The "One Wife" *tradition* of Christianity...

[Stand_watie]

...maybe more universal than I thought.

I'm watching an HBO show right now called "Love crimes of Kabul"...A prison guard is chatting with a prisoner about how his current wife will feel about him taking another wife and the prisoner claims she "gives her consent" and the prison guard and the peanut gallery all have a good belly laugh... the guard says "she may be the first woman in history..."

**modified doctrine to tradition because I don't know if it actually is doctrine.

[sumpnz]

Even if SWMBO would consent I wouldn't go there.  One SWMBO is quite enough.

[Azrael256]

There is historical precedent for multiple wives.  And it may just have some... Advantages.


Damned if I know what they are.

[Stand_watie]

Even if SWMBO would consent I wouldn't go there.  One SWMBO is quite enough.

1 wife + 1 daughter here. At least 1 and sometimes 2 women more than I can comfortably deal with on any given day

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

Even if SWMBO would consent I wouldn't go there.  One SWMBO is quite enough.

god yes!  1/2 a wife would be about right   if we get to chose the 1/2

[Stand_watie]

There is historical precedent for multiple wives.  And it may just have some... Advantages.


Damned if I know what they are.

The tribe needs more boychilds because the war with the neighbor tribe is consuming too many manchilds... Men are so scarce that women are willing to settle for 1/3 or 1/4 or 1/5 of a husband. Misogony is strong enough that you can shut a woman up just by telling her to shut up. Thats all I can think of...

[zahc]

More parents is better for raising kids. More redundancy in case of sickness/predators/etc. Also one can watch the kids while the other two have their together time.

[Azrael256]

The Wife saw the screen and said "One wife can provide the alibi for the other..."   

[Jocassee]

The Wife saw the screen and said "One wife can provide the alibi for the other..."   

Thinkin' outside the box, there. Or in the box. Pine box.

[BridgeRunner]

It's all about keeping the lesbians down.  Gosh-darn patriarchy.    

[MicroBalrog]

I remember seeing quite a curious BBC4 documentary about two polygamous families: a Californian secular arrangement (1 man, 2 women, semi-open relationship), and a "Religious" (I hesitate to call that Christianity in fear of offending some of the Christians on this forum) thing with a man and a half-dozen wives from England. The difference was.. quite remarkable.

[AJ Dual]

The main issue if you want to be completely amoral about it (Note, not immoral) is what to do with excess male population when war and accidents, hunting, getting trampled by oxen or whatever "burned off" excess males isn't going on because of relatively stable and safe modern lifestyles.

Some of the polygamist cults in the American West are known for shunning or expelling young men for manufactured wrongdoings.

Not even a result of polygamy, just infanticide, differing standards of care, and sex-selective abortion, we'll see what the impact of 40 million excess males (and growing every day) in China, and in other Asian nations to lesser degrees will be.

[MicroBalrog]

The main issue if you want to be completely amoral about it (Note, not immoral) is what to do with excess male population when war and accidents, hunting, getting trampled by oxen or whatever "burned off" excess males isn't going on because of relatively stable and safe modern lifestyles.

This really only applies when poligamy is the main, or the only, mode of familial association in your society.

[kgbsquirrel]

The main issue if you want to be completely amoral about it (Note, not immoral) is what to do with excess male population when war and accidents, hunting, getting trampled by oxen or whatever "burned off" excess males isn't going on because of relatively stable and safe modern lifestyles.

Polyandry. Practiced in some parts as a method of population control (the wife can only get pregnant once at a time despite being amorous with all of her husbands in a given time period,) fraternal polyandry is common in certain parts of Tibet and Nepal.

[sumpnz]

Polyandry. Practiced in some parts as a method of population control (the wife can only get pregnant once at a time despite being amorous with all of her husbands in a given time period,) fraternal polyandry is common in certain parts of Tibet and Nepal.

It would take a ... special culture to tolerate that.  I don't care how many excess males there might be.  I'm not sharing my wife.  Not until after sharing all of my ammunition - bullets first.

