Polygyny

Relatedness increases the likelihood of cooperation within colonies of social insects. Polygyny, the coexistence of numerous reproductive females (queens) in a colony, is common in mature colonies of the termite Macrotermes michaelseni. In this species, polygyny results from pleometrosis and from several female alates that jointly found a new colony. To explain this phenomenon, it was suggested that only related females cooperate and survive during maturation of colonies. Using multilocus fingerprints as well as microsatellites, we showed that nestmate queens in mature colonies are unrelated. Furthermore, we found that all nestmate queens contributed to the production of steriles. Even in mature colonies, several matrilines of steriles coexist within a colony. Although genetic diversity within colonies may increase the likelihood of conflicts, high genetic diversity may be important for foraging, colony growth, and resistance to disease and parasites.

Despite the pervasive belief that monogamous marriage and the nuclear family are natural or inevitable features of modernity, many other nuptial and household forms exist. Polygyny – simultaneous marriage to multiple wives – is one such form. Today, widespread polygyny is virtually a sub-Saharan African phenomenon, and it perseveres here in the face of rapid, ostensibly antipathetic, socio-economic change. Predictions that development and modernization would obliterate traditional kinship systems in sub-Saharan Africa remain unrealized because they fail to appreciate that polygyny is not merely a historical relic or cultural idiosyncrasy, but a rational, internally consistent strategy that enables both individuals and groups, under particular conditions, to set, pursue, and achieve a broad range of goals. Accordingly, polygyny has not disappeared in those areas wherein the management of kin networks and household composition confers clear political, social, moral, or economic benefits.

Abstract: Polygamy is a hotly contested practice and open to widespread misunderstandings. This practice is defined as a relationship between either one husband and multiple wives or one wife and multiple husbands. Today,'polygamy'almost exclusively takes the form of one husband with multiple wives. In this article, my focus will centre on limited defences of polygamy offered recently by Chesire Calhoun and Martha Nussbaum. I will argue that these defences are unconvincing. The problem with polygamy is primarily ...

Qualitative data were collected from interviews with 100 Bedouin-Arab husbands, wives, children, and some extended family members of polygynous families in the Negev of Israel. Respondents were selected on the basis of self-reported levels of family functioning. Distinct contrasts were found between familial relationships in high functioning families and low functioning families. Differences occurred between husbands of low and high functioning families regarding reasons for a second marriage, how the marriage was received, and relationships with wives and their children. Such constructs can help enrich anthropological theory and improve professional psychosocial intervention. (Bedouin-Arab, family functioning, Middle East, polygynous families)

In this study, which is concerned with the varying degrees of sexual dimorphism of stature between human societies, adult male and female height measurements and male-female height ratiosthe measure of sexual dimorphismfrom 216 societies are statistically compared with several variables: marriage practices, protein availability, the presence of milking herds, settlement size, and climate. Our results indicate that while greater mean male height is associated with polygynous marriage, marriage practices did not exert an influence on the degree of sexual dimorphism of stature. On the other hand, the results suggest that while sexual dimorphism in height has a strong genetic component, dietary factors can influence the degree of dimorphism.

Polygyny in the Middle East has a long history spanning several hundreds of years in both a pre-Islamic and Islamic context. However in the modern world Polygyny has seen a sharp decline in the Middle East. This can be attributed several factors including modern interpretations of religious justifications for polygyny and state sponsored initiatives to impede or criminalize the practice. Despite these factors the practice does still exist in the Middle East due to holdouts who cite historical religious precedence to justify the practice and policies within certain Middle Eastern countries that still allow the practice. It is worth noting that this paper will primarily focus Islamic Polygyny in the Middle East, though polygyny does exist within other religious traditions in the Middle East such as in Judaism. However, by in large Polygyny is not heavily practiced in the Middle East and has seen a general decline in the modern era despite holdouts which continue the practice into the modern era (mostly in Islamic contexts). Before starting to explain Polygyny in the Middle East it must be mentioned that Polygamy and Polygyny are not the same thing despite being used interchangeably. Within the confines of Polygamy both men and women are allowed to have multiple spouses whereas within Polygyny only the men are allowed to marry multiple spouses, which is a key difference between Polygamy and Polygyny (Jones, 1-6, 2006). None of the mainstream variants of the three Abrahamic religions, which make up the majority of the Middle East's population, allow for Polygamous marriage. However, there are examples of Polygyny being practiced within other Abrahamic religions with Islam being the best known for this practice (Hitti, 28,1970). While Polygamy and Polygyny are used interchangeably within most of the sources of this essay, this essay will always be referring to Polygyny if the word Polygamy is ever used.

