Polygyny can occur between animals.
Polygyny is a concept used in anthropology , zoology and botany . In the first case, the term is used to name the condition that is established when a man has two or more wives simultaneously .
Polygyny, in this sense, is one of the types of polygamy . If it is the woman who has two or more husbands at the same time, it is called polyandry . This means that polygamy can take the form of polygyny or polyandry.
Characteristics of polygyny
For polygyny to exist, the bond between a man and his women must be institutionalized . The love affairs or eventual adventures that a subject may have do not constitute a case of polygyny.
Polygyny is almost non-existent in the Western world today. On the other hand, in some Hindu or Islamic nations this mode of social organization still exists. The possibility of developing polygyny is usually tied to economic conditions, since men are generally obliged to support all their wives, something that may be unattainable for most of society .
The case of Paraguay
After the war in which Uruguay , Brazil , Argentina and Paraguay fought between 1865 and 1870 , the latter lost a large part of its male inhabitants of reproductive age; To be more precise, it is estimated that more than 90% of its young men died . To recover from such a tragedy and repopulate the country, the Government made the decision to allow "free love" , the name given to the policy it adopted.
In other words, Paraguay resorted to polygyny to accelerate the process of repopulating its inhabitants. The situation in which the country had been left was truly alarming: in certain rural areas, fifty women were counted for every man, something that probably would never have been reversed if the idea of multiple ties for each man had been condemned.
The arrival of polygyny in Paraguay brought with it another advantage, in addition to helping to repopulate the country: it helped to revalue the role of women in society . The traditional woman continued to take care of maintaining the home and children, but she also became the head of the household , since a man with several wives cannot be in all the houses at the same time. This gave more power to women, since they became the main figure of the domestic organization , bordering on a matriarchal system, something that continues to exist today in Paraguay, to a greater or lesser extent.
After the War of the Triple Alliance, polygyny was endorsed in Paraguay.
Polygyny according to culture
Contrary to what one may think from the outside, cultures that support or allow polygyny usually do so to overcome the lack of men of reproductive age, something that generally occurs in times of war, and not as a sexist measure.
The Quran , for example, does not recommend polygyny although it does not prohibit it either, but rather imposes a limit of four wives, with the condition that each one receives the same treatment and the same rights, something that must also be fulfilled for the children of each. family group.
The concept in zoology and botany
Among animals , polygyny is the name of the social organization developed by those species in which a male mates with many females, without allowing another male access to the same possibility. In this way, a situation occurs equivalent to a man who lives with many women in a harem. Pheasants and deer are examples of animals that develop polygyny.
In botany, finally, polygyny is the qualification given to a flower that has numerous pistils (the female reproductive organs of the plant ).