Most societies don't tolerate that because there is such a strong drive to ensure that the child he is providing for is actually his that men will usually guard their spouse with intense jealousy.  Women tolerate polygamy better becuase A) in most societies that practice it there's no viable alternative and B) their main biological concern is having a man that will provide for her and her children - if there's other women and children involved it's not perceived as being so detrimental.  Of course, modern western women don't tend to tolerate polygamy (or adultry), so the above doesn't apply to them.

Honestly what I think you'll see in India and China, looooong before polyandry becomes commonplace will be the excess males finding other outlets.  Whether that be rampant homosexuality, going to foreign locals to find a wife, or starting wars those males will most likely find some form of satisfaction or be eliminated.

[mtnbkr]

1 wife + 1 daughter here. At least 1 and sometimes 2 women more than I can comfortably deal with on any given day

2 Daughters here.  More is not better.

Me and the dog are the only males in the house and he's been snipped.  I fear the same may be done to me eventually. 

Chris

[RoadKingLarry]

The #1 reason not to have 2 wives- having 2 wives.
The #2 reason- 2 mother-in-laws.

[vaskidmark]

From the old Bogart movie "Sahara":

Tambu, speaking to one of the American soldiers, explains the 4-wives thing:

One wife is lonely all the time.  And she will make your life miserable.
Two wives, they will battle at each other.
Three wives, two will always be against the third.
Four wives - ah! That is the perfection the Prophet spoke about; they go about two by two, each has a friend and each has an ally.  And the man can sit it happiness all his days.

That's his story and I'm sticking to it.

Q - What is the happiest day in a married man's life?
A - The day before his marriage.

Wife comes downstairs and finds her husband sitting at the kitchen table, sobbing uncontrolably.
"Honey, what's wrong?"
"Your Daddy and the judge told me I could either marry you or go to prison for 20 years.  I would have gotten out today."

And some folks wonder why I never got married again.

stay safe.

[roo_ster]

The tribe needs more boychilds because the war with the neighbor tribe is consuming too many manchilds... Men are so scarce that women are willing to settle for 1/3 or 1/4 or 1/5 of a husband. Misogony is strong enough that you can shut a woman up just by telling her to shut up. Thats all I can think of...

And it covers most the bases.

[makattak]

Polyandry. Practiced in some parts as a method of population control (the wife can only get pregnant once at a time despite being amorous with all of her husbands in a given time period,) fraternal polyandry is common in certain parts of Tibet and Nepal.

Nope. That is not the normal human response to an excess of men or a dearth of women. (Not saying it can't happen, but history shows that to be very unlikely.)

What tends to happen is war. Conquering and/or taking other people's women.

Sooooo... we have a massive the absolutely largest country in the history of the world that's soon to have a demographic problem that gives them a MASSIVE excess of young men. (Self-inflicted, much like our own problems.)

AND at the same time, the one superpower (US) in the world is crippling itself and half the people in the country want it that way. (OK, maybe it's only 40% at all times and another 10-12% often enough to elect people like Obama.)

The next couple decades could be interesting times.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

2 Daughters here.  More is not better.

Me and the dog are the only males in the house and he's been snipped.  I fear the same may be done to me eventually. 

Chris

i hear ya!! 


the flds lost boys are illustrative of some troubles that arise

[Perd Hapley]

Nope. That is not the normal human response to an excess of men or a dearth of women. (Not saying it can't happen, but history shows that to be very unlikely.)

What tends to happen is war. Conquering and/or taking other people's women.

How did you arrive at this conclusion?

[makattak]

How did you arrive at this conclusion?

I will provide further examples later, but here's some recent scholarship: (article is about a paper called "Bare Branches")

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24761-2004Jul2.html

Key quote:

At some point, governments consider how they can export their problem, either by encouraging emigration of young adult men or harnessing their energies in martial adventures abroad.

[roo_ster]

How did you arrive at this conclusion?

He read a history book?

[kgbsquirrel]

Mak: I didn't elucidate very clearly. I wasn't trying to state it was the default response, but simply was a possible response to an excess male population or a requirement for restraining a population explosion, and one not initially covered by AJ. As Sumpnz said, it does take a particular culture to openly accept or even silently tolerate polyandry.

It was purely a fluke that I even knew about that sort of thing. *shrug* What can I say, 12 hour night shift and the Discovery channel.