Lecture
Polyandry , or polyaandria (ancient Greek πολυ- - many + from ἀνήρ gives birth to п δνδρός - husband) - a rare form of polygamy, in which a woman is in several marriages with different men. The opposite of monoandry. It differs from polygyny - marriage of one man with several women at the same time, as well as from polyamory and group marriage, in which several women and several men participate [1] [2]. In English, the word polyandry can refer to any sexual relationship between a woman and several men, both in marriage and outside of marriage.
In 1980, the Ethnographic Atlas (English Ethnographic Atlas ) published a study of love relationships in 1231 human societies. In 186 of these, only monogamy was adopted, in 453 polygyny was occasionally encountered, in 588 polygyny was more frequent, in 28 societies (living only in the Himalayas) polyandry was frequent, in four societies polyandry was rare. Later studies found the practice of polyandria in 50 more societies [3] [4].
Fraternal polyandry, in which two or more siblings are married to one woman, has traditionally been adopted by Tibetans in Nepal, China and northern India. [5] It may be associated with the so-called "multiple fatherhood" - prevailing in some tribes and nations, the idea that a child may have several fathers. [4]
Polyandry is believed to be more common in communities experiencing a lack of natural resources. Lack of resources forces to limit fertility and increases the importance of the survival of each child. [5] [6] And in those societies, this rare form of marriage is common not only among the peasants, but also among the nobility. [7] For example, in Tibet there is a shortage of land suitable for agriculture, and marrying all the brothers to one woman avoids the fragmentation of the land belonging to the family of husbands. If each of the brothers had their own wife and their children, the land would have to be divided between new families, and as a result too small sections could be formed that could not feed them. For this reason, polyandry is accepted even from wealthy landowners. In contrast, the very poor, who have no land at all, the inhabitants of Buddhist Ladakh and Zanskar enter into polyandric marriages much less frequently. [5] In medieval Europe, to prevent the fragmentation of land during the transition by inheritance, the rule of marmorata was established, according to which only the eldest son inherited the estate of the father, and the younger ones often became monks [8].
Polyandry is also found in animals.
Fraternal polyandry (from φρατρία - fraternity) is a form of polyandry in which the husbands of one woman are brothers to each other. It has been and still is sometimes found in the central regions of Tibet, in Nepal and in northern India, [9] where it was accepted in society. [5] [10] In southern India, fraternal polyandry is practiced in the Toda tribe, but now they have monogamy. [11] In modern Indian society, polyandric marriages are observed in rural communities in the Malwa region (English) Russian. The state of Punjab, which, apparently, is practiced there for the same purpose - to avoid crushing farm land. [12]
In contrast to the European rules of majorato and primogenitura, forcing the younger sons of landowners to leave their homes and look for other activities, the fraternal polyandry allows not only to avoid crushing estates during inheritance, but also gives the brothers the opportunity to stay to live and farm together. And in the next generation, their sons, born of a common wife, will also be able to marry one woman together and inherit the same land, which will not be divided and will be provided with sufficient male labor [13]. But with a large number of brothers, this life strategy turns out to be less successful [14].
In the families of aristocrats and large landowners polyandry can serve to preserve the titles and lands of the genus. With a long or frequent absence of one of the brothers, it can replace others, and the economy will not decline without a responsible owner. In Tibet, polyandry was especially prevalent among the spiritual elite of the Sakya School.
Polyandria can also be caused by extreme gender inequality. For example, selective abortions in India result in a shortage of women and the “socialization” of the wife by several men (most often relatives) [15].
In polygynous marriages, an analogue of fraternal polyandry is sororat - the marriage of one man with several siblings or cousins.
