Monogamy is a marriage and partnership system in which two individuals form a mutual, exclusive partnership, having only one spouse at a time, whether for life or across a succession of exclusive unions known as serial monogamy. It is the marriage form recognized by law across most legal systems in the world today, in contrast to the polygynous and polyandrous systems documented elsewhere in this section. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Descent RuleSourced to the subject's own accountA marriage rule rather than a descent rule: each partner has only one spouse at a time, whether for life or as serial monogamy, in contrast to polygamy or polyamory. 1 Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountA minority marital form worldwide by George P. Murdock's cross-cultural count: of 1,231 societies in the Ethnographic Atlas, 186 were monogamous against 453 with occasional polygyny, 588 with more frequent polygyny, and 4 with polyandry. 1 Descent Rule
Descent Rule (category)Sourced to the subject's own account Descent Rule (category)Sourced to the subject's own account Connections
Associated With
Monogamous marriage is the pairing structure that underlies the standard nuclear family, one husband, one wife and their children.
Held Differently
Both are recognized marriage systems distinguished by spouse count; monogamy permits exactly one spouse at a time where polygyny permits a husband multiple wives.
In Rule Category
Studied By
Source Wikipedia: Monogamy
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Monogamy
WikipediaMonogamy, lead paragraph
Having only one partner at any one time, whether for life or serial monogamy, contrasts with various forms of non-monogamy (e.g., polygamy or polyamory).
Monogamy, Distribution of social monogamy section
According to the Ethnographic Atlas by George P. Murdock, of 1,231 societies from around the world noted, 186 were monogamous; 453 had occasional polygyny; 588 had more frequent polygyny; and 4 had polyandry.
Studied By: Jack Goody, Article body sentence quoted
For example, anthropologist Jack Goody's comparative study utilizing the Ethnographic Atlas demonstrated that monogamy is part of a cultural complex found in the broad swath of Eurasian societies from Japan to Ireland that practice social monogamy, sexual monogamy and dowry (i.e.
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