Polyandry (/plunder, plan-/; Greek: - poly-, "many" and v and, "man") is a type of polygamy in which a woman marries two or more men at the same time. Polygyny, on the other hand, involves one male and two or more females. Polyamory, group, or conjoint marriage refers to a wedding that includes a plural number of "husbands and wives" members of each gender. Polyandry refers to sexual encounters with numerous guys within or outside of marriage in its widest sense.
There were 186 monogamous groups among the 1,231 societies described in
the 1980 Ethnographic Atlas; 453 had occasional polygyny, 588 had more
frequent polygyny, and 4 had polyandry. Polyandry is less common than
this number implies, as it solely considers cases discovered in the
Himalayan mountains (28 societies). Polyandry is practiced in more than
50 other civilizations, according to current research.
Tibetans in Nepal, portions of China, and northern India practice
fraternal polyandry, in which two or more brothers marry the same lady
and have equal "sexual access" to them. It's linked to partible
paternity, which refers to the cultural notion that a kid can have many
fathers.
Polyandry is thought to be more common in civilizations with limited
natural resources. It is believed to help children survive by limiting
human population increase. It is an uncommon type of marriage that may
be seen among peasant households and the upper crust. Polyandry, for
example, is linked to the land shortage in the Himalayan mountains. When
all family brothers marry the same woman, the family land remains
intact and undivided. If each brother married and produced children
independently, the family land would be divided into unsustainable tiny
pieces. In Buddhist Ladakh and Zanskar, on the other hand, very
impoverished people without land were less likely to practice polyandry.
The social practice for the impartible inheritance was used in Europe
to avoid land division. Many of their siblings became celibate monks and
priests after being disinherited.
In the animal realm, polyandrous mating systems are also a widespread occurrence.
Types
Polygynandry
Polyandry and polygyny can join the Indian Himalayas to form a system
known as "polygynandry." Land fragmentation is reduced, domestic
economic activities are diversified, and population increase is reduced
due to the system.
Polyandry between brothers is referred to as fraternal polyandry.
Fraternal polyandry, also known as adelphic polyandry (from the Latin
fraternity), is a kind of polyandry in which a woman marries two or more
brothers. Polyandry was (and still is) practiced in certain regions of
Tibet, Nepal, and Northern India, where it was recognized as a societal
practice. Fraternal polyandry is practiced among the Toda people of
southern India. However, monogamy has lately become popular. Polyandrous
marriages in rural cultures in the Malwa area of Punjab appear to occur
in modern Hindu society to prevent the partition of farming land.
Fraternal polyandry accomplishes a purpose comparable to primogeniture
in nineteenth-century England. The eldest son received the family land
due to primogeniture, while younger boys were forced to leave home and
seek their job. By allowing just one successor each generation,
primogeniture kept family holdings intact for decades. Fraternal
polyandry achieves the same result, but keeping all of the brothers
together with only one bride, resulting in only one set of heirs every
generation. The bigger the fraternal sibling group, the less effective
this technique appears to be.
Some types of polyandry appear to be linked to a perceived necessity to
keep aristocratic titles or agricultural holdings within family
groupings, as well as the frequent departure of a male from the
household for lengthy periods. The priestly Sakya elite in Tibet was
particularly fond of the practice.Sorority marriage is the female
counterpart to fraternal polyandry.
Partible paternity
At least 20 tribal groups, according to anthropologist Stephen
Beckerman, recognize that a kid might, and ideally should, have more
than one father, a concept known as "partible paternity." It frequently
leads to many dads sharing the care of a child in a polyandric
relationship with the mother. However, this is not always the case.
Trobriand's "virgin birth" is one of the most well-known instances. The
matrilineal Trobriand Islanders understand the role of sex in
reproduction, but they do not think the male contributes to the kid's
constitution. Therefore, the infant stays solely connected to their
mother's lineage. Because they are part of the mother's lineage, the
non-resident spouses of the mother are not acknowledged as dads.
However, the mother's co-resident brothers are.
Culture
According to inscriptions documenting the reforms of Sumerian king
Urukagina of Lagash (ca. 2300 BC), the previous Sumerian custom of
polyandry was prohibited in his kingdom, under pain of the woman
accepting several husbands being stoned and her crime inscribed on her
body.
Polyandry has been justified by a severe gender imbalance, according to
some. Selective abortion of female fetuses, for example, has resulted in
a substantial sex ratio margin in India, which has been claimed to
result in related males "sharing" a woman.
Known cases
Polyandry was prevalent in Tibet and is being practiced to a lesser
level now. In a 1988 study of 753 Tibetan households, Tibet University
discovered that 13% practiced polyandry. Polyandry persists among
India's minorities, as well as in Bhutan and Nepal's northern regions.
Polyandry has been practiced among the Toda of South India in Rajasthan,
Ladakh, and Zanskar and in the Jaunsar-Bawar area of Uttarakhand.
It has also been reported in Nigeria, the Nymba, and certain pre-contact
Polynesian tribes, albeit most likely exclusively among women of upper
castes. It is also found in the Yunnan and Sichuan areas of China, among
the Mosuo people of China (who also practice polygyny), and in some
Sub-Saharan African groups, such as the Maasai people of Kenya and
northern Tanzania, as well as indigenous populations in the United
States. Polyandry was practiced by the Guanches, the first known
inhabitants of the Canary Islands, until their extinction. Polyandry is
also practiced by the Zo'e tribe in the Brazil's state of Pará, near the
Cuminapanema River.
Religious attitudes
Hinduism
The Mahabharata, an ancient Hindu epic, has at least one allusion to
polyandry. Draupadi picked the Pandava brothers in a former life and
wedded them. Polyandry is accepted as a way of life in this ancient
book, which is mostly indifferent to the notion. When asked for an
example of polyandry by Kunti, Yudhishthira mentions Gautam-clan Jatila
(married to seven Saptarishis) and Hiranyaksha's sister Pracheti
(married to 10 brothers), suggesting a more liberal attitude toward
polyandry in Vedic culture.
Judaism
Although there are no examples of women married to more than one man in
the Hebrew Bible, its depiction of adultery plainly suggests that
polyandry is undesirable and is not practiced in Jewish tradition.
Furthermore, unless he had previously divorced her or died (i.e., a
mamzer), children from other than the first spouse are regarded
illegitimate since they are the result of an adulterous relationship.
Christianity
Most Christian faiths in the Western world strongly promote monogamy,
and a verse from Paul's epistles (1 Corinthians 7) can be read as
prohibiting polyandry.
Latter-Day Saints
Polygynous marriages were practiced by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and
other early Mormon leaders. With the 1890 Manifesto, the practice was
formally stopped. In early LDS history, polyandrous marriages did exist,
but in far smaller numbers.
Islam
Polyandry is forbidden in Islam, despite the fact that Islamic marriage law allows males to have up to four wives.
Polyandrous marriages were common in pre-Islamic Arabian societies, but
they were prohibited when Islam spread. Nikah Ijtimah was a pagan
polyandry tradition that was denounced and destroyed after the advent of
Islam in older Arab countries.
In biology
In the animal realm, polyandrous behavior is fairly common. Many bug and
fish species have it (for example, pipefish; see Polyandry in fish).
Other creatures that have it include birds (such as dunnocks), whales,
and mammals like the house mouse.
The bowhead whale, harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena), and humpback whales have all been seen to be polyandrous.
Honeybees, red flour beetles, spiders like Stegodyphus lineatus,
crickets like Gryllus bimaculatus, and fruit flies like Drosophila
pseudoobscura are among the important insect species.
Some primates, such as marmosets, including the marsupial species Antechinus, are polyandrous.