Anthropologist Stephen Beckerman notes that in at least 20 tribal societies it is considered normal or even desirable that a child have more than one father. This is called multiple (shared, partial, joint) paternity (eng. Partible paternity ). [16] Often (but not always) the joint upbringing of a child by several fathers is associated with the polyandric marriage of these men with the child’s mother. [17]
One of the most famous examples of partial paternity is the “virgin birth” of all children, in which some of the natives of the Trobriand Islands believe. These people are aware of the need for sexual intercourse for the birth of a child, but at the same time they believe that the man does not affect the physique and personal qualities of the child, which depend only on the mother. Because they have adopted inheritance exclusively on the maternal line (matrilineal), the child always belongs only to the kind of mother. Husbands of the mother who do not live with her in the same house, the fathers of the child are not considered, and the brothers mothers who live with her are considered.
A variety of polyandry is biandry (from Lat. Bis - twice, and the ancient Greek ἀνήρ - husband) - a form of marriage, in which a woman has two husbands at the same time [18].
In the Indian Himalayas there is a combination of polyandry and polygyne: when two or more men are married to two or more same women at the same time. This form of group marriage is called polygynandry. Polyginandria also avoids land fragmentation, diversifying local economic activity and reducing population growth [19].
Polyandry was found and occurs in relatively small areas of distribution scattered in different parts of the world.
The earliest known evidence of the existence of polyandry is the decree of Uruinimgin, who ruled the Sumerian city-state of Lagash approximately in 2319-2311. BC, the abolition of biandric marriages [20] and the prohibition of polyandria under the threat of stoning a woman with several husbands, if this is recorded. [21]
In some cantons of the ancient Mussel, a woman was allowed to have several (but not more than four) husbands simultaneously. [22] In the State of Ephtalits, fraternal polyandry was legalized and generally accepted. A married woman wore a hat with horns according to the number of spouses. If the husbands of one woman were not blood brothers, they framed each other before marrying the common spouse. [23] [24]
A hypothesis was expressed about the existence of polyandry in ancient (pre-Islamic) Southern Arabia. [25] [26] Presumably, then there was a tradition called Nikah Ijtimah (eng. Nikah Ijtimah ), which allowed polyandry, but with the acceptance of Islam by the Arabs, this tradition was condemned and discontinued [27].
Polyandry in Tibet (English) Russian. was more common than in any other known society, and can be practiced until now. Nikolai Notovich, in his book, noted the existence of polyandry in “Little Tibet” - Ladakh. [28] According to a study conducted in 1981 in the Muli-Tibet Autonomous County, 52% of marriages were monogamous, in 32% of cases fraternal polyandry was found, and in 16% polyginia in the form of sororate. [29] The authorities of the PRC, after establishing control over Tibet, outlawed polyandry, and because of the closeness of this region and China as a whole, there is no reliable information about the number of polyandric families in Tibet at present. [30] In China, polyandry is also found among the Moso people in the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan [31].
In India (English) Russian, Bhutan and in the north of Nepal polyandry continues to exist among national and religious minorities. Widespread among Sherpas. [32] In 1914 in Bhutan, polyandry was the dominant form of marriage. [33] In modern Bhutan, polyandry is much less common, but it is still practiced by the minaro living in the Gevogah of Merak (English) Russian. and Sakteng (eng.) Russian. Dzonghagh Trashigang. [34]
In India, polyandry is most common in Rajasthan, Ladakh, Zanskar and in the Jaunsar-Bavar (Hindi जौनसार बावर) region of Uttarakhand among the Toda tribe [5] [30].
Polyandry is found or has occurred among the Nivkhs on Sakhalin [35] and the Eskimos in the north of Eurasia. [25]
There are cases of polyandry in Nigeria [30], especially in the Irigwe tribe (Irigwe, Rigwe) in the northern regions of this country: women of this tribe traditionally have several spouses, whom they call “somuzha”. Polyandry was common among the Masai in Kenya and northern Tanzania [31] [36]. In the Great Lakes region, polyphenia was rare, while polygyny was quite common there. [37]
In August 2013 in Kenya, two men signed an agreement to enter into marriage with one woman, with whom each of them had a love relationship. Kenya’s legislation does not impose a strict ban on polyandry, but it is not very much accepted there now [38].
