Monogamy and polygyny in Southeast Arnhem land: Male coercion and female choice

Chisholm, James S.; Burbank, Victoria K.

doi:10.1016/0162-3095(91)90022-i

Cited by 52 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Further, sisters may have developed close emotional bonds with one another that serve as an alternative to the husband-wife bond. Whatever the reason, we concur with Chisholm and Burbank (1991), who suggest that sororal polygyny should be treated as a separate institution from that of nonsororal polygyny. We sought to control for this factor by coding sororal and nonsororal interactions separately.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 59%

“…For example, some (Ekvall 1968;Levine and Silk 1997) find that the fraternal polyandrous marriage system is unstable largely due to sexual and emotional factors, rather than economic considerations. Research on co-wife relationships in polygynous families find them to be emotionally unsatisfactory forthe majority of participants (Al-Krenawi 1999;Al-Krenawi and Graham 1999;Chisholm and Burbank 1991;Hill and Hurtado 1996; Jankowiak 200 l;Meekers and Franklin 1995;Strassman 1997;Ware 1980), However, other researchers (Borgerhoff-Mulder 1992Kilbride 1994;Madhavan 2002;Mason 1982) report that under certain circumstances, women living in a polygynous family system enjoy material and emotional satisfaction.This article examines the effect of structural and psychological factors on co-wife confiict and co-operation. Specifically, it seeks to determine whether a pair-bond impulse is present in every culture, and if so, whether it undermines co-wife co-operation.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Co-Wife Conflict and Co-operation

Jankowiak¹,

Sudakov²,

Wilreker³

2005

Ethnology

119

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Conventional wisdom holds that the polygynous family system is as sexually and emotionally satisfying as a monogamous one. Ethnographic accounts of 69 polyg>nous systems, however, provide compelling evidence that the majority of co-wives in a polygynous family prefer pragmatic co-operation with one another while maintaining a respectful distance. Moreover, there often is a deep-seated feeling of angst that arises over competing for access to their mutual husband. Co-wife conflict in the early years of marriage is pervasive, and often marked hy outbursts of verbal or physical violence. Co-wife conflict may he mitigated hy social institutions, sucb as sororal polygyny and some form of "social security" or healtb care. Material wealth may he divided more or less equally, hut as a husband's sexual attention {a primary source for increased fertility) and affection cannot always be equitably distributed, there is ongoing and contentious rivalry among co-wives. (Co-wife conflict, jealousy, co-operation, pair bond)Cultural anthropologists generally assume that humans are highly adaptable to a wide range of life circumstances. Less accepted is the qualification that "cultural models can have significant psychic costs for individuals" (Shore 1996:49). The assumption of enormous adaptability has also been challenged by many anthropologists (see Brown 1990 for overview) concerned with the topics of reproduction and family intimacy. For example, some (Ekvall 1968;Levine and Silk 1997) find that the fraternal polyandrous marriage system is unstable largely due to sexual and emotional factors, rather than economic considerations. Research on co-wife relationships in polygynous families find them to be emotionally unsatisfactory forthe majority of participants (Al-Krenawi 1999;Al-Krenawi and Graham 1999;Chisholm and Burbank 1991;Hill and Hurtado 1996; Jankowiak 200 l;Meekers and Franklin 1995;Strassman 1997;Ware 1980), However, other researchers (Borgerhoff-Mulder 1992Kilbride 1994;Madhavan 2002;Mason 1982) report that under certain circumstances, women living in a polygynous family system enjoy material and emotional satisfaction.This article examines the effect of structural and psychological factors on co-wife confiict and co-operation. Specifically, it seeks to determine whether a pair-bond impulse is present in every culture, and if so, whether it undermines co-wife co-operation. Unlike previous studies of co-wife conflict and co-operation that focus only on one culture or a single geographical region, we have expanded the scope to include co-wife interactions in cultures from all over the world. We also identify the material, social, and emotional factors that can undermine or strengthen co-wife bonds. Examining how individuals respond to the polygynous family allows for a more thorough exploration of the polygynous family's divisiveness. To this end, we use the reasons for co-wife conflict as a means to identify anxieties within the polygynous family.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 59%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Co-Wife Conflict and Co-operation

