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In social anthropology and sociobiology, polyandry (Greek: poly- many, andros- man) refers to a form of polygamous marriage, or other sexual union, in which one woman is married to two or more husbands at the same time. An interpersonal relationship is a relatively long-term association between two or more people Affinity in terms of Sociology, refers to " Kinship of Spirit " interest and other interpersonal commonalities. Attachment in adults deals with the theory of attachment in adult romantic relationships Human bonding refers to the development of a close Interpersonal relationship between family members or friends NOTICE*************** Casual relationship is a term used to describe the physical and emotional relationship between two people who may have a Sexual relationship or a near-sexual relationship without Cohabitation is when people live together in an emotionally- and/or physically- Intimate relationship. Compersion is a term used by practitioners of Polyamory or Swingers to describe the experience of taking pleasure that one's partner is with another person Concubinage is the state of a woman or youth in an ongoing quasi-matrimonial relationship with a man of higher social status Courtship is the traditional dating period before engagement and marriage Divorce or dissolution of marriage is the termination of a Marriage. A domestic partnership is a legal or Personal relationship between two individuals who live together and share a common domestic life but are neither joined by a traditional Not to be confused with Dowry, or with Dour. Dower or morning gift ( Latin doarium, or Latinized A dowry (also known as trousseau or tocher) is the money goods or estate that a woman brings to her soon to be husband in marriage Bride price also known as bride wealth is an amount of Money or Property or Wealth paid by the groom or his family to the Parents of Family denotes a group of People affiliated by consanguinity affinity or co-residence Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more beings Girlfriend is a term that can refer to either a Female partner in a non- marital romantic relationship or a female non-intimate Friend A husband is a Male spouse (participant in a Marriage, Civil union or Civil partnership. Infatuation is the state of being completely carried away by unreasoned passion or Love; addictive love The meaning of intimacy varies from relationship to relationship and within a given relationship Limerence, as posited by psychologist Dorothy Tennov, is an involuntary Cognitive and emotional state in which a person feels an intense romantic Love is any of a number of Emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong Affection. NOTICE TO WOULD-BE ROMEOS ************** Monogamy is the custom or condition of having only one mate in a Relationship, thus forming a Couple. Nonmonogamy is a Blanket term covering several different types of Interpersonal relationship in which some or all participants have multiple marital, Passion (from the Latin patior, meaning to suffer or to endure is an emotion of feeling very strongly about a person Pederasty or paederasty refers to an erotic relationship sexually expressed or not between an adolescent boy and an adult male outside his immediate family Amor Platonicus The term amor platonicus was coined as early as the 15th century by the Florentine scholar Marsilio Ficino Polyamory (from Greek el πολυ meaning many or several and Latin la amor “love” is the desire practice or acceptance of having more than one Polyfidelity is a form of polyamorous Group marriage wherein all members consider each other to be primary partners and agree to be sexual only with other members The term polygamy (a Greek word meaning "the practice of multiple marriage" is used in related ways in Social anthropology, Sociobiology, and The psychology of monogamy deals with the thoughts feelings and behaviors that commonly occur in monogamous relationships Abuse refers to the use or treatment of something (a person item substance concept or vocabulary that is harmful NOTICE TO WOULD-BE-ROMEOS*************** Legal separation (sometimes "separate maintenance" " divorce a mensa et thoro," or "divorce from bed-and-board" is a possible step towards Human sexual behavior or different human sexual practices encompass a wide range of activities such as strategies to find or attract partners ( Mating and display Serial monogamy is characterized by a series of long- or short-term exclusive Sexual relationships entered into consecutively over the lifespan Sexual orientation is believed to refer to "an enduring pattern of emotional romantic and/or sexual attractions to men women or both sexes NOTICE TO WOULD-BE-ROMEOS*************** A wedding is the Ceremony in which two people are united in Marriage. WIDOW is a full-length Album recorded by British rock band Ritual released in 1983 A wife is a Female spouse or participant in a Marriage, or Civil union or Civil partnership. Social anthropology is the branch of Anthropology that studies how currently living human beings behave in social groups Sociobiology is a neo-Darwinian and Socialism Synthesis of Scientific disciplines that attempts to explain Social behavior Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly The term polygamy (a Greek word meaning "the practice of multiple marriage" is used in related ways in Social anthropology, Sociobiology, and In Conflict of laws, the issue of Marriage has assumed increasing public policy significance in a world of increasing multi-ethnic multi-cultural Community A husband is a Male spouse (participant in a Marriage, Civil union or Civil partnership. Polygyny, on the other hand, refers to polygamy in which one man has two or more wives. Polygyny (which comes from neo- Greek: πολύ poly "many" + γυνή gyny "woman" is a specific form of Polygamy, A wife is a Female spouse or participant in a Marriage, or Civil union or Civil partnership.

