Kinship and Family Systems

Polyandry

PAH-lee-an-dree

Citation Formats

General Reference

Society and Culture Atlas. "Polyandry." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://society.interactiveatlas.org/kinship-systems/polyandry.

APA Style

Society and Culture Atlas. (n.d.). Polyandry. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://society.interactiveatlas.org/kinship-systems/polyandry

BibTeX

@misc{societyandcultureatlas-polyandry,
  author = {Society and Culture Atlas},
  title = {Polyandry},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://society.interactiveatlas.org/kinship-systems/polyandry},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A marriage form, and the rarest of the recognized plural-marriage systems, in which one woman is married concurrently to two or more husbands, documented in both fraternal (brothers sharing a wife) and non-fraternal arrangements.

Facts

Descent Rulethe subject's own account

A marriage rule rather than a descent rule proper: one wife holds concurrent marriages to two or more husbands, most often brothers (fraternal polyandry); a 1980 cross-cultural survey of 1,231 societies found only four practicing it, making it the rarest of the recognized plural-marriage systems. 1

Typical Regionthe subject's own account

The Himalayan region, especially Lahaul-Spiti in the high Himalayas of India, with further documented cases in Tibet, Nepal, and scattered communities in Africa, Oceania and South America. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Marriage

A rare variant form (4 of 1,231 surveyed societies) within the institution of marriage.

Source Wikipedia: Marriage

Held Differently

Polygyny

Both are recognized forms of plural marriage (polygamy); polyandry is the far rarer variant, with one wife and multiple husbands rather than one husband and multiple wives.

Source Wikipedia: Polyandry

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Polyandry

WikipediaOpening section, description

Quote, Opening section, description