A Polygynous Family

The interpretation of the picture below of a Moro husband and his seven wives is not so much biological as cultural. It is a matter of prestige, perhaps of riches or large land ownership, as well as of polygamy. Among the Moros, the ratio of women to men is not seven to one, (Photo by Ewing Galloway.)

 

 

Source: Ogburn and Nimkoff 1958: 584

 

the structure is that of a nuclear family. Secondly, all the unions must be genuine marriages, involving residential cohabitation and economic cooperation as well as sexual association …. Finally, the unions must have the support of culture and public opinion (Murdock, 1949: 26–27).

 

In Murdock’s sample from the primitive tribes, as many as 193 societies allowed polygyny, compared to 43 practising monogamy. However, Murdock warns that the prevalence of polygyny should not be taken to mean that such marriages are numerically preponderant, as ‘monogamous unions nearly always outnumber polygynous ones … even in societies where the preference for plural wives is extreme’ (ibid.: 27).

Polygyny can be sororal¹³ or non-sororal. Sororal polygyny is generally more common in situations of matrilocal residence.

Polyandry refers to a wife having more than one husband. In India, people refer to the Hindu epic Mahabharat, where the five Pandav brothers had a common wife, Draupadi. This type of marriage may be Filial, Fraternal (or Adelphic), or non-Fraternal.

There are societies where a father and son share a common wife—but this woman is someone other than the mother. This practice is found in some East European peasant communities. These are instances of Filial polyandry. There is a variant of this in Tibet: here the wife is shared between the boy and his FaBr. This is also known as avuncular marriage. Where the husbands of a woman are brothers, it becomes a case of Fraternal Polyandry.

Polyandry is quite rare. Murdock’s sample mentions only two cases, although Westermarck’s magnum opus¹⁴ quotes several instances of this practice in various parts of the world, including India. In India, it is found among the Todas of the Nilgiri Hills and the Khasas of the Jaunsar-Bawar area, now a part of Uttarakhand. The Todas were studied by W. H. R. Rivers at the beginning of the twentieth century, and he published a book on them in 1906 (see also Emeneau, 1937). D. N. Majumdar and R. N. Saxena, among others, have written on the Khasa of Jaunsar-Bawar. There is a reference to the practice of polyandry among Gujars in the Bulandshahar district of Uttar Pradesh in William Crooke’s work on The Tribes and Castes of the North Western India. Based on his conversation with the local ruler, Crooke cited an example of wife sharing among brothers from the local Gujar community. Crooke wrote:‘… the wife was formally married to one of the brothers, usually to the eldest, if he were not too old, and her children were known as his children only, though he as well as the other brothers knew that she was at the disposal of all of them (1986 [1891]: 444).

It seems to have been a stray instance and not a socially approved practice.¹⁵ Families of polygamous unions are compound families as they consist of several nuclear families with vaguely defined boundaries.

Typology Based on Residence

This typology is based on the residence of a newly married couple. The key consideration is the place where the couple resides—is it with the parents of the groom? Or those of the bride? Or somewhere else? On the basis of residence, five different types of family are found:

• Neolocal Residence. When the couple sets up a new residence for themselves, away from parents on either side.
• Patrilocal Residence. When the couple lives with the parents of the groom. It is also called Virilocal Residence.
• Matrilocal Residence. When the couple resides with the parents of the bride. It is also called Uxorilocal Residence.
• Avunculocal Residence. When the couple resides with the MoBr of the groom, rather than with the parents of either spouse, or in a separate home of their own.
• Bilocal Residence. Where a choice is given to the couple to live with, or near, the parents of either spouse, the system is termed Bilocal.
• Matri-patrilocal Residence. Instances are available where such a compromise is made. It ‘consists in requiring matrilocal residence for an initial period, usually for a year, or until the birth of the first child, to be followed by permanent patrilocal residence’ (Murdock, 1949: 17). Some scholars have called this a ‘transitional’ or ‘intermediate’ residence.
• Duolocal Residence. Husband and wife residing with their respective natal groups. This is marked by the absence of the conjugal family in the household. For example, among the Nayars of the Malabar Coast, the husband is a nocturnal visitor; among the Ashanti of Africa, it is the wife who visits her husband. This practice is also prevalent amongst the Muslims of Kalpeni Island in the Lakshadweep group of islands in India. In anthropological literature, this is termed Susu.