polyandry

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The polyandry ( polyandry ) is a form of polygamy , is married to the woman with more than one husband. In the case of two men, the term biandrie is also used. The counterpart is polygyny (polygamy).

Many anthropologists and ethnologists apply the term to societies in which the paternity of the children of one woman is ascribed to several men at the same time.

Occurrence

Polyandric societies still occur today in parts of India , in the Himalayas ( Tibet , Kashmir , Himachal Pradesh , Sikkim ), in Bhutan , in the Congo , in northern Nigeria and among the Paviotso (North America), Marquesas and the Da-La ( Indochina ) , in ancient times also in Sparta , as Xenophon , Polybios , Plutarch and Nikolaos Damaskenos attest.

In the Hindu population of the western Himalayan region, according to Beremann, the polyandry practiced can be traced back to the following processes: There is a lack of land, which is why the number of offspring must be limited. Therefore, several men (brothers) enter into a relationship with only one woman. In polyandric connections - in contrast to polygyny  - the reproductive capacity of the connection is limited to the capacity of the woman and is therefore limited upwards. Thus, the social function of polyandry is to adapt the labor potential to the available land resources. In this area, polyandric families exist alongside polygynous and monogamous marriages and families. So polyandry is one of several possible marriage strategies. The same reasons are given for the Buddhist population of Tibet, Ladakhs , and the northern Indian regions of Lahaul and Spiti .

Forms of polyandry

Fraternal polyandry

In fraternal or adelphic polyandry, several or all brothers are jointly husbands of one woman. Fraternal polyandry is the most common form of polyandry that still exists today.

Fraternal polyandry occurs in the society of Toda (southern India), in Tibet and especially in the Himalayan region , in Ladakh and on the Marquesas . The ancient historian Polybius also confirms it in Sparta . Claude Lévi-Strauss also reports on fraternal polyandry among the Tupi-Kawahib , an indigenous tribe in Brazil ( Sad Tropics ).

Tibet is currently the largest area where polyandry is common. The form of marriage is related to the inheritance pattern for land ownership. If there are several brothers sharing the land and the same woman, property does not need to be divided. Indeed, a direct consequence is the stability of the number and size of property in western Tibet that has existed for many generations.

Corporate polyandry

The corporate polyandry is a special form of fraternal polyandry, in which the social paternity is collectively attributed to all the brothers at the same time.

According to HT Fischer, however, this is not a real polygamous community, but merely a pluralistic pairing community ( polykoitie ).

In the corporate polyandry of the South Indian Iravas , the eldest brother goes alone to the bride's house to “capture” her, but acts as a representative for a corporate group of brothers. The marital rights and duties are shared by the group together and without hesitation. So there is equality between the spouses with regard to sexual access to the common wife; but also with regard to the rights of inheritance and property claims of children.

Non-corporate polyandry

Non-corporate polyandry is also a special form of fraternal polyandry. Each individual husband takes on the paternity of the "collectively" conceived children in turn . Every child of the woman has a single, clearly defined social father (who does not necessarily have to be the genitor ).

Non-corporate polyandry is practiced, for example, among the Todas in the Nilgiris of southern India. In the seventh month of pregnancy, a ceremony is held where one of the husbands is chosen to be the father of the expected child. The same man becomes the father of the following children, unless the wife goes through this ceremony with another husband; this usually only happens when she considers the previous father unsuitable.

Cicisbeism

Here, besides her actual husband, the woman has another lover who is tolerated by him, for more see Cicisbeism .

Polyandry in the animal world

In animals, too, one speaks of polyandry when a female mates with several males within the same reproductive period, but the males only with this one female - this is typical for tamarins , for example . If the males mate with several females, one speaks of promiscuity . A classic example of situationally adapted polyandry or polygyny is the dunnock .

See also

literature

  • HT Fischer: Polyandry. In: International Archives of Ethnography. Volume 46, 1952, pp. 106-115.
  • Rabiatu Danpullo Hamisu: Women, Property and Inheritance - The Case of Cameroon. In: Society for African Law (Ed.): Law in Africa · Law in Africa · Droit en Afrique. Journal of the Society for African Law. Issue 2, 2005; ISBN 978-3-89645-342-6 ; ISSN  1435-0963
  • Joseph Henninger: Polyandry in pre-Islamic Arabia. In: Anthropos. Volume 49, 1954, pp. 314-322.
  • Matthias Hermanns: Polyandry in Tibet ; Anthropos, Analecta et addimenta; 1953. Unknown
  • Dhirendra Nath Majumdar : Himalayan Polyandry. London 1962.
  • Manis Kumar Raha (Ed.): Polyandry in India. Demographic, Economic, Social, Religious and Psychological Concomitants of Plural Marriages in Women ; Delhi: South Asia Books, 1987; ISBN 978-8121201056
  • For Sparta in antiquity, Stavros Perentidis: Sur la polyandrie, la parenté et la définition du mariage à Sparte , in: Alain Bresson et alii (ed.), Parenté et societé dans le monde Grec de l'Antiquité à l'Âge modern . Colloque international (Volos 19-20-21 juin 2003) , Bordeaux, Editions Ausonius, 2006 [collection Études , 12], pp . 131–152, ISBN 2-910023-60-5 & ISSN  1298-1990 (with sources).

Web links

Wiktionary: polyandry  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. GD Beremann: Ecology, Demography and Domestic Strategies in the Western Himalayas ; 1978
  2. P. Peter, Prince of Greece and Denmark: Tibetian, Toda, and Tiya polyandry, a report on field investigestions. In: Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences. Volume 10, No. 6, 1948, pp. 210-225. John Crook, Stamati Crook: Explaining Tibetan Polyandry: socio-cultural, demographic and biological perspectives. In: John Crook, Henry Osmaston (Eds.): Himalayan Buddhist Villages. Environment, Resources, Society and Religious Life in Zangskar, Ladakh. University of Bristol, Bristol 1994, pp. 734-786.
  3. Katja Seefeldt: Quality boost from the neighbor ; Telepolis , April 9, 2007, last accessed December 6, 2007