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[French polygamie, from Late Latin polygamia, from Greek polugamiā : polu-, poly- + -gamiā, -gamy.]
For more information on polygamy, visit Britannica.com.
A form of marriage in which a person may have two or more spouses simultaneously.
Polygamy is defined as having more than one wife or husband at the same time, usually a man with several wives. Polygamy differs from bigamy in that the wives and children of the polygamist generally form one family. Often in a polygamous marriage, a man marries sisters or the daughter of a wife. The bigamist, on the other hand, keeps his plural marriages a secret and marries the next woman without the other wife's knowledge.
Throughout history many societies have condoned or accepted plural marriages, another term for polygamy. References to its acceptance are in the Bible, the Koran, and other religious texts. Plural marriage is still legal in many Muslim countries, as a practice in accordance with the Koran. However, most modern Muslim families do not practice polygamy, often for financial reasons. Although accepted elsewhere, polygamy has not been a generally accepted practice in the United States. It is illegal in every state and is a federal crime as well.
Nevertheless, the definition and discussion of polygamy is not that simple. Throughout U.S. history, several groups have practiced "free love," which some consider polygamy. In the mid-1800s, during the Second Great Awakening, the Oneida Perfectionists, followers of John Humphrey Noyes, lived together as one family, sharing property, housing, production, and children. They claimed that because there was no marriage in heaven, on earth all men were married to all women. Men and women could have a relationship with whomever they chose. However, Noyes became the arbiter of which men and women could procreate, a situation termed a complex marriage. Although expelled from Putney, Vermont, the Oneida Perfectionists settled peacefully in Oneida, New York. In 1880 the group voted to disband themselves and form a company, Oneida Ltd., which still exists and is famous for its silverware.
Another group, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, popularly known as Mormons, originated in 1830 in Palmyra, New York. The original leader, Joseph Smith, and his followers believed in polygamy. Persecuted for their beliefs, the Mormons fled to Illinois, where Joseph Smith and his brother were lynched in 1844. Seeking refuge, Brigham Young led the majority of Mormons west to the Great Salt Lake to establish the State of Deseret.
Relatively few Mormons, usually church leaders, practiced polygamy. Polygamy was not a federal crime until passage of the Morrill Act in 1862. Mormon leaders unsuccessfully challenged this act, charging that banning polygamy violated First Amendment rights to freedom of religion. To achieve statehood in 1896, the Utah constitution and the Mormon church had to renounce the practice of plural marriage.
Since then even fewer Mormons have practiced polygamy. As of 2002, in Utah, with a population of 2.5 million, somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 people lived in polygamous situations. The financial burden was evident; in the areas where most polygamous families lived, roughly one-third lived on welfare.
Occasionally, a case of polygamy received national attention. In 2000–2001, Tom Green of Utah confessed on two national television shows that he had five wives and some twenty-five children. Consequently, he was tried for bigamy, welfare fraud, nonsupport, and child rape (for allegedly marrying his thirteen-year-old daughter).Green had divorced each wife before marrying another, yet he continued to live with them all; hence, they were common law marriages. The case was the first major prosecution in over fifty years and received a great deal of media coverage. Green was convicted and sentenced to five years in jail.
In keeping with the open cultural mores of the late twentieth century, some groups still advocated polygamy, usually on secular grounds. They argued that plural marriage avoids bigamy and adultery. Other groups stated that the high American divorce rate results in a form of "serial polygamy," as distinguished from "simultaneous polygamy." Still other groups, generally formed by former plural marriage wives, fought against the practice of polygamy on the grounds that it inappropriately and un-duly subjugated women to the power of a particular man.
Bibliography
Altman, Irwin. Polygamous Families in Contemporary Society. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Foster, Lawrence. Religion and Sexuality: The Shakers, the Mormons, and the Oneida Community. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984.
Foster, Lawrence. Women, Family, and Utopia: Communal Experiments of the Shakers, the Oneida Community, and the Mormons. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1991.
Gordon, Sarah Barringer. The Mormon Question: Polygamy and the Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth Century America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
Kilbride, Philip. Plural Marriage for Our Times. Westport, Connecticut: Bergin and Garvey, 1994.
Klaw, Spencer. Without Sin: Life and Death of the Oneida Community. New York: Penguin Books, 1993.
Litchman, Kristin Embry. All is Well. New York: Delacorte Press, 1998.
Marriage in which a spouse of either sex may have more than one mate at a time.
Polygamy for men (polygyny) is sanctioned in Islam by direct reference in the Qurʾan and is practiced to some extent in all countries with Muslim populations except where prohibited by law. Muslim men may have as many as four wives at a time but are admonished to treat all equally. The shariʿa warns of the unlikelihood that the wives in a polygamous marriage can, in fact, be treated equally. Therefore, monogamy is the preferred condition.
