Polygamy is a regime that allows being married to more than one person at a time.
From the Latin polygamia , polygamy is the state or quality of being polygamous . The term refers to the family regime that allows someone to be married to more than one person at the same time.
The concept refers to both the man who is married to many women and the woman who is married to several men, a condition that, given the weight of machismo in the world, is very rare.
Polygamy according to the law
Western law does not allow polygamy , but only accepts a single marriage at a time, and generally allows divorce . Therefore, from an institutional or legal point of view, if a person wants to formalize their romantic relationships with more than one person, they will not be able to do so without incurring a fault.
In some Islamic nations , however, polygamy is accepted as long as the man's co-wives agree to this situation. In these cases, the link is endorsed by state institutions.
It is important to keep in mind that casual sexual relations , orgies, prostitution and partner exchange do not fall within what is known as polygamy.
Just as Islam admits polygamy, Catholicism condemns this condition since it considers that conjugal love is exclusive and indivisible. Judaism and Hinduism also do not promote polygamy, while Mormons do tolerate it. It should be noted that the acceptance or rejection of some countries for this marital status has changed throughout history.
In polygamy, there is no sexual exclusivity with a single partner.
Polygyny and polyandry
In principle, anthropology recognizes a basic division of polygamy: polygyny (one man with several women) and polyandry (one woman with several men). As mentioned in a previous paragraph, the second case is much less frequent than the first; A sociological study that covered almost twelve hundred societies around the world revealed that polygyny was present in more than seventy percent of them.
Polyandry, on the other hand, can be seen in the Toda group, a tribe located in southern India, which allows several male brothers to marry the same woman . This is repeated in other tribes and represents a tradition that seeks not to lose the dominion of a family over the land. Already in the 3rd century BC, the relationships between a woman and multiple men were recorded in a mythological work titled " Mahabharata ."
Beyond polygamy
It is interesting to note that, currently, these terms are not comprehensive enough when it is necessary to describe relationships that involve the same number of women and men.
The term polyamory , which is not very popular in everyday speech, is used to describe a romantic or sexual relationship with several people in the same period of time, as long as all of them are aware of the situation and accept it one hundred percent. hundred. It should be noted that all polygamous relationships can be considered of this type, but the same does not apply in the opposite sense . In addition, polygamy entails a series of religious or traditional issues, while the rules and limits of polyamory (always within the framework of its definition) are created by those who practice it.
When a family group is made up of more than one woman and more than one man, it is called a marriage circle or group marriage . In this case, all members of the civil union have equal shares of responsibility for the maintenance and upbringing of the children.