16 Sep 2014, 12:16 pm
From what I read, polygyny is pretty hard on guys.
Both the guys who get wives, and have to juggle all those demands and all those personalities...
...and on guys who don't get wives.
Historically, most polygynous societies were hunter-gatherer/warrior societies, where men had an averagely shorter life expectancy than women (even taking into account things like infanticide and a 20-25% rate of maternal death associated with childbearing). It was about making sure all the women were taken care of in a time and place where you really needed 1) a hunter to eat, 2) a warrior to protect you (from the other side, 1) a gatherer to eat enough, 2) a day-in, day-out mother to successfully rear offspring where 'success' is defined as 'surviving'), and 3) at least two full-sized people to keep on keeping on.
See "fraternate/sororate marriage."
Nowadays??
To me, from a woman's standpoint, it seems like a practical arrangement. Different women have different strengths; each one takes primary responsibility for her own children and the rest of the work is divided according to who likes it/doesn't hate it/is better at it. Helps with sex, too-- unless a man angers both/all wives or is really unlucky, nobody needs to take one for the team and put out when their heart isn't in it.
In practice??
It usually doesn't work out that way. It ends up being a bonfire of competition for "first wife" status, a constant argument over whose kid did what to whom with or without provocation, who's better, who's preferred, on and on and on.
And if the competition among the average wives is that bad, how bad does it have to be among the men (only SOME of whom are going to get wives at all)??? KILLER.
They say, outside of abusive situations, that FLDS women enjoy great social power (submission notwithstanding). The men, however, tend to be shy, withdrawn, uptight, and paranoid. Anybody wonder why????
_________________
"Alas, our dried voices when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless, as wind in dry grass, or rats' feet over broken glass in our dry cellar." --TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men"
16 Sep 2014, 12:16 pm
From what I read, polygyny is pretty hard on guys.
Both the guys who get wives, and have to juggle all those demands and all those personalities...
...and on guys who don't get wives.
Historically, most polygynous societies were hunter-gatherer/warrior societies, where men had an averagely shorter life expectancy than women (even taking into account things like infanticide and a 20-25% rate of maternal death associated with childbearing). It was about making sure all the women were taken care of in a time and place where you really needed 1) a hunter to eat, 2) a warrior to protect you (from the other side, 1) a gatherer to eat enough, 2) a day-in, day-out mother to successfully rear offspring where 'success' is defined as 'surviving'), and 3) at least two full-sized people to keep on keeping on.
See "fraternate/sororate marriage."
Nowadays??
To me, from a woman's standpoint, it seems like a practical arrangement. Different women have different strengths; each one takes primary responsibility for her own children and the rest of the work is divided according to who likes it/doesn't hate it/is better at it. Helps with sex, too-- unless a man angers both/all wives or is really unlucky, nobody needs to take one for the team and put out when their heart isn't in it.
In practice??
It usually doesn't work out that way. It ends up being a bonfire of competition for "first wife" status, a constant argument over whose kid did what to whom with or without provocation, who's better, who's preferred, on and on and on.
And if the competition among the average wives is that bad, how bad does it have to be among the men (only SOME of whom are going to get wives at all)??? KILLER.
They say, outside of abusive situations, that FLDS women enjoy great social power (submission notwithstanding). The men, however, tend to be shy, withdrawn, uptight, and paranoid. Anybody wonder why????
_________________
"Alas, our dried voices when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless, as wind in dry grass, or rats' feet over broken glass in our dry cellar." --TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men"