Polygamy is statistically minimal in Middle Eastern countries that uphold the shariʿa in family law. This is partly due to legislation that makes polygamy difficult to enter into or to maintain. Economic considerations also make polygamy virtually impossible, since there must be a separate household for each wife. Consequently, those who practice polygamy are often relatively wealthy or influential. Community and political leaders are more likely to practice polygamy as a sign of respect and as a matter of prestige.
In bedouin and tribal cultures, tribal leaders practice polygamy both to enhance their own prestige and to form or strengthen alliances with other tribes.
— JENAB TUTUNJI
The offense of having more than one wife or husband at the same time.
In every state the law allows a man or a woman to be married to only one person of the opposite sex at a time. The crime of having more than one current spouse is called polygamy. Under the law there is no difference between bigamy (having two spouses) and polygamy (having more than one spouse). States base their laws on the Model Penal Code § 230.1, which states that a person is guilty of the third-degree felony of polygamy if he or she "marries or cohabits with more than one spouse at a time in purported exercise of the right of plural marriage." The offense continues until all cohabitation with and claim of marriage to more than one spouse terminate. Polygamy laws do not apply to aliens who are temporarily visiting the United States, provided that polygamy is lawful in their country of origin.
The ban on polygamy originated in English common law. In England polygamy was repudiated because it deviated from Christian norms; marriage, it was believed, properly existed only between one man and one woman. In 1866, for example, in the seminal case of Hyde v. Hyde, 1 L.R.-P. & D., an English court remarked that "the law of [England was] … adapted to the Christian marriage, and it is wholly inapplicable to polygamy." During the nineteenth century, English and U.S. law did not recognize polygamous marriage in any form. Only in the late twentieth century has either nation given limited legal recognition to polygamous partners from other countries.
Anti-polygamy laws in the United States also sprang from religious conflict. In the mid-1800s, widespread public hostility arose toward the practice of polygamy by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as Mormons. A small religious sect in the territory of Utah, the Mormons believed that their founder and prophet, Joseph Smith, had a divine revelation in 1843 that called for men to marry more than one woman; in 1852 the church announced that the practice was religiously superior to monogamy. This position angered critics throughout the country, ranging from religious leaders to novelists, editorialists, and particularly politicians. In 1856 the Republican party's first national platform denounced polygamy and slavery as "those twin relics of barbarism."
These attitudes formed the basis for a full-scale legal assault on polygamy in general and on the Mormons' practice in particular. In Washington, D.C., lawmakers passed federal anti-polygamy laws that severely punished polygamists, denied them the right to vote, and ultimately repealed the legal incorporation of the Mormon Church and began proceedings to seize its property. U.S. marshals arrested hundreds of Mormons. As the church battled these measures, several cases reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The most famous case is Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145, 8 Otto 145, 25 L. Ed. 244 (1878), in which the Court upheld the conviction of a Mormon leader by rejecting the church's claim to protection under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In 1890 the Court upheld the 1887 federal statute repealing the church's incorporation (24 Stat. 635, ch. 397) in Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. United States, 136 U.S. 1, 10 S. Ct. 792, 34 L. Ed. 478 (1890), modified, 140 U.S. 665, 11 S. Ct. 884, 35 L. Ed. 592 (1891). Having no further legal recourse, the Mormon Church abandoned the practice of polygamy.
See: religion.
The practice of having several wives or husbands at the same time. (Compare monogamy.)
n.
A house of atonement, or expiatory chapel, fitted with several stools of repentance, as distinguished from monogamy, which has but one.
Polygamy has been practiced in many societies for thousands of years.
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Polygamy has been a feature of human culture since earliest history. The term polygamy (many marriages in late Greek) is used in related ways in social anthropology, sociobiology, and sociology. Polygamy can be defined as any "form of marriage in which a person [has] more than one spouse."[1]
In social anthropology, polygamy is the practice of marriage to more than one spouse simultaneously. Historically, polygamy has been practiced as polygyny (one man having more than one wife), or as polyandry (one woman having more than one husband), or, less commonly as "polygamy" (having many wives and many husbands at one time). (See "Forms of Polygamy" below.) In contrast monogamy is the practice of each person having only one spouse. Like monogamy, the term is often used in a de facto sense, applying regardless of whether the relationships are recognized by the state (see marriage for a discussion on the extent to which states can and do recognize potentially and actually polygamous forms as valid).
In sociobiology, polygamy is used in a broad sense to mean any form of multiple mating. In a narrower sense, used by zoologists, polygamy includes a pair bond, perhaps temporary.
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.
