriage - Maternal marriage and Monogamy
• Chinese marriage - Traditional Marriage Rituals
• Chinese marriage - Reference

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While Buddhist practice varies considerably among its various schools, Marriage is one of the few concepts specifically mentioned in the context of Sila (Buddhist behavior discipline). One of the five precepts that even lay practitioners are expected to follow to the best of their abilities - specifically the third - is a promise to abstain from sexual misconduct. While it is generally understood that what constitutes "misconduct" from a Buddhist perspective is widely dependent from the local cultural reality (e.g. is polygamy "miscon ...

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Concubinage refers to the state of a couple living together as lovers with no permanent obligation (as by civil marriage or religious ceremony) or the state of a woman supported by a male lover who is married to another. In societies that permit slavery, it can refer to sexual relationships between slave-owners and their slaves (a form of sexual slavery). In English, the first meaning is antiquated and is replaced by "living together," "shacking up," or, more formally, "cohabitation." It typically implies monogamy. The term mis ...

Including:

• Concubinage - Concubine
• Concubinage - External link

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The Christian view of marriage, until recently, according to a nearly universal consensus, has regarded marriage as ordained by God for the lifelong union of a man and a woman. Since the rise of the sexual revolution, minority views have gained ground among Christians, that this union can also be between two persons of the same gender, and may be dissolved by mutual consent. Proponents of the traditional view principally support it with the second chapter of the book of Genesis. The Gospel of Matthew, for example, cites Genesis ...

Including:

• Christian view of marriage - View of Roman Catholic Christians
• Christian view of marriage - Other issues
• Christian view of marriage - View of Orthodox Christians
• Christian view of marriage - View of Protestant Christians
• Christian view of marriage - Evangelical Protestant View
• Christian view of marriage - Liberal Christian Protestant View
• Christian view of marriage - View of non-Protestant non-Catholic Christians

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An arranged marriage is a marriage in which the marital partners are chosen by others based on considerations other than the pre-existing mutual attraction of the partners. Arranged marriage - Social origins. Noble families, especially reigning families, long used arranged marriage to consolidate their strengths and to join their kingdoms. The arranged marriage is also the marriage concluded with the help of a middleman, once frequent in less cultivated social classes. In some countries it is the man ...

Including:

• Arranged marriage - Social origins
• Arranged marriage - Social aspects
• Arranged marriage - Proponents' views
• Arranged marriage - Economic principle of arranged marriages
• Arranged marriage - Sociopolitics of arranged marriage
• Arranged marriage - Unification Church Matchings

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The banns of marriage or, simply "the banns", (from an Old English word meaning "to summon") are the public announcement from the pulpit that a marriage is going to take place in that church between two specified persons at a specified time. Their purpose is to allow anyone to come to the wedding to raise any legal impediment to it—such an impediment might be a prior marriage (or pre-contract or betrothal, those being legally the same as a marriage), or a vow of celibacy, or the couple's being related within the prohibited degree of kinship, or lack of consent—to prevent marriages that are leg ...

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Celestial marriage - Sealing. Celestial marriage is an instance of the LDS doctrine of sealing. Following celestial marriage, not only are the couple sealed as husband and wife, but children born into the marriage are also sealed to that family. In cases where the husband and wife have been previously married civilly and there are already children from their union, the children accompany their parents to the temple and are sealed to their parents following the marriage ceremony. Celestial ma ...

Including:

• Celestial marriage - Sealing
• Celestial marriage - Relationship to Plural Marriage

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In the 19th century, Boston marriage was a term used for households where two women lived together, independent of any male support. Whether these were lesbian relationships—in the sexual sense—is debated. The likelihood is that some were and some were not. Today, the term is sometimes used when referring to two women living together who are not in a sexual relationship. The term "Boston marriage" came to be used, apparently, after Henry James' book The Bostonians detailed a marriage-like relationship between two wom ...

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According to the Ethnographic Atlas Codebook derived from George P. Murdock’s Ethnographic Atlas recorded the marital composition of 1231 societies, from 1960-1980. Of these societies, 186 societies were monogamous. 453 had occasional polygyny, 588 had more frequent polygyny, and 4 had polyandry. Polygamy - Patterns of occurrence. At the same time, even within societies which allow polygyny, the actual practice of polygyny often occurs only rarely. To take on more than one wife often requir ...

See also:

Polygamy, Polygamy - Forms of polygamy, Polygamy - Related terms, Polygamy - Bigamy, Polygamy - Trigamy, Polygamy - Polyamory, Polygamy - Poly relationship, Polygamy - Polygamy worldwide, Polygamy - Patterns of occurrence, Polygamy - Polygamy and religion, Polygamy - Legal situation, Polygamy - Multiple divorce and marriage for polygamy, Polygamy - Recent polygamy cases, Polygamy - Current proponents and opponents, Polygamy - How polygamists find more spouses, Polygamy - Mormon fundamentalists - aggregate in communities, Polygamy - Muslims & traditionalist cultures, Polygamy - On the Internet - polygamy personals, Polygamy - Polygamy in fiction, Polygamy - Bibliography

Read more here: » Polygamy: Encyclopedia II - Polygamy - Polygamy worldwide

"Monogamy" also refers to the mating pattern in which an animal maintains a single sexual partner. Animals who exhibit monogamous relationships do so because it increases their ability to survive and hence their reproductive success. For this to be true then both mates must benefit from the relationship, and the number of young who are born and survive must be larger than the number who would survive had the pair not been monogamous. In altricial birds constant parental care is required to feed and protect young. Two parents means tha ...

