Polygamy survey-Do you know anybody in one of these types of polygamous relationships?

Question

Sororal Polygyny- More than 1 wife at the same time and wives are sisters?

Non-Sororal Polygyny-More than 1 wife at the same time and not sisters?

Polyandry-More than 1 husband and the same time?

Serial Monogamous- Married more than once?(Yes this is a form of polygamy)

Group marriage?

Why do you feel Society, Congress or the Goverment should dictate whom, when, or how many people you can be married to?

This is for a sociology class I'm taking so please answer truthfully.

Answer 1

That serial monogamous sounds like my aunt. She was married 4 times and couldn't get along with any of them.

We have a government system that makes laws according to our own societal value system. We have laws about stealing, murder, traffic and just about everything else. What it boils down to is the majority thinks polygamy is harmful to the people practicing it or is harmful to rest of society for whatever reason. So they make it undesirable by passing and enforcing laws against it.

Answer 2

I suspect there is very little LEGAL polygyny around. Most people have the sense these day to only get one marriage license, so second 'wives' are just really mistresses.

I have a bunch of LDS ancestors who took sisters as wives. It was quite common in Utah in the late 1800s. My grandmother grew up in polygamy but escaped.

I don't think anyone, including the government, cares who you love or sleep with anymore. When you take it to the level of a marriage, the government has a vested interest.

The government will have to support or raise your children if you can't or won't. It is in our best interest as a society to provide the safest place possible for raising children. Right now research and history indicates that would be with two committed adults. The historical way we got here is religious, but it is a social issue still.

Most people expect government to not support lifestyles that seem detrimental to society. It would a bit difficult to find a politician today to support polygamy<smiley face>

Beyond children, society also has an interest in being strong. Countries that practice group marriage have a tendency to treat women as property. Women become a scarce resource and are generally given to the rich and powerful, who control the laws and restict women's rights, and try to hide them from competitors.

America has gotten strong by allowing women to participate fully in life. Other countries are hobbled in that respect.

Polygamy is a failed social policy in the same category as slavery. It only worked for the rich and powerful, not the society.

Answer 3

The people across the street from us are polygamists, they just moved in this year.  There is one husband and 3 sister wives.  They are very nice, but not the norm for our golf course community!

Answer 4

I know of plenty people who have re-married following divorce, or being widowed. If you apply biology to the argument; it is accepted that a male has the ability to father 1000's of children, whereas a female is restricted to somewhere in the region of 15-20. If a social climate needed rapid population growth, then polygamy would be a logical step.

Answer 5

It doesn't take a whole lot of reasoning to figure out that if people were able to marry whom they wanted, there would be chaos. 9-year-old children would be married off to the opposite or same s*x; many more men would do it to fulfill their sexual appetite; family members would marry family members causing a number of health problems in their offspring; finally, I suspect that under that veil of marriage, STDs would spread faster than they are now.

It's not always about what the person wants t do so much as what is best for us. What could be better than following the example of Adam and Eve-one man and one wife. (I know some people are going to respond and say polygamy was practiced in the Bible, but before you do, take note that it was something that God allowed to happen but he had never intended for it to be that way as was evidenced by Adam and Eve. Eventually in the Christian scriptures, it was clearly stated that a man should be a husband of one wife [1 Tim. 3:1, 2])