Polygyny is described as when a man is either married to or involved in sexual relationships with a number of different females at one time. This is the most common form of polygamy. Polygyny is practiced in a traditional sense in many African cultures and countries today, including South Africa and most of Southern and Central Africa. [citation needed]
Polyandry is a breeding practice where a woman has more than one male sexual partner simultaneously. Fraternal polyandry was traditionally practiced among nomadic Tibetans including Nepal and parts of China, where it meant that two or more brothers share the same wife, with her having equal sexual access to them. Polyandry is believed to be more likely in societies with scarce environmental resources, as it is believed to limit human population growth and enhance child survival. A woman can only have so many children in her life time, no matter how many husbands she has. On the other hand, a child with many "fathers", all of whom provide resources, is more likely to survive. (In contrast, the number of children would be increased if polygyny were practiced, and a man had more than one wife. These wives could be simultaneously pregnant).[2] It is a rare form of marriage that exists not only among poor families, but also within the elite.[3]
Group marriage, or circle marriage, may exist in a number of forms, such as where more than one man and more than one woman form a single family unit, and all members of the marriage share parental responsibility for any children arising from the marriage. Another possible arrangement not thought to exist in reality, although occurring in science fiction (notably in Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress), is the long-lived line marriage, in which deceased or departing spouses in the group are continually replaced by others, so that family property never becomes dispersed through inheritance.
Bigamy is when one individual is married to two people at the same time and at least one of the marriages is a legal marriage. Most western countries have laws making any second marriage a crime. For example, in the United States, because of the contract a married person makes upon becoming married, that person is under obligation not to marry again as long as the first marriage continues; stipulations of the marriage license applying.
The purpose of bigamy laws is to protect a spouse from entering a marriage based upon deceit. Examples would be Hezekiah Bradley Smith [4] and Frankie Lymon [5].
In seventeenth to nineteenth century England, Trigamy referred to someone who had three spouses at the same time.
The term is typically used for comic reference. An example is the limerick by William Cosmo Monkhouse about a man from the town of Lyme in Dorset, England.
From the modern legal perspective, trigamy is viewed as two counts of bigamy.
The term polyamory refers to romantic or sexual relationships involving multiple partners at once, regardless of whether they involve marriage. Any polygamous relationship is polyamorous, and some polyamorous relationships involve multiple spouses. "Polygamy" is usually used to refer to multiple marriage, while "polyamory" implies a relationship defined by negotiation between its members rather than cultural norms.
The phrase serial monogamy has been used to describe the lifestyle of persons who have repeatedly married and divorced multiple partners.
Other forms of nonmonogamous relationships are discussed at Forms of nonmonogamy.
Philip Kilbride, an American anthropologist, in his provocative book, Plural Marriage for our Time, proposes polygamy as a solution to some of the ills of the American society at large. He argues that plural marriage may serve as a potential alternative for divorce in many cases in order to obviate the damaging impact of divorce on many children. He maintains that many divorces are caused by the rampant extramarital affairs in the American society. According to Kilbride, ending an extramarital affair in a polygamous marriage, rather than in a divorce, is better for the children, "Children would be better served if family augmentation rather than only separation and dissolution were seen as options." Moreover, he suggests that other groups will also benefit from plural marriage such as: elderly women who face a chronic shortage of men.[6]
According to the Ethnographic Atlas Codebook, of the 1231 societies noted, 186 were monogamous. 453 had occasional polygyny, 588 had more frequent polygyny, and 4 had polyandry.[7]
At the same time, even within societies which allow polygyny, the actual practice of polygyny occurs relatively rarely. There are exceptions: in Senegal, for example, nearly 47 percent of marriages are multiple.[8] To take on more than one wife often requires considerable resources: this may put polygamy beyond the means of the vast majority of people within those societies. Such appears the case in many traditional Islamic societies, and in Imperial China.
Within polygynous societies, multiple wives often become a status symbol denoting wealth and power. Similarly, within societies which formally prohibit polygamy, social opinion may look favorably on persons maintaining mistresses or engaging in serial monogamy.
Some observers detect a social preference for polygyny in disease-prone (especially tropical) climates, and speculate that (from a potential mother's viewpoint) perceived quality of paternal genes may favour the practice there.[citation needed] The countervailing situation allegedly prevails in harsher climates, where (once again from a potential mother's viewpoint) reliable paternal care as exhibited in monogamous pair-bonding outweighs the importance of paternal genes.[citation needed]
Since the Han Dynasty, technically, Chinese men could have only one wife. However throughout the thousands of years of Chinese history, it was common for rich Chinese men to have a wife and various concubines. Polygyny is a by-product of the tradition of emphasis on procreation and the continuity of the father's family name.[citation needed] Before the establishment of the People's Republic of China, it was lawful to have a wife and multiple concubines within Chinese marriage. An emperor, government official or rich merchant could have up to hundreds of concubines after marrying his first wife, or tai-tai.[citation needed]
The Chinese culture of Confucianism and thus the practice of polygyny spread from China to the areas that are now Korea and Japan. Before the establishment of the modern democratic mode, Eastern countries permitted a similar practice of polygyny.[9]
After the Communist Revolution in 1949, polygamy was banned. This occurred via the Marriage Act of 1953.