Jankowiak¹,

Sudakov²,

Wilreker³

2005

Ethnology

119

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Research on co-wife relationships in polygynous families find the relationships to be emotionally unsatisfactory for the majority of participants, which often leads to a response in spouse's behavior in terms of increased emotional and physical violence (James S. Chisholm and Victoria K. Burbank 1991;Al-Krenawi 1999;Alean AlKrenawi and John R. Graham 1999).…”

Section: Instrumental Variable Estimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Women’s Labor Force Participation Reduce Domestic Violence? Evidence from Jordan

Lenze

Klasen

2016

Feminist Economics

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Enhancing women's labor force participation is seen as a way to promote their empowerment and improve their well-being and that of their children. The empirical literature on the relationship between women's employment status and domestic violence is less clear-cut. Using quantitative data from Jordan in 2007, this study explores the effect of women's employment, as measured by their participation in paid work outside the home, on reported domestic violence, controlling for the potential endogeneity of women's employment, which might bias the relationship between employment and domestic violence. Without taking endogeneity into account, the regression results suggest that a woman's participation in paid work enhances violence by her husband. After controlling for endogeneity, these results turn out to be insignificant, which suggests that women's work status has no causal influence on marital violence. Differentiating between various types of domestic violence provides weak evidence that women's employment lowers sexual violence. KEYWORDSWomen's work, violence against women, bargaining models JEL-Codes:: D63, J16, J12

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“…There has been considerable debate in the literature on polygyny in humans and in other species about whether it is best viewed as the result of female choice or of male coercion (26,27). The theory of biological markets is based on the assumption that traders of both types are able to choose their partners, and thus the predictions derived here assume mutual choice (or, at least, that a woman's parents choose on her behalf).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Market forces affect patterns of polygyny in Uganda

Pollet

Nettle

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Polygynous marriage is generally more beneficial for men than it is for women, although women may choose to marry an alreadymarried man if he is the best alternative available. We use the theory of biological markets to predict that the likelihood of a man marrying polygynously will be a function of the level of resources that he has, the local sex ratio, and the resources that other men in the local population have. Using records of more than 1 million men in 56 districts from the 2002 Ugandan census, we show that polygynously married men are more likely to own land than monogamously married men, that polygynous marriages become more common as the district sex ratio becomes more female biased, that owning land is particularly important when men are abundant in the district, and that a man's owning land most increases the odds of polygyny in districts where few other men own land. Results are discussed with reference to models of the evolution of polygyny.biological markets ͉ mate choice ͉ operational sex ratio ͉ humans ͉ land ownership M ost human societies historically have allowed polygyny, or the marriage of more than 1 woman to 1 man (1, 2). However, within polygynous societies, many marriages are monogamous, and across polygynous societies there is variation both in the mean and in the variance of the number of wives per married man. What, then, explains how many wives men marry?The payoffs to polygyny are not symmetric across the 2 sexes. Men always increase their reproductive success by adding an extra wife. In African agriculturalist and pastoralist societies, for example, every extra wife a man has adds to his number of surviving offspring, and most of the variance in men's reproductive success is explained by variation in number of wives (3-6). For women, being polygynously married seems less beneficial because each additional wife subdivides household resources and male investment. Compared with monogamously married women, polygynously married women have lower fertility (7-9), increased child mortality (10), and poorer child growth and development (11,12). The latter 2 outcomes obviously affect the reproductive success of both parents but fall disproportionately on women, for whom they are not offset by the increased offspring number that men experience in polygynous marriages. The costs of polygyny seem to fall particularly on women of later rank in the union, and their children (6, 13). Thus, it seems that polygynous marriage in African societies is most beneficial to men and most costly to women, especially wives of lower rank.Situations whereby individuals receive asymmetric payoffs from collaboration and yet continue to collaborate can be conceptualized using the theory of biological markets (14-17). Biological markets operate wherever there are 2 classes of individual (e.g., male and female), with distinct commodities to exchange (e.g., resources and fertility), and where each has the possibility of partner choice. This leads to competition within each class to attract members of the other clas...

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Monogamy and polygyny in Southeast Arnhem land: Male coercion and female choice

Cited by 52 publications

References 42 publications

Co-Wife Conflict and Co-operation

Co-Wife Conflict and Co-operation

Does Women’s Labor Force Participation Reduce Domestic Violence? Evidence from Jordan

Market forces affect patterns of polygyny in Uganda

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