The form of polyandry in which two (or more) brothers marry the same woman is known as fraternal polyandry, and it is believed by many anthropologists to be the most frequently encountered form. In Social anthropology and Sociobiology, polyandry ( Greek: poly - many andros - man refers to a form of polygamous Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of

Contents 1 Human polyandry 1.1 Differences of interpretation 1.2 In Religion 1.3 Justification 1.4 Fraternal polyandry 2 Animal polyandry 2.1 Polyandry in New World monkeys 2.2 Sociobiology of polyandry 3 See also 4 References 5 Further reading

Human polyandry

According to inscriptions describing the reforms of the Sumerian king Urukagina of Lagash (ca. Sumer ( Sumerian: sux-Latn [[Ki (earth ki]]-[[EN (cuneiform en]]-'''ĝir15''', Akkadian: Šumeru; possibly Biblical Shinar Urukagina (reigned ca 2380 BC &ndash 2360 BC, Short chronology) alternately rendered as Uruinimgina or Irikagina, was a ruler Lagash ( is modern Tell al-Hiba, Iraq. Located northwest of the junction of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and east of Uruk 2300 BC), he is said to have abolished the former custom of polyandry in his country, on pain of the woman taking multiple husbands being stoned with rocks upon which her crime is written^[1].

Polyandry in human relationships occurs or has occurred in Tibet, the Canadian Arctic, Zanskar, Nepal, Bhutan, Ladakh, the Nymba, and Sri Lanka, and is known to have been present in some pre-contact Polynesian societies ^[2], though probably only among higher caste women ^[3]. Polyandry in Tibet is a traditional Marriage practice that has existed within a milieu whereby a woman could have several husbands a father and his sons could share Northern Canada is the vast Northernmost Region of Canada variously defined by Geography and Politics. Zanskar is a subdistrict or Tehsil of the Kargil district which lies in the eastern half of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Nepal (नेपाल) is a Landlocked country in South Asia. The Kingdom of Bhutan (buːˈtɑːn is a Landlocked nation in South Asia. Ladakh ( Ladakhi lad̪ɑks लदाख لدّاخ "land of high passes" is a region in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir between Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island Polynesia (from Greek: πολύς many, νῆσος island) is a Subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over It is also encountered in some regions of Mongolia, among the Mosuo people in China, and in some Sub-Saharan African and American indigenous communities. Mongolia (mɒŋˈɡoʊliə, literally Mongol country/nation,) is a Landlocked Country in East The Mosuo ( also spelled Moso or Musuo) are a small Ethnic group living in Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces in China, close China ( Wade-Giles ( Mandarin) Chung¹kuo² is a cultural region, an ancient Civilization, and depending on perspective a National Polyandry has been practiced in several cultures in India — in the Jaunsar region in Uttarakhand, among the, Nairs, Theeyas and Toda of South India, and the Nishi of Arunachal Pradesh. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Uttarakhand ( Hindi: उत्तराखण्ड or उत्तराखंड Uttar + Akhand i The Toda people are a small Pastoral community who live on the isolated Nilgiri plateau of Southern India. South India is the area encompassing India 's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union The Nishi tribe principally inhabit the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Arunachal Pradesh (अरुणाचल प्रदेश   Aruṇācal Pradeś is the easternmost state of India The Guanches, the first known inhabitants of the Canary Islands, practiced polyandry until their disappearance. See also Canary Islands in pre-colonial times Guanches (also Guanchis or Guanchos) now extinct as a distinct people were the first known The Canary Islands ( English pronunciation kəˈnæriː ˈaɪləndz Spanish: Islas Canarias, ˈizlas kaˈnarjas are a Spanish In other societies, there are people who live in de facto polyandrous arrangements that are not recognized by the law. There are no known indigenous communities that currently practice polyandry involving unrelated males.

Differences of interpretation

Polyandry is a controversial subject among anthropologists. For instance, Pennsylvania anthropologist Stephen Beckerman points out that at least 20 tribal societies accept that a child could, and ideally should, have more than one father, referring to it as "partible paternity". The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern Partible paternity is where the nurture of a child is shared by multiple fathers a form of Polyandry. On the other hand, in Tibet, which is the best-documented cultural domain within which polyandry is practised, the certain polyandrists themselves testify that the marriage form is difficult to sustain.