In Mongolia, there has been discussion about legalizing polygamy to reduce the imbalance of the male and female population.[10]
In Hong Kong, polygamy was banned in October 1971. [11] However, it is still practiced in Hong Kong and Macau. One example of this is Stanley Ho.[citation needed] Another is Lim Por Yen.[12] Some Hong Kong businessmen have concubines across the border in mainland China. Kevin Murphy of The International Herald Tribune[13]reports the cross-border polygyny phenomenon in Hong Kong in 1995.[14]
Man-Lun Ng, M.D. of Humboldt University of Berlin reported the situation in Hong Kong: it was estimated that out of the approximately two million married couples in Hong Kong, about 300,000 husbands had mistresses in mainland China (1996). In 1995, 40% of extramarital affairs involved an enduring long-term relationship with a stable partner.[11]
The traditional attitude toward mistresses is reflected in the saying: "wife is not as good as concubine, concubine is not as good as prostitute, prostitute is not as good as secret affair, secret affair is not as good as the affair you want but can't get" (妻不如妾, 妾不如妓, 妓不如偷, 偷不如偷不到).[citation needed]
The number of women becoming the secret second wife is ever increasing in east Asia. The terms 二奶 (er nai/ yi nai) & 包二奶 (bao er nai / bao yi nai) refer to the second woman and the act of having the second woman respectively.[citation needed] Mansions and villages are now nicknamed 二奶村 (er nai cun / yi nai tsuen) (village of second woman) when a number of secret second wives live.[citation needed]
Both polygamy and polygyny were practiced in ancient times among certain sections of Hindu society. Hinduism during the vedic period seems to have neither prohibited polygamy, nor did it encourage it. Historically, kings occasionally took concubines. For example, the Vijaynagara emperor, Krishnadevaraya had multiple "wives." Under Hindu Marriage Law, as understood by the constitution of India, polygamy is forbidden for Hindu, Jains, and Sikhs. However, Muslims in India are allowed to have multiple wives. Marriage laws in India are dependent upon the religion of the subject in question.[15].
Scriptural evidence indicates that polygamy among the ancient Hebrews, though not extremely common, was not particularly unusual and was certainly not prohibited or discouraged. The Hebrew scriptures document approximately forty polygamists, including such prominent figures as Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Esau, and David, with little or no further remark on their polygamy as such. The Torah, Judaism's central text, includes a few specific regulations on the practice of polygamy, such as Exodus 21:10, which states that multiple marriages are not to diminish the status of the first wife; Deuteronomy 21:15-17, which states that a man must award the inheritance due to a first-born son to the son who was actually born first, even if he hates that son's mother and likes another wife more[16]; and Deuteronomy 17:17, which states that the king shall not have too many wives.[17] One source of polygamy was the practice of levirate marriage, wherein a man was required to marry and support his deceased brother's widow, as mandated by Deuteronomy 25:5-10.
In the modern day, Rabbinic Judaism has essentially outlawed polygamy. Ashkenazi Jews have followed Rabbenu Gershom's ban since the 11th century.[18] Some Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews (particularly those from Yemen and Iran, where polygamy is a social norm) discontinued polygamy much more recently, as they emigrated to countries where it was forbidden. The State of Israel has forbidden polygamous marriages, but instituted provisions for existing polygamous families immigrating from countries where the practice was legal.
Among Karaite Jews, who do not adhere to Rabbinic interpretations of the Torah, polygamy is non-existent today, primarily because Karaites interpret Leviticus 18:18 to mean that a man can only take a second wife if his first wife gives her consent (Keter Torah on Leviticus, pp.96—97). Furthermore, Karaites interpret Exodus 21:10 to mean that a man can only take a second wife if he is capable of maintaining the same level of marital duties due to his first wife; the marital duties are 1) food, 2) clothing, and 3) sexual gratification. Because of these two biblical limitations, polygamy is considered impractical, and there are no known cases of it among Karaite Jews.
Marriage is considered a secular issue in Buddhism. As such, the religion is silent on issues of polygamy and monogamy. However, the third percept aimed at lay followers of basic Theravada Buddhist philosophy suggests, according to some interpretations, to refrain from extra-marital affairs, as they harm the existing relationship between two. In Tibetan Buddhism, namely Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism, it is not uncommon to take a consort in addition to a spouse, though it is namely for certain spiritual practices that the spouse may not be able/ready to participate in--or if the husband/wife are at different levels on their spiritual path.[citation needed] A consort is appropriate in such cases. Within this context, either the husband or wife, occasionally both, might take a spiritual consort. This is known as Consort Practice, and there are specific teachings and mediations that go along with it. Consort Practice is often very private, however, and not openly discussed outside of followers of Tibetan Vajrayana--which tends to be a very private form of Buddhism in general -- hence it is not very well known. Husbands and wives also engage in Consort Practice together, monogamously.
