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from the how-do-you-keep-multiple-wives-happy dept.
A study conducted by a team of researchers from the U.K., Tanzania and the U.S. has found an example of polygynous marriage that does not appear to be harmful to women or children. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers outline their study of people living in villages in Tanzania, and why they believe organizations such as the UN need to modify their stance on the practice to better take account of cultural practices.
Polygny is a term used to refer to marriage systems where males can have more than one wife, while polygamy refers to the actual practice of it. In this new study, the researchers looked into the question of whether a polygnynous marriage is in fact harmful to women or children as has been assumed by many in the international community. They looked at 3,500 households in villages in Tanzania, noting the occurrences of polygnynous marriage versus monogamous marriage and the standard of living for those women and children.
In looking at their data, they found that first wives—women who were the first to marry a man with several wives, tended to have better nutrition as did their children, than women in monogamous marriages and their children. Later wives and their children fared on average as well as monogamous wives and their children, but not as well as first wives. This, the team claims, shows that not all instances of polygynous marriage are harmful to women or children—it shows that in some cases, it can actually be a practice that women can use to better their lives and that of their children. It is a matter of wealth and the rules that govern a society—if women cannot own land or other resources, for example, or take a job, as was the case in the Tanzanian villages, they will likely do better in life if they are able to attract and marry a man with some degree of wealth, which in some cases may mean, a man with multiple wives.
How do the husbands fare?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Nerdanel on Wednesday October 28 2015, @12:59PM
The last I heard polygyny = is one man marrying multiple women, polyandry = one woman marrying multiple men, and polygamy = an umbrella term for polygyny and polyandry.
Did some academician unilaterally decide to change established definitions again?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday October 28 2015, @01:43PM
It's quite possible the journalist got it wrong. Mixing up jargon is an easy mistake for a layman to make. It's also possible the source the journalist talked to misspoke. Human beings do that from time to time. It's further possible that the source is a young turk in the discipline, trying to re-define established terms in order to push a different theory, or even simply to appear "edgy." It's ubiquitious in scholarship. And it's not like anybody [wikipedia.org] in the "real" sciences never tried to push their own notation and terms [wikipedia.org] before, right?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday October 29 2015, @12:03PM
The journalist you quoted is not inventing new concepts, he's showing a lack of knowedge both of the field he's pretending to take an interest in, and also of the etymology of the words themselves - whose meanings are as clear as day if you consider the cognates of the components (gyno-*, gametes, etc.)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1) by Francis on Wednesday October 28 2015, @03:34PM
Probably because those definitions are definitely not the same as the ones I learned in college. Polygamy is when a man has multiple wives. Palygyny is when a woman has multiple husbands and polyandry wasn't even a term that came up.
This is probably a case of the social sciences re-inventing terms so that nobody notices that they're doing crap work because they're too confused to notice the bullshit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 28 2015, @08:20PM
Leaky memory, no better.
And willful ignorance in the Internet age, just plain dumb.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_Human_Marriage [wikipedia.org]
The terminology was well established a century or so before you. ;) No point arguing at this late time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 28 2015, @10:24PM
because those definitions are definitely not the same as the ones I learned in college.
Um, sorry, but if you learned these definitions in college, you learned wrong. Try to take better notes next time. Utilize a dictionary. Usually we count "learning wrong" as just not learning. Are you currently involved in a polyandric relationship?
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Wednesday October 28 2015, @11:26PM
Try to take better notes next time.
Given how abysmal many colleges are, it also wouldn't surprise me if they simply taught it incorrectly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 28 2015, @10:21PM
The last I heard polygyny = is one man marrying multiple women, polyandry = one woman marrying multiple men, and polygamy = an umbrella term for polygyny and polyandry.
Did some academician unilaterally decide to change established definitions again?
No, but now we have to add "polymisogyny", or "Gamergate". Many sad puppies who hate women, from the ancient Greek.