Facts about Polygamy
China had legal polygamy until the Communist government ruled that this was injurious to women who were equal workers with men.
Scriptural evidence indicates that polygamy, though not extremely common, was not particularly unusual among the ancient Hebrews, and certainly not prohibited or discouraged.
Polygamy within the United States presents interesting legal challenges.
India has an occurrence of polygamy about four percent of the Hindu population and about three percent within the Islamic population.
A number of writers have expressed their views on polygamy by writing about a fictional world in which it is the most common type of relationship.
Human polygamy exists in three specific forms, including polygyny (one man having multiple wives), polyandry (one woman having multiple husbands), and group marriage (some combination of polygyny and polyandry).
The term polygamy (literally many marriages in late Greek) is used in related ways in social anthropology and sociobiology.
Mormon fundamentalists (who are not associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) continue to practice polygamy, more than 100 years after the LDS Church discontinued the practice.
Polygamy is condemned or restricted by the majority of the world's religions.
Polygamy is practiced by the Fremen in Frank Herbert's Dune as a means to pinpoint male infertility.
The outcry against polygamy eventually led to the federal government's involvement and the enacting of anti-polygamy laws.
During the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther advised Philip of Hesse that although he found nothing un-biblical about polygamy, he should keep his second marriage a secret to avoid public scandal (Mozley 1878).
Questions of polygamy are often ignored in an effort to avoid conflicts of power between various domains of national, religious, or local authority.
Islamic polygamists point out that an imbalance of the ratio of men to women means that polygamy serves to help women maintain a respectable presence.
Many novice and amateur skateboarding teams have emerged in the last ten years, consisting of groups of talented skateboarders.
Increasingly harsh anti-polygamy legislation penalized Church members, unincorporated the Church, and permitted the seizure of Church property until the Church ordered the discontinuance of the practice in 1890.
The radical Anabaptists of Mьnster also practiced polygamy, but they had little influence after the defeat of the Mьnster Rebellion in 1535.
The public revelation of the Church's practice of polygamy, however, led to escalated persecution.
Both polygamy and polyandry were practiced in ancient times among certain sections of the Hindu society.
When severe persecution had reduced the numbers of eligible bachelors, polygamy was seen as a way to fulfill their spiritual mandate.
Polygamy has continued to be practiced in large numbers in the world into the beginning of the twenty-first century, primarily in Africa and some Islamic countries.
The Libertarian Party in the United States supports complete decriminalization of polygamy as part of a general belief that the government should not regulate marriage.
Some Sephardi and Mizrahi groups discontinued polygamy much later, to the point that Israel had to make provisions for polygamous families immigrating after its 1948 creation.
Polygamy is most widely practiced by Muslims in Africa (where it is also widely practiced by non-Muslims), as well as in certain traditionalist Arabian states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The ban on polygamy resulted in a schism within the Church, with various splinter groups leaving the Church.
The Torah (the first five books of the Christians Old Testament) includes a few specific regulations on the practice of polygamy.
In Africa, a growing problem of justice for children and women within polygamy is challenging the con-flux of the various legal domains of Sharia, national, and tribal law.
Sanctioned polygamy did not survive long within Protestantism, with modern Protestants believing that all forms of polygamy are condemned by the Bible, citing verses such as 1 Timothy 3:2.
Anthropologists have observed that, while many societies have permitted polygamy, the majority of human partnerships are in fact monogamous.
Muslim polygamy, in practice and law, differs greatly throughout the Islamic world.
The Hebrew Scriptures tell of approximately 40 polygamists, including prominent figures such as Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Esau, and David, with little or no further remark on their polygamy as such.
Periodically, Christian reform movements that have aimed at rebuilding Christian doctrine based on the Bible alone (sola scriptura) have at least temporarily accepted polygamy as a Biblical practice.
Some Muslims, however, believe that polygamy is restricted.
One source of polygamy was the practice wherein a man was required to marry and support his deceased brother's widow.
The argument that polygamy tends to benefit most women and disadvantage most men has been used to support the legalization of polygamy (Friedman 1990).
Some Sephardi and Mizrahi groups discontinued polygamy much later, to the point that Israel had to make provisions for polygamous families immigrating after its 1948 creation.
China had legal polygamy until the Communist government ruled that this was injurious to women who were equal workers with men.