Polygamy by definition is he practice or custom of having more than one wife or husband at the same time. I wanted to figure out some of the history behind polygamy. To me it has always been related to the Mormon religion and I knew very little about it...
Polygamy has never been accredited to one specific culture and has been seen in many cultures worldwide for thousands of years. Poly gamos is literally translated in late Greek to "often married", but polygamy is broken down into three categories:
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| Polygyny- a man having multiple simultaneous wives |
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| Polyandry- a woman having multiple simultaneous husbands |
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| Group Marriage- multiple simultaneous husbands and wives |
Most commonly practiced is polygyny, but some countries may restrict polygamy laws to only having one form of polygamy practiced instead of all three. Currently, forty-nine countries acknowledge polygamy as part of their civil law, but the United States not being one of them. Also, nearly ten religions ranging from Celtic Traditions to modern day Islam and Christianity all have separate beliefs about polygamy. This is surprising considering most people only recognize multiple marriages as a part of the Mormon faith, myself included.
It is an interesting concept, one that I neither believe is wrong nor do I support it. I never knew that there was actually three separate categories. Although it is not accepted or followed much within the United States, our society is breaking the social norms and trying to put a positive light on the situation.
Here is an article of how it is impacting us currently:
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-09-13/entertainment/27075123_1_19th-wife-polygamy-ann-eliza-young
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