I personally do not think that polygamy should be legal in Canada. Seeing as how polygamy is a cultural norm for some people, I find it hard to criticize those who want to live that lifestyle. My biggest issue with polygamy is that it suppresses women. In most polygamist societies the wife's (wives' in this case) role is to fulfil her husbands wishes, and have and raise children. I'm certainly not alone in my feelings considering that "only 20% of 2,093 Canadians surveyed were “willing to accept polygamy”(link).
As we learned in class, kinship is a topic which was of major interest to cultural anthropologists in the past. We can tell a lot about a culture from their kinship systems. For example, in a polygyny (many wives) marriage we can assume that the male has more power than females, and this assumption is generally true. Also, following the kinship diagrams of polygamist families and what they consider incest would be very interesting for anthropologists.
My fear with polygamy, which is naive since I have no experience with polygamy, is that the females in the relationship have no voice. An example is the Elizabeth Smart case. Elizabeth a 14 year old girl was abducted by a polygamist. She was raped and threatened that if she tried to escape or contact her family he would kill her and her family. I know this is a very extreme case, but I worry that females in those relationships live in fear of their husbands and therefore can't make their own decisions.
Polyandry is when one female has many husbands. This is extremely rare, and certainly not an issue in Canada.
Here you can see a time line of polygamy.
Photo found here.
Reading this makes me wonder if there are any published cases in which the husband treated his wives really well.
ReplyDeleteYa I'm not sure, never heard of one. Although media only really likes to show the negative things. In the Bountiful BC case, the women who weren't involved in the case said that they all loved their lives as polygamists... but can you really believe their saying that on their own and not just doing what their husband told them to do...?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you I looked more at the religious aspect of polygamy, but you made me realized how it does suppress women really... it's just another thing some women are forced into, always against their own will as most of them seemed to be raped then have to marry the raper due to their religion.. completely ridiculous...
ReplyDeleteI think the example is so striking. After I read it, I totally against polygamy, because it is a terribal way for kinship. I think you have a mistake, polygamy is not the opposite way with polyandry. Polyandry is included in polygamy.
ReplyDeleteYou make some interesting points but I think that you have made a pretty common mistake here.
ReplyDeletePolygamy doesn't necessarily mean a husband with multiple wives. The term you are looking for is polygyny. Another form of polygamy, polyandry, is a situation with a wife having multiple husbands.
I personally don't think it is fair to delegalize polygamy itself based on the negative reports that have surfaced, positive accounts don't sell newspapers so that would be why they are less likely to occur.
I don't think that polygamy is in itself the problem, the real problem is spousal abuse in any relationship and until that issue is resolved it seems to me unfair to vilify one marriage tradition over another.
I totally disagree with the issue of polygamy.
ReplyDeleteA situation that male has more power than females, the females has no voice. The women live in fear of their husbands and can't make their own decisions. This is not a marriage, it is slavery.
To reply to smythe and claire I said "polgyny (multiple wives)" I realize that polygyny and polyandry are both forms of polygamy. I was just using the general term polygamy since that is the topic.
ReplyDelete