In Tibet polyandry has been outlawed, so it is difficult to measure the incidence of polyandry in what may have been the world's most "polyandrous" society.

In other parts of the world, most traditional societies have been drastically altered or destroyed, so the incidence of polyandry in the past may not be accurately known. In India, among Tibetan refugee groups who fled the Chinese takeover of their country, polyandry is seldom encountered.

In Religion

The Hebrew Bible prohibits polyandry. The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written in Biblical Hebrew (and the related Biblical Aramaic For a woman to have sexual relations when she is married to another (which would include a situation such as polyandry) would constitute adultery, with the consequences that it would have on her status, as well as of her children from that relationship. Adultery is the voluntary Sexual intercourse between a married person and another person who is not his or her Spouse, though in many places it is

Islam also bans polyandry. For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. In Islam the verse from the Quran that is typically used for a proof in this matter is Surah Nisa’ Chapter 4 verses 22 to 24, which gives the list of women with whom one cannot marry and it is further mentioned in Surah Nisa’ Chapter 4 verse 24. The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran Nikah Ijtimah, a pre-Islamic tradition of polyandry, was forbidden by Islam. Nikah Ijtimah (English combined marriage) is a form of Polyandry that existed in the Pre-Islamic period in the Arabian peninsula

There is at least one reference to polyandry in the ancient Hindu epic, Mahabharata. A Hindu ( Devanagari: हिन्दू is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, a set of religious, Philosophical Draupadi marries the five Pandava brothers. In the Ancient Indian epic Mahābhārata, Krsnā Draupadī (Devanagari कृष्णा द्रौपदी; approx In the Hindu epic Mahābhārata, the Pandava (or Pandawa brothers ( Sanskrit: पाण्‍डव pāṇḍavaḥ are the five acknowledged sons of This ancient text remains largely neutral to the concept of polyandry, accepting this as her way of life.

Justification

Some forms of polyandry appear to be associated with a perceived need to retain aristocratic titles or agricultural lands within kin groups, and/or because of the frequent absence, for long periods, of a man from the household. Aristocracy is a form of Government, where rule is established through an internal struggle over who has the most status and influence over society and internal relations Agriculture refers to the production of goods through the growing of plants and fungi and the raising of domesticated Animals The study of agriculture In the Common law, real property (or realty) refers to one of the two main classes of Property, the other class being Personal property ( In Tibet the practice is particularly popular among the priestly Skye class but also among poor small farmers who can ill afford to divide their small holdings. Skye or the Isle of Skye ( Scottish Gaelic An t-Eilean Sgitheanach əɲ tʰʲelan s̪kʲiə A farmer is a person who raises living organisms for food or raw materials As to the latter variety, as some males return to the household, others leave for a long time, so that there is usually one husband present.

Fraternal polyandry

Fraternal polyandry (from the Latin frater - brother) is a form of polyandry in which two or more brothers share one wife or more. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It is also termed adelphogamy, but this term also has other meanings. Adelphogamy is a form of sexual partnership between Sibling Eukaryotes for example in some species of fungi, Flowering plants or Ants

Fraternal polyandry is found especially in certain areas of Tibet and Nepal, where polyandry is accepted as a social practice. Definitions of Tibet See also Definitions of Tibet Name In English The English word Tibet, like the word for Tibet in most European Nepal (नेपाल) is a Landlocked country in South Asia. ^[4] The Toda people of southern India practice fraternal polyandry, but monogamy has become prevalent recently. The Toda people are a small Pastoral community who live on the isolated Nilgiri plateau of Southern India. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country

Apart from the famous example of fraternal polyandry in Mahabharata, there are many more instances, both in Hindu history and folk-lore. A Hindu ( Devanagari: हिन्दू is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, a set of religious, Philosophical In contemporary Hindu society, due to sexual discrimination leading to sharp loss of number of marriageable women, many social scientists have expressed a fear of critical compulsion of polyandry in the near future.

Fraternal polyandry achieves a similar goal to what primogeniture did in 19th-century England. Primogeniture is the Common law right of the Firstborn son to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings Primogeniture dictated that the eldest son inherited the family estate, while younger sons had to leave home and seek their own employment. Primogeniture maintained family estates intact over generations by permitting only one heir per generation. Fraternal polyandry also accomplishes this, but does so by keeping all the brothers together with just one wife so that there is only one set of heirs per generation.

