2007-06-11 12:21:22 · 9 answers · asked by JWCA85 1 in Social Science ➔ Gender Studies
There are. There was something on PBS one time about a mountainous country in Asia. It is expensive to have a wife so a group of brothers will share one wife. If they did not all share in the expenses they could not afford to marry
2007-06-11 12:26:28 · answer #1 · answered by kadel 7 · 6⤊ 0⤋
There are. It's called polyandry ("many husbands", and polygyny is the term for multiple wives). It happens in Tibet. It's their solution to a problem that England dealt with by only passing property down to oldest sons. Rather than do that, Tibetan brothers will all marry one woman. Then, their family's property will pass down to her children, who might be the kids of any one of the brothers. They don't have a whole lot of arable land, so this is a good way to keep a decent sized parcel all together and within a family.
The reason that this doesn't happen very often is that women can only have so many kids. Until recently, humans in general have wanted to grow their population, and this is best achieved by having either pairs or one guy with lots of wives. One man can impregnate as many women as he has the energy for. One woman can only have a baby a year or so. It'd be wasting a man's breeding potential to have him share a wife with another man.
2007-06-11 13:00:39 · answer #2 · answered by random6x7 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Where did You get the silly notion that there are no polygamous societies, cultures or religious sects? Need to brush up on Your 1st Year Anthropology. But wait. There is an Anthropology section here at Answers. So why then would You have chosen to raise the topic here?
2007-06-15 06:56:11 · answer #3 · answered by Ashleigh 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I believe it is one of the cultures in Sri Lanka. I would have liked to have that here...about 4 husbands = 4 paychecks. Stay at home mom, hang with the kiddos, sounds good to me. I would definitely like 2 days off though.
2007-06-11 16:45:34 · answer #4 · answered by sashali 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
There are these types of families, except when there are several husbands, it's called polyandry
http://www.lycos.com/info/polyandry.html
2007-06-11 12:27:34 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Jasumi is incorrect.
polygyny is having more than one wife.
polyandry is having more than one husband.
polygamy encompasses both.
Polygyny is much more common, than polyandry, but you should try googling polyandry and see what you come up with.
2007-06-11 12:34:45 · answer #6 · answered by Lane 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Because a woman couldn't satisfy all her husbands whereas a man can easily satisfy all his wives.
2007-06-11 19:40:44 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
That was smooth, Lanie-Loo.
Anyways, the answers to your question are above me.
2007-06-11 12:37:38 · answer #8 · answered by Robinson0120 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
it's called a threesome X-)
2007-06-11 12:32:08 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