by Stanislaw Królewiec
http://www.nccg.org/fecpp/CPM015-Polyandry.html
I have decided to start my exploration in a rather unusual place, namely, polyandry, which is the practice or two or more men being married to one woman. If we are to understand polyandry, and particularly if we are to present a defence of it to the world not only in terms of theology but also of sociology, then we must at once answer the legitimate question: if polygyny, why not polyandry also? Or even mixed marriages of several men and women all being married together?
Polyandry is know to have been practiced - and is still practiced - in Africa, India, Polynesia and America. It is not common in Africa, but in the northeast of the continent among the Banyabkole and kindred tribes, the system arises from poverty. A man asks one or more of his brothers to join him in the necessary gifts for procuring a wife, and she thus becomes the legal wife of all who contributed to the dowry and lives with each brother in turn. When pregnant, the wife remains with the eldest brother until her child is born and all offspring are recognized as the children of the eldest brother. In this respect there are similarities with the Hebrew law of Levirate (from the Latin levir meaning "husband's brother"); when a married man died without a child his brother was expected to take his wife and raise up seed in his name. The children of this marriage counted as children of the first husband (for biblical examples, see Dt.25:5-10; Ruth 4:17; Num.7:1-11; Lev.18:16; 20:21; Mt.14:3-4; 22:23ff). But the reasons for practice of the principle are radically different - one is motivated by poverty and the other by divine ordinance to further the name on earth of a husband without a male heir following his death.
It would appear that among the aboriginal tribes of India marriage was both monogamous and endogamous. Prenuptual sexual acts were lightly regarded so long as they took place within the tribe. The penalty of excommunication was inflicted, however, if such conduct involved a member of another tribe. Occasionally some more primitive tribe will be found to be polygynous (as is true of the Sora tribe of south-east India which has been converting to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a monogamy-only break-off of the larger Mormon Church and today called the 'Community of Christ', and whose polygamy has been tolerated for the current generation - RLDS D&C 150:10-11). In some tribes child marriage seems to be the rule, whereas in others marriage takes place only in adulthood. Occasionally a ritual of marriage by capture was enacted (cp. the biblical account of the preservation of the tribe of Benjamin when it seized women at Shiloh - Judges 19-21, esp. 21:16-24), and in some parts of India polyandry and group marriages have been found. Whilst polygyny is very ancient in India, and does not give the slightest offence in the Brahmanic system, polyandry is utterly repugnant to Indian feelings, only two cases being found in epic literature. However, there seem to be traces of a very early polyandry and "free love", where the women followed their own inclinations and jealosy was unknown. This belongs, however, to a legendary period.
There are but two tribes in the world where polyandry is stable, preferred, and regarded as the normative as the normative form of marriage. These are the Todas of southern India and the Marquesans of Polynesia.
Among the Todas the preferred form of polyandry is fraternal, that is, the wife marries a series of brothers (cp. the Banyankole of Africa). Only occasionally is the nonfraternal type to be found. Among the Marquesans the nonfraternal form is common. In Toda polyandry several brothers establish a common household with one woman. Paternity of the children is determined by ritual in which one brother presents the wife with a toy bow and arrow and the offdpring following this rite are credited to the husband who executed the ritual. Only when another husband carries out out the bow-and-arrow ceremony does paternity go to him, but again all the children are ascribed to the last husband to carry out the rite, even though he may have been dead for years. Among the Todas polyandry is definitely associated with low economic status. In fact the nobility not infrequently practices polygyny. When the co-husbands are brothers they occupy one house, but in the occasional examples of nonfraternal polyandry they have separate dwellings and the wife rotates her visits among them.
In the Marquesas polyandrous marriage is as stable as any other. There is usually a main husband who acts as an agent for his wife in the management of family affairs. The other husbands are not his brothers but the younger sons of families of lower rank, or "male concubines". They are, however, accorded considerable latitude and may leave one household and join another. Here, too, economic conditions are severe. Cultivation is difficult and the islands are subject to periodic droughts leading to crop failures, water shortages, and severe epidemics. Fishing is dangerous and difficult in the deep waters off the mountaineous islands. Given that 80% of all the peoples in the world allow polygynous marriage (Marvin K. Opler, Polyandry, Am.J.Sociol., Sept. 1943) it is extraordinary that an exception such as polyandry exists at all. Everywhere else in Polynesia polygyny is the norm.
In the Americas amomng the Indians, polyandry occurred sporadically, frequently taking the form of a temporary union prior to marriage in the Shoshoni tribe. The occurrence of fraternal polyandry amongst the south American Taruro and Cawahib implies an institutionalized practice, but polyandrous families were infrequent. The Caingang, describes as casual in their regulation of sex, had no more than 14% polyandrous marriages. They also provide the only instance of polygandrous, or "group" marriage (barring the north American Oneida community which will be discussed presently), totaling 8% of 308 marriages ( The Encyclopaedia of Sexual Behavior, Vol.1, ed. Albert Ellis & Albert Abarand, London, 1961, p.105).
Polyandry is a form of marriage "socially sanctioned and culturally patterned" involving "residential cohabitation as well as sexual rights" (George Peter Murduck, Social Structure, MacMillan, New York, 1949). However, it occurs so infrequently that it may be regarded as an ethnological curiosity. Although some cultural anthropologists have described the occurrence of polyandry in certain north American Indian tribes, this is, strictly speaking, not the case. What has been mistaken for polyandry, Opler notes (Marvin K. Opler, Polyandry), was usually an example of extra-marital sex of a woman with a number of men, sometimes the brothers of her husband.
Polyandry is highly infrequent, perhaps because it goes counter to the biological tendency (fallen human nature) of the male to demand exclusive possession of his mate, or because it runs counter to the divine pattern of the patriarchy which the biblically-based Hebrew-Christian theologies subscribe to. As far as the former proposition is concerned, if it is true, then culture counteracts biology when polyandry occurs. The explanation is complex, but an important consideration seems to be the scarcity of women in societies where polyandry is practiced, a scarcity resulting from female infanticide. Among the Todas, for example, the sex-ratio was 127-259 males to 100 females. But why the infanticide? The answer is probably the extreme poverty of the people, resulting from the inhospitable environment. That this is not the sole reason for polyandry is shown by the fact that other societies have as extreme poverty with infanticide, and still others practice infanticide when the poverty is not so great (e.g. abortion amongst Asian women in Great Britain). In the remote Himalayas, where arable land is scarce, fraternal polyandry is practiced, a group of brothers sharing a wife. All the children are regarded as the offspring of the eldest brother. When the brothers die, the estate goes to the sons, who in turn marry one wife. Polyandry seems to be associated with a system of land tenure that prevents fragmentation of already small holdings. There is also a nonfraternal varietry, such as that found among the Marquesans. However, polyandry is very rare and is incompatible with the surplus of women generally to be found in human societies.
http://www.nccg.org/fecpp/CPM015-Polyandry.html