The inscription on the grave of Alia Potestas ( Museo Epigrafico , Baths of Diocletian, Rome)
According to Julius Caesar, the ancient Britons practiced the socialization of the wife by brothers, less often - by father and son. [39] According to Polybius, polyandry prevailed among the inhabitants of Laconia. [40] [41] In the history of the Roman Empire, there is a case when matrons mobbed into the Senate and tearfully begged to pass a law allowing a woman to have two husbands. [42] There is an inscription on the grave of Alia Potestas (eng. Allia Potestas ) from ancient Perugia, which tells how she lived peacefully with two lovers, one of whom immortalized her name in the famous epigraphic eulogy, which dates from approximately the second century of our era. [43]
Cases of polyandry were also noted in some Polynesian tribes before contact with Europets, [44] but there they were found only among women from higher castes [45]. In Guanches, the first known inhabitants of the Canary Islands, polyandry was also adopted and practiced until the people disappeared [46].
In Sri Lanka, fraternal polyandry is officially allowed under the Kandyan Marriage Law . To denote polyandry there is often used the euphemism “eka-ge-kama” (literally - “to eat in one house”) [47]. It is found in Sri Lanka and associated polyandry (Eng. Associated Polyandry ) - a form of marriage that begins as monogamous, but later on the number of husbands of the wife increases (sometimes initiated by the wife) [48] [49].
Polyandry is common among the Kanaks in New Caledonia [50] and the natives of the Marquesas Islands. [25] [51] Friedrich Ratzel in 1896 in his book “The History of Mankind” stated that in New Hebrides polyandry was accepted among widowers and widows: according to the custom of the local tribes, two widowers had to live with one widow [52].
Among the indigenous people of North America, polyandry was found among the Aleuts [25] [53] (noted in the 19th century) and Inuit. [54]
In Brazil, polyandria is found among the people of the Zoe tribe (English Zo'é ) living on the banks of the Cuminapanema River in the state of Para [55]. Among other indigenous peoples of South America, polymorphism was noted in Bororo, [56] fraternal polyandry was adopted by the non-contact tribe Tupi-Kwahib ( Tupi-Kawahib ), [57] and multiple fatherhood was found in about 70% of the cultures of Amazonia. [58]
Draupadi with five Pandava husbands.
From left to right: Bhima, Arjuna, Yudhisthira, Nakula, Sahadeva, Draupadi.
Dasavatar Temple (Deogarh [en] Village, Lalitpur District, Uttar Pradesh, India)
Polyandric relationships are not currently approved in most Hindu schools. [59] But in the ancient Hindu holy epic, Mahabharata, there is at least one example of polyandry: Draupadi was married to five Pandava brothers at once. This ancient text expresses a rather neutral attitude to polyandry, which is accepted as the way of life of Draupadi [60]. In the same epic, Yudhisthira, answering Kunti's questions about polyandry, refers to the Gautam-clan Jatila, who was married to seven Saptarishs, and to Praceti, Hiranyaksha's sister, who was the common wife of ten brothers. As can be understood from this, in Vedic times, society was much better off in many respects. [61]
In the Hebrew biblical texts there is not a single reference to the fact that any woman was the wife of several men at the same time, [62] [63] and the biblical definition of adultery clearly indicates the unacceptability of polyandry. [64] [65] There is no polyandry in Jewish traditions and customs. [66] [67] In addition, children from any man except the first husband are considered illegitimate (mamzers), unless the first husband divorced the woman or died [68] ..
The overwhelming majority of modern Christian denominations advocate strict monogamy and do not accept any other form of marriage, including polyandry. The New Testament (Romans 7: 2-3) strictly prohibits polyandry.
Mormon prophets Joseph Smith and Brigham Young set historical records for polygamy. There is a version that they also took women from other husbands, that is, they practiced polygyndandria, but this question remains controversial. [69]
Although Islam prohibits polyandry for free women, it should be noted that Islamic lawful enslavement of married women automatically cancels their marriage unions, which allows male slave owners to enter into intimate relations with their slaves who were married before enslavement [
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Interpersonal relationships
Terms: Interpersonal relationships