Saint Augustine saw a conflict with Old Testament polygamy. He writes in The Good of Marriage (chapter 15) that, although it "was lawful among the ancient fathers: whether it be lawful now also, I would not hastily pronounce. For there is not now necessity of begetting children, as there then was, when, even when wives bear children, it was allowed, in order to a more numerous posterity, to marry other wives in addition, which now is certainly not lawful." He refrained from judging the patriarchs, but did not deduce from their practice the ongoing acceptability of polygamy. In chapter 7, he wrote, "Now indeed in our time, and in keeping with Roman custom, it is no longer allowed to take another wife, so as to have more than one wife living." [emphasis added]
However, the Roman Catholic Church has subsequently ruled on more fundamental grounds that "polygamy is not in accord with the moral law. [Conjugal] communion is radically contradicted by polygamy; this, in fact, directly negates the plan of God which was revealed from the beginning, because it is contrary to the equal personal dignity of men and women who in matrimony give themselves with a love that is total and therefore unique and exclusive." (Catholic Cathechism, para. 2387, Vatican website). This is also the normal position among Protestant Churches, and it can therefore be said that the mainstream Christian position is to reject polygamy in principle.
Periodically, Christian reform movements that have aimed at rebuilding Christian doctrine based on the Bible alone (sola scriptura) have at least temporarily accepted polygamy as a Biblical practice. For example, during the Protestant Reformation, in a document referred to simply as "Der Beichtrat" ( or "The Confessional Advice" ),[19] Martin Luther granted the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, who, for many years, had been living "constantly in a state of adultery and fornication,"[20] a dispensation to take a second wife. The double marriage was to be done in secret however, to avoid public scandal.[21] Some fifteen years earlier, in a letter to the Saxon Chancellor Gregor Brück, Luther stated that he could not "forbid a person to marry several wives, for it does not contradict Scripture." "Ego sane fateor, me non posse prohibere, si quis plures velit uxores ducere, nec repugnat sacris literis."[22]
"On February 14, 1650, the parliament at Nürnberg decreed that, because so many men were killed during the Thirty Years’ War, the churches for the following ten years could not admit any man under the age of 60 into a monastery. Priests and ministers not bound by any monastery were allowed to marry. Lastly, the decree stated that every man was allowed to marry up to ten women. The men were admonished to behave honorably, provide for their wives properly, and prevent animosity among them."[23][24][25][26][27]
The modern trend towards frequent divorce and remarriage is sometimes referred to by conservative Christians as 'serial polygamy'. In contrast, sociologists and anthropologists refer to this as 'serial monogamy', since it is a series of monogamous (i.e. not polygamous) relationships.[28]
In Sub-Saharan Africa, there has often been a tension between the Christian churches' insistence on monogamy and traditional polygamy. In some instances in recent times there have been moves for accommodation; in others churches have resisted such moves strongly. African Independent Churches have sometimes referred to those parts of the Old Testament which describe polygamy in defending the practice.
The history of Mormon polygamy begins with claims that Mormonism founder Joseph Smith received a revelation from God on July 17, 1831 that some Mormon men would be commanded to practice "plural marriage". The July 12, 1843 recording of a Smith revelation on plural marriage is now canonized as scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants by the LDS Church[29]. For years the practice of plural marriage by Mormons in the United States was not publicly known. The 1835 edition of the 101st Section of the Doctrine and Covenants, written before the doctrine of plural marriage was practiced, publicly condemned polygamy. This scripture was used to quash Mormon polygamy rumors by John Taylor during 1850 in Liverpool, England[30]. Polygamy was illegal in the state of Illinois[31] during the 1839-44 Nauvoo era when several top Mormon leaders including Smith, Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball took plural wives. Mormon elders who publicly taught that all men were commanded to enter plural marriage were subject to discipline; for example, the February 1, 1844 excommunication of Hyram Brown.[32] In May 1844 Smith declared, "What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one."[33]. On June 7, 1844 the Nauvoo Expositor criticized Smith for plural marriage. The Nauvoo city council declared the Nauvoo Expositor press a nuisance and ordered Smith, as Nauvoo's mayor, to order the city marshall to destroy the paper and its press. This controversial decision led to Smith going to Carthage Jail where he was killed by a mob on June 27, 1844. The main body of Mormons soon followed Brigham Young to Utah where the practice of plural marriage continued.
On August 29, 1852 the church began to publicly acknowledge their practice of plural marriage through a sermon on the subject given by Apostle Orson Pratt. Additional sermons by top Mormon leaders on the virtues of polygamy followed[34]. Much controversy ensued and many novelists began to write books and pamphlets condemning polygamy, portraying it as a legalized form of slavery.[citation needed] The key plank of the Republican Party's 1856 platform was "to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery".[35] In 1862 during their first term with full control of both Congress and the White House, the Republicans issued the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act and the Emancipation Proclamation. The Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act clarified that the practice of polygamy was illegal in all U.S. territories. Latter-day Saints believed that their religiously-based practice of plural marriage was protected by the Constitution[citation needed]. However the 1879 unanimous Supreme Court Reynolds v. United States decision declared that polygamy was not protected by the Constitution, based on the longstanding legal principle that "laws are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices."[36]
Increasingly harsh anti-polygamy legislation penalized church members, disincorporated the church, and permitted the seizure of church property. Members of the church were subsequently sent to Canada and Mexico to set up communities free from prosecution and in order to keep their marriages intact; e.g., Charles Ora Card founded Cardston, Alberta at the direction of John Taylor. The church's fourth president, Wilford Woodruff, issued a public declaration (commonly called the Manifesto) announcing the official discontinuance of the practice in 1890. Woodruff indicated in his diary that his action was taken "for the temporal salvation of the Church" which had been shown to him as being in danger through a vision from the Lord.[37]. Much of the opposition against the church ceased because of the Manifesto. Statehood for Utah was granted in 1896 as opposition because of the controversy over Mormon polygamy waned.