Animal polyandry

In the field of behavioural ecology polyandry is a type of breeding adaptation in which one female mates with many males. Another similar breeding system to this is polygyny in which one male mates with many females (e. g. , lions, deer, some primates and many systems where there is an alpha male). In Social animals the alpha male is the individual in the community to whom the others follow and defer

A common example of this can be found in the Field Cricket Gryllus bimaculatus of the invertebrate order Orthoptera (containing crickets, grasshoppers and groundhoppers). Gryllus bimaculatus is one of many cricket species known as the Field cricket. The unusual thing about polyandry in nature in general is that mating is costly: in other words, why mate with more than one male when you could be better spending your time foraging? Females in this species will mate with any male close to them, including siblings. Widely shown in frogs (Agile frogs, Rana dalmatina), polyandry was also documented in polecat (Mustela putorius) and other mustelids. The European Polecat ( Mustela putorius) also known as a fitch, is a member of the Mustelidae family and is related to the Stoats Otters Related to sexual conflict, Thierry Lodé^[5] found possible explanations for polyandry include mate competition and inbreeding avoidance. Sexual conflict occurs when the two Sexes have conflicting optimal fitness strategies concerning Reproduction, leading to Evolutionary arms race Born in 1956 Thierry Lodé is a French biologist professor teaching Evolutionary ecology in the CNRS Units ETHOS (Ethology Evolution Ecology of Rennes1, France

• It is easier to ensure reproductive success (i. e. it is more likely that the female will have offspring)
• Females may be encouraging sperm competition between males post-copulation
• multiple sperm lines may confer more variation in traits to female's offspring, this seems to be the case in the honey bee where bees from different sperm lines excel at different roles within a single hive, benefiting the health of the hive as a whole. This article refers collectively to all true honey bees for the "common" domesticated honey bee see European honey bee Honey bees
• Females may receive food offerings from prospective mates inciting copulation
• Because males can't be sure if they are or aren't their offspring and won't risk destroying their own DNA, mating with multiple males increases the survival of the female's offspring.

Polyandry also occurs in some primates such as marmosets ), mammal groups, the marsupial genus' Antechinus and bandicoots, around 1% of all bird species, such as jacanas, insects such as honeybees, and fish such as pipefish. Marmosets are New World monkeys of the genus Callithrix, which contains 18 species Antechinus is a genus of Dasyurid Marsupial that is indigenous to Australia (including Tasmania and some outlying islands and Pipefishes or pipe-fishes ( Syngnathinae) are a subfamily of small Fishes which with the Seahorses form a distinct family In effect polyandry will reduce the effective population size of a given closed population.

Polyandry in New World monkeys

Some New World monkeys, for example Goeldi's Marmoset, have been observed living in polyandrous groups. The New World monkeys are the four families of Primates that are found in Central and South America: Cebidae, Aotidae, Pitheciidae Goeldi's Marmoset or Goeldi's Monkey ( Callimico goeldii) is a small South American New World monkey that lives in the upper Amazon Although groups may contain more than one female, the dominant female suppresses ovulation in subordinates, causing her to be the only one capable of reproduction. A Goeldi's Marmoset female regularly births more than one offspring, and her eggs are separately fertilized by more than one male. Paternal investment is high among Goeldi's Marmosets, and males often carry infants on their backs even if they are not the father of the infant. It has been suggested that multiple male mates were related, and therefore cooperation in caring for each other's young is adaptive; however, researchers tagged and tracked Goeldi's Marmosets over time, and noticed that unrelated males migrated to new groups to cooperate with non relatives as well as with relatives to care for young. It has also been suggested that females select cooperative males, and that the multiple offspring of Goeldi's Marmosets require paternal care for survival.

Current research suggests that polyandry is the dominant social structure in the Callitrichinae subfamily of New World monkeys. The Callitrichinae (synonym Hapalinae are a subfamily within the family Cebidae, one of the four families of New World monkeys.

Sociobiology of polyandry

The term has gained some currency in sociobiology, where it refers, analogously, to a mating system in which one female forms more or less permanent bonds to more than one male. Sociobiology is a neo-Darwinian and Socialism Synthesis of Scientific disciplines that attempts to explain Social behavior In Sociobiology and Behavioural ecology, a mating system is any of the ways in which animal societies are structured in relation to sexual behavior It can take two different forms. In one, typified by the Northern Jacana and some other ground-living birds, the female takes on much the same role as the male in a polygynous species, holding a large territory within which several males build nests. For the Melbourne suburb see Jacana Victoria. The jacanas or jaçanas (sometimes referred to as Jesus birds are a group of tropical Waders Polygyny (which comes from neo- Greek: πολύ poly "many" + γυνή gyny "woman" is a specific form of Polygamy, Subsequently, the female lays eggs in all the nests, and plays little part in parental care. Parenting is the process of raising and educating a Child from birth, or before until Adulthood In the case of humans it is usually In the other form, typified by the Galápagos Hawk, a group of two or more males (which may or may not be related) and one female collectively care for a single nest. The Galápagos Hawk, ( Buteo galapagoensis) is a large hawk endemic to the Galápagos Islands. The latter situation more closely resembles typical human fraternal polyandry.

