The Virtue Of Monogamy Over Polygamy: New Article

[fox_goku]

Occasionally, arguments are encountered that sing the praises of polygamous marriage. Such arguments were common in 19th century Mormonism. But, an effective counterargument has been recently published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. The article is from the noted anthropologists Joseph Henrich, Robert Boyd and Peter J. Richerson, and is entitled: "The puzzle of monogamous marriage."

In their 2012 article (based in cross-cultural data) they argue that polygamy generates very serious social disorder compared to monogamy. For example, they state: "In suppressing intrasexual competition and reducing the size of the pool of unmarried men, normative monogamy reduces crime rates, including rape, murder, assault, robbery and fraud, as well as decreasing personal abuses."

The full article can be found at:

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/367/1589/657.full.pdf

Perhaps I should reveal my bias. My Mormon ancestors (on both sides) practiced polygamy, but in my historical studies, I have rarely encountered families that I would regard as successful at the practice. Thus, I am intrigued by the claims of Henrich, Boyd, & Richerson.

How do you react to the claims of the article? How would you justify polygamy, if you do?

[KevinG]

This isn't going to be a convincing rebuttal to anyone researching Polygamy today, however from an LDS standpoint the Principle as practiced at the start of this dispensation was highly regulated by God's Prophets. Without factoring in the percentage of the population that practiced it, the guidance of the Holy Ghost in selecting who practiced it, the rules and regulations that governed its practice by the 19th century Saints, etc. it would be very difficult to draw a picture of how well it worked (or didn't) using today's polygamous groups.

Larger groups that practice polygamy today in the US have certain practices and a degree of control over their members that are very different from the Saints.

Doing a study like this would be as problematic as judging traditional Christian monogamy from the 18th century by the moral standards of today.

I do agree that polygamy or monogamy outside of the guidance of the Holy Ghost and prophetic guidance lacks some safeguards and power.

[fox_goku]

Nice comment, DaddyG. Yes, it would be inappropriate to compare modern FLDS practitioners of polygamy with the Utah Mormons of the 19th century. But, I think there is a general mathematical problem that is inherent to polygamy no matter who practices.

The problem is that for every extra wife a man takes, there is some other man who will either not get a wife or who will have to significantly delay getting a wife. In other words, the 50/50 ratio of men to women means that mating competition will increase the more polygamy grows. Sure, under proper spiritual counsel a society might avoid some of the traps, but there are significant traps under polygamy.

[juliann]

This is a very ham fisted article based solely on theory. Claiming that monogamy promotes female equality is almost laughable given the very long history of female inequality. I admit I stopped reading at that point. The authors are clearly stereotyping polygamy and monogamy before even starting. I agree that polygamy is ultimately destructive if there are not enough females. But this still has nothing to do with societies that routinely abuse women no matter who they are married to. I don't think even the FLDS are comparable to societies where women are repressed by the government itself. To make any believable analysis one would have to factor out the living and political conditions. The Sister Wives version of polygamy seems to have little in common with the FLDS and almost nothing in common with a third world marriage.

We have the same problem with Mormons who think that polygamy is God's preferred system. They always have a 19th century system in mind instead of the modern reality where women have equal rights. The hypotheticals in this article would be obliterated in such a situation. For starters, women today wouldn't be dependant on the husband for support.

Although I see benefit in solidifying a struggling Mormon community through family ties (at great cost to individuals), I see no benefit and certainly no religious reason for polygamy under normal circumstances and find any insistence that God is just waiting to make the exception the rule in the Celestial Kingdom if not before downright bizarre. BTW, according to Daynes, Mormon polygamy did have economic benefit to the single female immigrants coming in. But when that dried up, polygamy was in decline even before the Manifesto.

[Kenngo1969]

Polygamy (Plural Marriage) = Bad.

Serial Monogamy = Good.

[fox_goku]

To those like Juliann who want MORE DATA, I recommend the data supplement to the primary article:

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/suppl/2012/01/18/rstb.2011.0290.DC1/rstb20110290supp1.pdf

[KevinG]

Nice comment, DaddyG. Yes, it would be inappropriate to compare modern FLDS practitioners of polygamy with the Utah Mormons of the 19th century. But, I think there is a general mathematical problem that is inherent to polygamy no matter who practices.

The problem is that for every extra wife a man takes, there is some other man who will either not get a wife or who will have to significantly delay getting a wife. In other words, the 50/50 ratio of men to women means that mating competition will increase the more polygamy grows. Sure, under proper spiritual counsel a society might avoid some of the traps, but there are significant traps under polygamy.

The same problems are caused by a one child policy and female infanticide in China.

I would not want to practice polygamy outside of very careful Prophetic guideance and even that on a limited scale.

[fox_goku]

DaddyG: great point. Both polygamy and the "one child only policy" is susceptible to the "lost boys" syndrome.

[KevinG]

DaddyG: great point. Both polygamy and the "one child only policy" is susceptible to the "lost boys" syndrome.

Mars Needs Women is a documentary.

[fox_goku]

DaddyG, great allusion.