National attention in the United States again focused on potential polygamy among the church in the early 20th century during the House of Representatives hearings on Representative-elect B. H. Roberts and Senate hearings on Senator-elect Reed Smoot (the Smoot Hearings). Sixth church president Joseph F. Smith issued the church's Second Manifesto against polygamy in 1904 which clarified that all members of the LDS Church were officially prohibited from performing or entering into polygamous marriages, no matter what the legal status of such unions was in their respective countries of residence.[citation needed] In 1909 a committee of apostles met to investigate post-Manifesto polygamy, and by 1910 the church had a new policy. Those involved in plural marriages after 1904 were excommunicated; and those married between 1890 and 1904 were not to have church callings where other members would have to sustain them.[citation needed] Although the LDS Church officially prohibited new plural marriages after 1904, many plural husbands and wives continued to cohabit until their deaths in the 1940s and 1950s.[38] Seventh church president Heber J. Grant who died in 1945 was the last LDS Church president to have practiced plural marriage.
The LDS Church now excommunicates members found to be practicing polygamy.[39] The "Teachings of Brigham Young"[40] and a LDS website on Joseph Smith [41] are some examples on how LDS Church publications now commonly characterize the history of early church leaders on the practice of plural marriage.
Although most Mormons now accept the prohibition on plural marriage, various splinter groups left the mainline LDS Church to continue the open practice of plural marriage. Polygamy among these groups persists today in Utah, neighboring states, and the spin-off colonies, as well as among isolated individuals with no organized church affiliation. Polygamist churches of Mormon origin are often referred to as "Mormon fundamentalist" who often use a disputed September 27, 1886 revelation to John Taylor as the basis for their authority to continue the practice of plural marriage.[42] The Salt Lake Tribune states there are as many as 37,000 fundamentalists, with less than half of them living in polygamous households.[43] Most of the polygamy is believed to be restricted to about a dozen extended groups of polygamous fundamentalists. The LDS Church asserts that it is improper to call any of these splinter polygamous groups "Mormon."[44][45]
In Islam, polygamy is allowed, with the specific limitation that men can only have up to four wives at any one time. However, the Qur'an specifically states that men who choose this route must deal with their wives as fairly as possible, doing everything that they can to spend equal amounts of time and money on each one of them. Although many Muslim countries still retain traditional Islamic law which permits polygamy, certain elements within Islam challenge its acceptability. For example, polygamy is prohibited by law in Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In Pakistan, if the first wife has not officially given her permission for the second marriage, it is not considered legal and the husband will end up in jail.
Secular law in most western countries with large Jewish and Christian populations does not recognize polygamous marriages. However, few such countries have any laws against living a polygamous lifestyle: they simply refuse to give it any official recognition. Parts of the United States, however, criminalize even the polygamous lifestyle; these laws originated as anti-Mormon legislation, although they are rarely enforced.[46] Polygamists may find it harder to obtain legal immigrant status.
Some polygamous families use a system of multiple divorce and legal marriage as a loophole in order to avoid committing a criminal act. In such cases the husband marries the first wife, she takes his last name, he divorces her and then marries the next wife, who takes his name. This is repeated until he has married and divorced all his wives, except possibly the last one. This way the wives feel justified in calling themselves Mrs. [husband's last name] and, while legally they're divorced from the husband, they still act as if married to him and expect those around them to acknowledge and respect this.
Since only one wife is officially married to the husband at any one time, no law is being broken and so this type of polygamous family unit can be overt about their relationship.
The conviction of Thomas Arthur Green in 2001 may have made the legal status of such relationships more precarious in Utah, although Green's bigamy convictions were made possible only by his own public statements.
The practice of informal polygamy among fundamentalist groups presents itself with interesting legal issues. It has been considered difficult to prosecute polygamists for bigamy, in large part because they are rarely formally married under state laws. Without evidence that suspected offenders have multiple formal or common-law marriages, these groups are merely subject to the laws against adultery or unlawful cohabitation — laws which are not commonly enforced because they also criminalize other behavior that is otherwise socially sanctioned. However, some "Fundamentalist" polygamists marry women prior to the age of consent, or commit fraud to obtain welfare and other public assistance.