These two forms reflect different resource situations: polyandry with shared parental care is more likely in very difficult environments, where the efforts of more than two parents are needed to give a reasonable chance of rearing young successfully.

Honeybees are said to be polyandrous because a queen typically mates with multiple males, even though mating is the only interaction that they have (the males die off, while the queen uses stored sperm for eggs she fertilizes). This article refers collectively to all true honey bees for the "common" domesticated honey bee see European honey bee Honey bees

Polyandry in primates and other mammals is usually correlated with reduced or reverse sexual dimorphism — females larger than males. A primate is a member of the biological order Primates ( Latin: "prime first rank" the group that contains Lemurs the Aye-aye Mammals ( class Mammalia) are a class of Vertebrate Animals characterized by the presence of Sweat glands, including sweat glands Sexual dimorphism is the systematic difference in form between individuals of different Sex in the same Species. When males of a species are much larger than females, polygyny is usually practiced. Polygyny (which comes from neo- Greek: πολύ poly "many" + γυνή gyny "woman" is a specific form of Polygamy, As size difference decreases, or the females are larger than males, a species is more likely to practice monogamy or polyandry. Monogamy is the custom or condition of having only one mate in a Relationship, thus forming a Couple. The great apes (gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees) are dismorphic and practice polygyny. Gorillas, the largest of the living Primates are ground-dwelling Herbivores that inhabit the Forests of Africa. The orangutans are two Species of great apes known for their intelligence long arms and reddish-brown hair Chimpanzee (often shortened to chimp) is the common name for the two extant Species of Apes in the Genus Pan. Polygyny (which comes from neo- Greek: πολύ poly "many" + γυνή gyny "woman" is a specific form of Polygamy, Male and female gibbons (lesser apes) are similar in size and form monogamous pairs. Gibbons are the small Apes in the family Hylobatidae. The family is divided into four genera based on their Diploid Chromosome Human males and females are less dismorphic in body size than other polygynous great apes.

Paternal investment is often high in polyandrous species. In Evolutionary biology, parental investment (PI is any Parental expenditure (time energy etc In Biology, a species is one of the basic units of Biological classification and a Taxonomic rank.

See also

• Polygynandry (needs anthropological meaning added)
• Marriage (conflict)
• Polyamory
• Polyandry in Tibet
• Polygamy
• Polygyny
• Sexual conflict

References

Further reading

• Levine, Nancy, The dynamics of polyandry: Kinship, domesticity and population on the Tibetan border, Chicago: 1988, University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226475697, ISBN 978-0226475691
• Peter, Prince of Greece, A Study of Polyandry, The Hague, Mouton, 1963
• Beall, Cynthia M. , and Melvyn C. Goldstein, "Tibetan Fraternal Polyandry: A Test of Sociobiological Theory," [American Anthropologist. 83(1): 898-901, 1981. ]
• Crook, J. , & Crook, S. 1994. Explaining Tibetan polyandry: Socio-cultural, demographic, and biological perspectives. In J. Crook, & H. Osmaston (Eds. ), Himayalan Buddhist villages ( pp. 735–786). Bristol, UK: University of Bristol.
• Goldstein, M. C. 1971. Stratification, polyandry, and family structure in Central Tibet. Southwest Journal of Anthropology, 27, 64–74.
• Goldstein, M. C. 1976. Fraternal polyandry and fertility in a high Himalayan valley in northwest Nepal. Human Ecology, 4(2), 223–233.
• Lodé Thierry (2006) La Guerre des sexes chez les animaux. Eds O Jacob, Paris. ISBN 2-7381-1901-8
• Smith, E. A. (1998). Is Tibetan polyandry adaptive? Methodological and metatheoretical critiques. Human Nature 9(3):225-261. Full text
• Trevithick, Alan, 1997, "On a Panhuman Preference for Monandry: Is Polyandry an Exception?", Journal of Comparative Family Studies, Volume 28, #3: 154-181.

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