Polygamy (Marriage System)

Polygamy is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time it is called polygyny, and when a woman is married to more than one husband at the same time it is called polyandry. Monogamy, marriage consisting of only two parties, stands in contrast to it. Different societies variously encourage, accept or outlaw polygamy, and in the societies that allow or tolerate it, polygyny is the accepted form in the vast majority of cases. According to the Ethnographic Atlas Codebook, of 1,231 societies noted from 1960 to 1980, 588 had frequent polygyny, 453 had occasional polygyny, 186 were monogamous, and 4 had polyandry. This entry is the marriage system itself, the subject that the polygamy descent-rule category value names, and it stands beside the institution-type entry Polygamy, which is linked to it as an associated subject.