In 2001, the state of Utah in the United States convicted Thomas Green of criminal non-support and four counts of bigamy for having 5 serially monogamous marriages, while living with previous legally divorced wives. His cohabitation was considered evidence of a common-law marriage to the wives he had divorced while still living with them. That premise was subsequently affirmed by the Utah Supreme Court in State v. Green, as applicable only in the State of Utah. Green was also convicted of child rape and criminal non-support.[47]
In 2005, the state attorneys-general of Utah and Arizona issued a primer on helping victims of domestic violence and child abuse in polygamous communities.[48] Enforcement of crimes such as child abuse, domestic violence, and fraud were emphasized over the enforcement of anti-polygamy and bigamy laws. The priorities of local prosecutors are not covered by this statement.
Edith Barlow, a mother of five in the polygamous community of Bountiful, B.C., was denied permanent residence and has been asked to leave the country after ten years in Canada.[49] In Canada, polygamy is a criminal offence[50] but prosecutions are rare. The Attorney General in British Columbia has expressed concerns over whether this prohibition is constitutional; an independent prosecutor in British Columbia recommended that Canadian courts be asked to rule on the constitutionality of the law against polygamy.[51]. A 2005 report by the Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre recommended that Canada decriminalize polygamy, stating: "Criminalization is not the most effective way of dealing with gender inequality in polygamous and plural union relationships. Furthermore, it may violate the constitutional rights of the parties involved."[52]
David Friedman and Steve Sailer have argued that polygamy tends to benefit most women and disadvantage most men. Friedman uses this viewpoint to argue in favor of legalizing polygamy, while Sailer uses it to argue against legalizing it. The idea is firstly that many women would prefer half or one third of someone especially appealing to being the single spouse of someone that doesn't provide as much economic utility to them. Secondly, that the remaining women have a better market for finding a spouse themselves. Say that 20% of women are married to 10% of men, that leaves 90% of men to compete over the remaining 80% of women.
The Libertarian Party supports complete decriminalization of polygamy as part of a general belief that the government should not regulate marriages.
Individualist feminism and advocates such as Wendy McElroy also support the freedom for adults to voluntarily enter polygamous marriages.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Utah is opposed to Utah's law against bigamy.[53]
Those who advocate a Federal Marriage Amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage generally word their proposed laws to also prohibit polygamy.
The Roman Catholic Church clearly condemns polygamy; the Catechism of the Catholic Church lists it in paragraph 2387 under the head "Other offenses against the dignity of marriage" and states that it "is not in accord with the moral law." Also in paragraph 1645 under the head "The Goods and Requirements of Conjugal Love" states "The unity of marriage, distinctly recognized by our Lord, is made clear in the equal personal dignity which must be accorded to man and wife in mutual and unreserved affection. Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love which is undivided and exclusive."
Currently the vast majority of Protestant congregations take the Catholic view on polygamy.[citation needed]
The illegality of polygamy in certain areas creates, according to certain Bible passages, additional arguments against it. Paul of Tarsus writes "submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience" (Romans 13:5), for "the authorities that exist have been established by God." (Romans 13:1) St Peter concurs when he says to "submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right." (1 Peter 2:13,14) Pro-polygamists argue that, as long as polygamists currently do not obtain legal marriage licenses for additional spouses, no enforced laws are being broken any more than when monogamous couples who similarly co-habitate without a marriage license.[54]
At the present time, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints supports enforcing laws against polygamy, although historically this denomination practiced polygamy which they considered to be a principle revealed by God, and fought vocally against those seeking to establish such laws. Today, the church will excommunicate any member found to be practicing polygamy.
Controversial Christian vegetarian activist and leader Nathan Braun implies a positive stance towards polygamy in his fourth edition of The History and Philosophy of Marriage.
Tim Clutton-Brock and Kavita Isvaran at the University of Cambridge in England, compared about 20 monogamous and polygynous vertebrate species, found the more polygynous a species was, the more likely their males were to age faster and die earlier than females.[55]
Those who live in their own communities tend to find their additional spouses from within their own communities or networks of like communities. In rare cases, this involves daughters of polygamous families entering into arranged marriages with older men who already have a number of wives. Marriage age can be young and sometimes below the legal minimum. It is also not uncommon for fairly close relatives to marry, leading to inbreeding, though part of this comes from the difficulty of keeping track of the complex net of familial relations.
Those who are geographically separated from other polygamists in their culture use other means to find additional spouses.
Some sects that practice or at least sanction polygamy are the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Latter-day Church of Christ and the Apostolic United Brethren. These sects tend to aggregate in communities where they all commonly share their own specific religion and thus basis for polygamy. These small groups ranging from a few hundred to about 10,000 are reported to be located in various communities of the Western United States, Canada, and Mexico including:[56]
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Polygamy, and laws concerning polygamy, differ greatly throughout the Islamic world and form a very complex and diverse background from nation to nation. Whereas in some Muslim countries it may be fairly common, in most others it is often rare or non-existent. However, there are certain core fundamentals which are found in most Muslim countries where the practice occurs. According to traditional Islamic law, a man may take up to four wives, and each of those wives must have her own property, assets, and dowry. Usually the wives have little to no contact with each other and lead separate, individual lives in their own houses, and sometimes in different cities, though they all share the same husband. Muhammad, for example, married many of his wives because they were war widows who were left with nothing and took care of them. Thus, polygamy is traditionally restricted to men who can manage things, and in some countries it is illegal for a man to marry multiple wives if he is unable to afford to take care of each of them properly.
