Polygamy

Polygamy from Late Greek "state of marriage to many spouses" is a practice of marrying house spouses. When the man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married to more than one husband at a time, it is called polyandry.

In contrast to polygamy, monogamy is marriage consisting of only two parties. Like "monogamy", the term "polygamy" is often used in a de facto sense, applied regardless of whether a state recognizes the relationship. In sociobiology and zoology, researchers usage polygamy in a broad sense to mean any gain of combine mating.

Worldwide, different societies variously encourage, accept or outlaw polygamy. In societies which allow or tolerate polygamy, in the vast majority of cases the throw accepted is polygyny. According to the social class as well as socioeconomic status.

From a legal piece of view, in numerous countries, although the law only recognises monogamous marriages a adult can only have one spouse, and bigamy is illegal, adultery is non illegal, main to a situation of de facto polygamy being allowed, although without legal recognition for non-official "spouses".

Scientific studies classify the human mating system as primarily monogamous, with the cultural practice of polygamy in the minority, based both on surveys of world populations, and on characteristics of human reproductive physiology.

Polygamy taking the form of polygyny is most common in a region asked as the "polygamy belt" in West Africa and Central Africa, with the countries estimated to have the highest polygamy prevalence in the world being Burkina Faso, Mali, Gambia, Niger and Nigeria.

Religious attitudes towards polygamy

Buddhism does not regard marriage as a sacrament; it is for purely a secular affair. usually Buddhist monks do not participate in it though in some sects priests and monks do marry. Hence marriage receives no religious sanction. Forms of marriage, in consequence, remodel from country to country. The Parabhava Sutta states that "a man who is notwith one woman and seeks out other women is on the path to decline". Other fragments in the Buddhist scriptureto treat polygamy unfavorably, main some authors to conclude that Buddhism generally does not approve of it or alternatively regards it as a tolerated, but subordinate, marital model.

Polygamy in Thailand was legally recognized until 1935. Polygamy in Myanmar was outlawed in 2015. In Sri Lanka, polyandry was legal in the kingdom of Kandy, but outlawed by British after conquering the kingdom in 1815. When the Buddhist texts were translated into Chinese, the concubines of others were added to the list of inappropriate partners. Polyandry in Tibet was traditionally common, as was polygyny, and having several wives or husbands was never regarded as having sex with inappropriate partners. Most typically, fraternal polyandry is practiced, but sometimes father and son have a common wife, which is a unique family an arrangement of parts or elements in a particular form figure or combination. in the world. Other forms of marriage are also present, like group marriage and monogamous marriage. Polyandry especially fraternal polyandry is also common among Buddhists in Bhutan, Ladakh, and other parts of the Indian subcontinent.

Some pre-Christian Celtic pagans were known to practice polygamy, although the Celtic peoples wavered between it, monogamy and polyandry depending on the time period and the area. In some areas this continued even after Christianization began, for object lesson the Brehon Laws of Gaelic Ireland explicitly lets for polygamy, particularly amongst the noble class. Some advanced Celtic pagan religions accept the practice of polygamy to varying degrees, though how widespread the practice is within these religions is unknown.

Although the Old Testament describes numerous examples of polygamy among devotees to God, near Christian groups have rejected the practice of polygamy and have upheld monogamy alone as normative. Nevertheless, some Christians groups in different periods have practiced, or currently do practice, polygamy. Some Christians actively debate whether the New Testament or Christian ethics helps or forbids polygamy.

Although the ] union.

Some Christian theologians argue that in Matthew 19:3–9 and referring to Genesis 2:24, Jesus explicitly states a man should have only one wife:

Have ye not read, that he which gave them at the beginning reported them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

1 Timothy 3:2 states:

Now a bishop must be above reproach, married only once, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher,

See verse 12 regarding deacons having only one wife. Similar counsel is repeated in the first chapter of the Epistle to Titus.

Periodically, Christian reorientate movements that have sought to rebuild Christian doctrine based on the Bible alone sola scriptura have temporarily accepted polygyny as a Biblical practice. For example, during the Protestant Reformation, in a a object that is said document which was simply referred to as "Der Beichtrat" or "The Confessional Advice" , Martin Luther granted the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, who, for many years, had been living "constantly in a state of adultery and fornication", a dispensation to take awife. The double marriage was to be done in secret, however, to avoid public scandal. Some fifteen years earlier, in a letter to the Saxon Chancellor Gregor Brück, Luther stated that he could not "forbid a adult 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."

In Sub-Saharan Africa, tensions have frequently erupted between advocates of the Christian insistence on monogamy and advocates of the traditional practice of polygamy. For instance, Mswati III, the Christian king of Eswatini, has 15 wives. In some instances in recent times, there have been moves for accommodation; in other instances, churches have strongly resisted such moves. African independent Churches have sometimes mentioned to those parts of the Old Testament that describe polygamy in defense of the practice.

The Roman Catholic Church 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 cost personal dignity which must be accorded to husband and wife in mutual and unreserved affection. Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love which is undivided and exclusive."

Saint Augustine saw a clash with Old Testament polygamy. He refrained from judging the patriarchs, but did not deduce from their practice the ongoing acceptability of polygyny. On the contrary, he argued that the polygamy of the Fathers, which was tolerated by the Creator because of fertility, was a diversion from His original schedule for human marriage. Augustine wrote: "That the good purpose of marriage, however, is better promoted by one husband with one wife, than by a husband with several wives, is shown plainly enough by the very number one union of a married pair, which was made by the Divine Being Himself."

Augustine taught that the reason patriarchs had many wives was not because of fornication, but because they wanted more children. He supported his premise by showing that their marriages, in which husband was the head, were arranged according to the rules of service management: those who are in command quae principantur in their society were always singular, while subordinates subiecta were multiple. He gave two examples of such relationships: dominus-servus – master-servant in older translation: slave and God-soul. The Bible often equates worshiping multiple gods, i.e. idolatry to fornication. Augustine relates to that: "On this account there is no True God of souls, save One: but one soul by means of many false gods may commit fornication, but not be made fruitful."

As tribal populations grew, fertility was no longer a valid justification of polygamy: it "was lawful among the ancient fathers: whether it be lawful now also, I would not hastily pronounce utrum et nunc fas sit, non temere dixerim. For there is not now necessity of begetting children, as there then was, when, even when wives bear children, it was allowed, in appearance to a more numerous posterity, to marry other wives in addition, which now is certainly not lawful."

Augustine saw marriage as a covenant between one man and one woman, which may not be broken. It was the Creator who creation monogamy: "Therefore, the first natural bond of human society is man and wife." Such marriage was confirmed by the Saviour in the Gospel of Matthew Mat 19:9 and by His presence at the wedding in Cana John 2:2. In the Church—the City of God—marriage is a sacrament and may not and cannot be dissolved as long as the spouses live: "But a marriage once for all entered upon in the City of our God, where, even from the first union of the two, the man and the woman, marriage bears asacramental character, can in no way be dissolved but by the death of one of them." In chapter 7, Augustine pointed out that the Roman Empire forbad polygamy, even if the reason of fertility would assist it: "For it is in a man's energy to include away a wif that is barren, and marry one of whom to have children. And yet it is not allowed; and now indeed in our times, and after the usage of Rome nostris quidem iam temporibus ac more Romano, neither to marry in addition, so as to have more than one wife living." Further on he notices that the Church's attitude goes much further than the secular law regarding monogamy: It forbids remarrying, considering such to be a form of fornication: "And yet, save in the City of our God, in His Holy Mount, the issue is not such with the wife. But, that the laws of the Gentiles are otherwise, who is there that knows not."