See also:

Monogamy, Monogamy - Human monogamy, Monogamy - Monogamy in the animal world

Read more here: » Monogamy: Encyclopedia II - Monogamy - Monogamy in the animal world

A number of writers have expressed their views on polygamy by writing about a fictional world in which it is the most common type of relationship. These worlds tend to be utopian or dystopian in nature. For instance, Robert A. Heinlein uses this theme in a number of novels, such as Stranger in a Strange Land. Polygamy is practiced by the Fremen in Frank Herbert's Dune as a means to pinpoint male infertility. It is socially accepted as long as the man provides for all wives equally. Cultures described within the Dune novel series have intentional simi ...

See also:

Polygamy, Polygamy - Forms of polygamy, Polygamy - Related terms, Polygamy - Bigamy, Polygamy - Trigamy, Polygamy - Polyamory, Polygamy - Poly relationship, Polygamy - Polygamy worldwide, Polygamy - Patterns of occurrence, Polygamy - Polygamy and religion, Polygamy - Legal situation, Polygamy - Multiple divorce and marriage for polygamy, Polygamy - Recent polygamy cases, Polygamy - Current proponents and opponents, Polygamy - How polygamists find more spouses, Polygamy - Mormon fundamentalists - aggregate in communities, Polygamy - Muslims & traditionalist cultures, Polygamy - On the Internet - polygamy personals, Polygamy - Polygamy in fiction, Polygamy - Bibliography

Read more here: » Polygamy: Encyclopedia II - Polygamy - Polygamy in fiction

Polygamy may be polygyny (one man having one or more wives) or polyandry (one woman having one or more husbands) and it has been practised throughout history in almost all cultures, sanctioned by various religions where necessary to meet population or economic needs. For example, when disease, war or famine has reduced populations, the taking of several wives has been the solution to restoring population. In some economically poor areas where infant mortality is high but children are a vitial source of labour to maintain the earning capacity ...

See also:

Marriage conflict, Marriage conflict - Public policy, Marriage conflict - The choice of law options, Marriage conflict - Status and capacity, Marriage conflict - The formal and/or essential validity of the marriage, Marriage conflict - The lex fori, Marriage conflict - Discussion, Marriage conflict - Formalities, Marriage conflict - Religious forms of marriage, Marriage conflict - Customary law marriages, Marriage conflict - Common law marriages, Marriage conflict - The age of marriage, Marriage conflict - Consent, Marriage conflict - Consanguinity, Marriage conflict - Polygamy, Marriage conflict - Potentially polygamous, Marriage conflict - Actually polygamous, Marriage conflict - Same-sex marriage

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Polyandry is a controversial subject among anthropologists. For instance, Pennsylvania anthropologist Stephen Beckerman points out that at least 20 tribal societies accept that a child could, and ideally should, have more than one father, referring to it as "partible paternity". On the other hand, in Tibet, which is the most well-documented cultural domain within which polyandry is practiced, the testimony of certain polyandrists themselves is that the marriage form is difficult to sustain. However, certain monogamists say ...

See also:

Polyandry, Polyandry - Definition, Polyandry - Occurrence, Polyandry - Controversy, Polyandry - Causes, Polyandry - Sociobiology

Read more here: » Polyandry: Encyclopedia II - Polyandry - Controversy

Polygamy - Bigamy. Bigamy refers to someone who has two spouses at the same time. Many countries have specific statutes outlawing bigamy, making any secondary marriage a crime. Note that these laws aren't limited to case of traditional polygamy, where the spouses know about each other. They also cover cases such as a man who breaks up with his wife, and without divorcing her, marries another woman. It even covers the occasional case of a man who sets up a second family with a second wife, keeping hi ...

See also:

Polygamy, Polygamy - Forms of polygamy, Polygamy - Related terms, Polygamy - Bigamy, Polygamy - Trigamy, Polygamy - Polyamory, Polygamy - Poly relationship, Polygamy - Polygamy worldwide, Polygamy - Patterns of occurrence, Polygamy - Polygamy and religion, Polygamy - Legal situation, Polygamy - Multiple divorce and marriage for polygamy, Polygamy - Recent polygamy cases, Polygamy - Current proponents and opponents, Polygamy - How polygamists find more spouses, Polygamy - Mormon fundamentalists - aggregate in communities, Polygamy - Muslims & traditionalist cultures, Polygamy - On the Internet - polygamy personals, Polygamy - Polygamy in fiction, Polygamy - Bibliography

Read more here: » Polygamy: Encyclopedia II - Polygamy - Related terms