In the modern Islamic world, polygamy is mainly found in traditionalist Arab cultures [citation needed], Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for instance [citation needed], whereas in secular Arab states like Tunisia and non-Arab countries with Muslim population, Turkey for example, it is banned. However, polygamy is still practiced in Malaysia, a non-Arab Muslim country, but there are restrictions as to how it can be practiced.[57] In traditionalist cultures where polygamy is still commonplace and legal, Muslim polygamists do not separate themselves from the society at large, since there would be no need as each spouse leads a separate life from the others.
Shiite Islamic law accepts temporary marriage, called
Nikah Mut'ah. Because of changing norms in the Islamic Republic of
Iran, where a majority of the population is still under the age of 25. Places called Chastity
Houses have been sanctioned by the Islamic government to allow youth to go against conservative cultural norms of older
generations that see such sexual activity amongst younger people as taboo. This temporary marriage is allowed for males and
females only if they are not virgins or have parental consent. This form of polygamy is many a times considered "mistress
marriages" by critics in the West.
Oscar Wilde on the subject. Writing in one of his plays: "Bigamy is having one spouse too many. Marriage is the same."
A popular joke with Mark Twain has Twain asked to cite a Scripture reference that forbids polygamy, and he responds with, "No man can serve two masters."
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 similarities to Islamic, Arabic, and other cultures.
Similarly, the Aiel society in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series practice a form of polygamy, in which multiple women may marry the same man; in that fictional culture, women are the ones who propose marriage. Among Aiel, sisters or very close friends who have adopted each other as sisters, will often marry the same man, so that he will not come between them.
Dan Simmons describes a culture of three-person marriages (any gender ratio) in his book Endymion.
Noted libertarian author L. Neil Smith included a character married to two sisters in his book The American Zone. The dominant culture in the novel sees one's religion and personal living accommodations as no one else's business, and "acts of capitalism between consenting adults" as the norm instead of something immoral.
Jean M. Auel in the pre-historic Earth's Children series depicted several instances of "co-mating," where a person could have more than one mate. Examples included the headwoman Tulie in the Mammoth Hunters, and a man who married a pair of twins in the Shelters of Stone. Also of note was Vinavec, the headman of the Mammoth Camp who wished to mate with the protagonist Ayla and was willing to take her Promised, Ranec, implying a bisexual relationship as well.
A Home at the End of the World is a novel and film about a polyandrous family. It explores issues of homosexuality and families.
In the Sci-Fi Star Trek television series Enterprise, the ship's physician, Dr. Phlox (who is a Denobulan) has three wives, and each of his three wives have three husbands (including Dr. Phlox) of their own. One of Phlox's wives seemed to be interested in having extramarital relations with a Human, which Phlox himself did not oppose, and even encouraged. It has also been established on multiple occasions that the Andorian species enter into group marriages.
In the Sci-Fi television series Babylon 5 the Centauris allow for men to have more than one wife.
In Star Wars Expanded Universe, it is explained that Cereans (like Ki-Adi-Mundi) have a much higher birth-rate of girls than boys. Thus, every male Cerean must have one wife and multiple "honor wives", to increase the chance of giving birth to another male. Jedi Cerean Ki-Adi-Mundi was allowed to marry multiple times, although Jedis were not supposed to marry at his time; but Ki-Adi-Mundi got a dispense of that norm.
Big Love is an HBO series about a polygamous family in Utah in the first decade of the 21st century. In the series, Bill Henrickson has three wives and seven children, who belong to a fundamentalist Mormon splinter group. Big Love explores the complex legal, moral, and religious issues associated with polygamy in Utah. Henrickson's three wives each have separate houses beside one another, with a shared backyard. By outward appearances, he lives with his primary wife, and has two "friends" living close by, while in reality taking turns sleeping at a different house each night. Henrickson effectively balances his work, the continuing demands of his wives, and his wives' relatives.
In Duke of the Mount Deer/The Deer and the Cauldron the Hong Kong writer Louis Cha (Jin Yung) assigned 7 willing wives of different characters to the very capable hero Wai-Siu-Bo (Wei-Shao-Bao). This politics, office-politics, romance & kung-fu survival story was based in the early Ching (Qing) Dynasty (of Kangxi reign 1654--1722). The saga has been made into films & TV series several times since the 1960s. Famous actors like Tony Leung (Leung Chiu Wai), Steven Chow (Chow Sing Chi) & Dicky Cheung (Cheu
