Every now and again I like to get my opinion out there. Today I did and was met with shock and surprise. The simple truth? I approve of polygamy.
Most of you have probably heard of the search and seizure from the Yearning for Zion Ranch. The ranch was housing polygamists and the many children produced by the members and their children. Before you continue to read the rest of this article, please keep in mind that I DO NOT support inbreeding or child marriages. Moving on.
Like I said, I approve of polygamy. If you are anything like my classmates you are probably dismissing me as an idiot or sex addict, but please listen to my arguments before you denounce them. Polygamy is the act of having more than one spouse (polygyny for more than one wife, polyandry for more than one husband) and is practiced on just about every continent in the world. Polygamy was a staple, especially in times when women out numbered men (for example, after a war) or men outnumbered women (for example, when death in childbirth rates increase). Pologamy has its place, it fulfills the natural human right to love and be loved.
When polygamy is undergone by a group of consenting adults, there is no issue whatsoever. A household of two men and one woman automatically has two members that need not worry about maternity leave, who can do manual labor without detriment, and who can keep the wife company. A household of two women and one man also has its benefits, leaving the traditional role of raising children and caring for the house divided between two. This set up also allows for children to be exposed to more than two sets of experiences and parenting styles and allows the man to live out his evolutionary duty to “spread the seed”.
Most people denounce polygamy because of their religion, saying the traditional one-on-one dynamic (like Adam and Eve) is the way God intended life. Let’s take it back to the Old Testament. In Exodus 20:10, 2 Samuel 5:13, and 1 Kings 11:3, there are tales of Biblical men who had multiple wives and prospered. In the New Testament, we see Matthew 22:24-28. This passage has been used in argument after argument, but here is my belief. Jesus upheld the law and allowed a widow to be married to her brother-in-law, regardless of his marital status, i.e. polygamy is allowed (both my New and Old Testament citations are from the King James Version of the Bible). As for the Quran, Muhammad (PBUH) himself had multiple wives. In addition to this, the Quran allows men to marry up to four wives as long as they can support them (my Quran is based on the translation of F. Malik).
Well there you have it, my argument for polygamy. I know many of you won’t agree with it, but I see nothing wrong with a system of marriage that allows for a family to be more stable either in the home or in the workforce (especially in our sloping economy). Please excuse my religious justifications for their Abrahamic bias, and I hope that this article has given you a new perspective on the taboo world of polygamy and the real benefits it can have.
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You do have valid points. But the laws won’t allow people to be polygamists. Marry someone like Sybil. Problem solved.
Comment by Remo — April 28, 2008 @ 5:33 pm
I think people tend to dislike polygamy because some of the bigger polygyny snafus were not made in the mutual interests of all parties involved. That, unfortunately, has colored the perception of polygamy.
I don’t think any moral justification is needed, as long as everyone involved is happy with the situation.
Comment by Arachne Jericho — April 28, 2008 @ 7:41 pm
Remo… That thinking could lead to some seriously crazy marriages.
Arachne, I agree with you. The problem is too many times people associate things that are otherwise unrelated because of one instance.
Comment by Amanda Roberts — April 28, 2008 @ 9:00 pm
Remo - the argument that ‘the laws won’t allow people to be polygamists’ is faulty. Just because something is law doesn’t make it a just law. Look at the overturned laws against sodomy, which were designed to make homosexuality illegal. There are also laws in Britain against S&M that make the consenting masochist an accessory to their own ‘assault’, when neither party wants to press charges and no one has actually been assaulted.
The really crazy thing in our society is that we’ve been programmed to believe that if we are in a relationship and fall in love with another, we only have three options:
1) Leave the first partner and pursue ‘true love’ with the second… essentially throwing away whatever was good about the first relationship.
2) Ignore feeling for the second partner and spend the rest of your life wondering… throwing away whatever was good about the second relationship.
3) Have an affair where the first partner has no knowledge of the second partner… throwing away honesty and self-respect.
No thought is given to the possibility that humans have the capacity to genuinely love more than one person at a time and conduct those relationships in a responsible, honest manner. Many monogamous marriages end because of infidelity. I wonder how many marriages would not end if there weren’t such a stigma against multiple committed intimate partners.
Comment by SHolland — April 29, 2008 @ 7:46 am
SHolland, thank you for brining that up. Other industrialized countries (Canada for instance)honors polygamous marriages that were preformed in other countries, even down to health benefits.
Once again, Canada beats us in open mindedness.
Comment by Amanda Roberts — April 30, 2008 @ 4:48 am