Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices by Brenda Love

Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices by Brenda Love

Author:Brenda Love [Love, Brenda]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: National Book Network - A
Published: 1994-07-31T16:00:00+00:00


POLYGYNY Polygyny, or polygamy, is a marriage between one male and several females. Women benefitted from this arrangement when the ratio of men to women was low. It provided women who were widowed or would otherwise have to remain unmarried a chance to have a family. Her domestic burdens were also lightened because these were shared not only by other women but by additional children. The polygynous unit seemed beneficial to communities where women worked or had a skill while the converse was true of those who did not permit the wives to leave the house or to educate themselves. Problems developed among the men in cultures where the ratio of females to males was not balanced and only a few men were able to possess the majority of available females.

Polygyny among Indians was condemned by the American colonists, yet ironically these men justified raping the same women they were supposedly trying to save from the abuse of polygyny. “Seventeenth-century Pueblo Indians had petitioned the Spanish government because soldiers so often forced Indian women to have sex. Some Indians also complained against the Catholic clergy, and at least one priest was accused of raping Indian servants...the church opposed polygamy, and friars physically punished Pueblos who continued this custom...When white Americans became the conquerors in western territories, they too claimed sexual access to native women and tried to obliterate Indian and Mexican sexual customs.” Polygamist Mormons during the 19th century suffered from people’s wrath, despite the fact that their sexual morals were rigid and fellow Mormons found engaging in adultery, zoophilia, or incest were executed (Intimate Matters, A History of Sexuality in America, pp. 91, 118).

There are some families in Utah that practice a form of polygamy and from some reports the men and women both agree that it is a preferred life-style. The internal criticism seems to stem more from “arranged marriages” rather than the number of wives. Pro-polygamist Mormon women before the Woodruff Manifesto argued that polygamy gave them freedom and equality. Utah universities have been open to women since 1850 and almost all the first female doctors were Mormon. The feminist movement joined forces with anti-polygamist Mormons and, using condemnations of immorality, worked up the sentiments of religious Americans to support them in stopping this practice. While Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton were concerned with equality rather than morals which had only been a convenient tool, other factions of the feminist movement were never able to separate the two issues and continued on a moral campaign directed at men and their female victims of vice.



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