The history of Mormonism in Mexico reached a new landmark early in 1997 when Colonia Industrial, a United Order community founded by Margarito Bautista Valencia, achieved, its fiftieth successful year. Second, third, and fourth generations of Mexican Mormons in Colonia Industrial celebrated through sermons and activities that remind them of their legacy. Colonia Industrial, a small, unimposing, exclusive colony of Mexican Mormons, lies in the municipio of Ozumba at the base of Popocatepetl, an active volcano in the central valley of Mexico. While the growth of the LDS church in Mexico (claimed 720,000 members in 1995) dwarfs the small offshoot in Colonia Industrial, these Mexican Mormons' tenacious adherence to the socioeconomic principles of the United Order and plural marriage is a tribute to the testimony and fervor of their founder, Margarito Bautista Valencia.

Sexism, heteronormativity and mononormativity are constitutively entangled, but to what extent does undoing one undo the others? Through a reading of HBO’s Big Love, a television series about a polygamous family that is conservative in every way except their plural marriage, this article argues that there are ways in which intimacy might be politically transgressive even as it reinforces gender and sexual norms. Expanding on the definition of ‘mononormativity’ through analogy to Berlant and Warner’s (1998) ‘heteronormativity’ it is argued that in order to do justice to the complexity of intimate politics we must attend to relational norms and their transgression.

Christendom has long held a monogamy-only position that is often defended using several verses from the writings of the Apostle Paul. But did Paul actually believe and promote monogamy over polygyny? Is it possible Catholic and Christian theologians viewed him through a particular bias and mistranslated and/or misunderstood him? This article seeks to demonstrate that Paul consistently allowed for, if not outright promoted, polygyny as a lawful form of family structure.

In Brown v. Buhman, the recent challenge to the Utah law criminalizing polygamy brought by the stars of the reality television show Sister Wives, a federal district court determined both that strict scrutiny was required and that strict scrutiny could not be satisfied. A significant factor in this result was the state’s failure to mount a strong defense of the law, assuming that it could rely on long standing polygamy precedents such as the United States Supreme Court decision in Reynolds v. United States and more recent Tenth Circuit and Utah Supreme Court decisions to justify limiting scrutiny to rational basis and to provide legitimate reasons for the criminalization of polygamy. However, the State could have taken advantage of a then just released Canadian opinion, Reference re: Section 293 of the Criminal Code of Canada (Reference), to explain the real and expansive harms of polygamy. The Reference court undertook an exhaustive examination of the impact of polygamy on women, on children, on men, and on society, utilizing empirical evidence, expert reports, personal anecdotes, and a wide range of “Brandeis Brief” materials. This Article argues that the broad range of social and individual harms of polygamy identified in Reference provide a compelling state interest sufficient to withstand the strict scrutiny deemed necessary by Brown.
The Article also argues that the Utah statute cannot properly be understood to be a “religious gerrymander” requiring strict scrutiny. The Brown court’s determination that the Utah statute only targeted religiously motivated polygamy was based on its improper segregation of the statute’s coverage of licensed bigamy and polygamy, which the court acknowledged covered both religiously and nonreligiously motivated marriages, from the statute’s coverage of unlicensed ceremonial polygamous marriages and polygamous marital cohabitation, which the court saw as only religiously motivated. The Article goes on to show that the real target of the Utah statute are the multiple marital relationships present in all polygamy and not the religious motivation for polygamy undeniably present in much of the actual Mormon Fundamentalist polygamy practiced in Utah. The Article additionally argues that the heightened scrutiny called for by the Brown court under the Smith hybrid analysis is also not justified.
Finally, the Article briefly considers how a statute that only criminalizes religiously motivated polygamy might be justified, based on the way in which polygamous religious communities funnel teenage girls into polygamous marriages by ensuring that they never have the chance to develop sufficient autonomy to truly choose for themselves, not unlike the way the Amish in Yoder sought to limit their children’s education to prevent them from having either the desire or ability to live anything but an agrarian life. This Article suggests that confronting the autonomy-destroying impact of religiously motivated practices such as polygamy might force reconsideration of both Yoder and the limits of free exercise.

The song clearly warns about the wrong kind of love, with the thrice-repeated charge not to stir up love wrongly (2:7; 3:5; 8:4). And the song clearly affirms another kind of love, stronger than death and not acquired with wealth (8:6-7). The lesson of the Song is inextricably tied up with how families and societies are to correctly guard, betroth and marry off their young sisters (8:8-9).

The fundamental interpretative question for the Song, then, is what love is the wrong kind and what love is the right kind. This paper shows that the Song teaches that the wrong love is the polygynous kind and the right love is the monogynous kind.

As a Hebrew song and the product of Hebrew culture and history, polygyny is a delicate subject for it to address: not only was Solomon the wisest and greatest Israelite king, he and many other historical Hebrew figures and heroes practiced polygyny. The Song is one of a number of salvos critically addressing the Solomonic 'royal consciousness' with 'prophetic imagination', in which his 1000-woman polygyny looms large (Deut. 17:16-20; 1 Kings 11:1-8; Ecc. 2:8; 7:25-29; 9:9; Song 8:11-12).

This paper addresses the Song in section 1 which explains the method, plot and characters and section 2 which analyses the drama, scenes, images and claims. Section 3 is an addendum showing that Ecclesiastes addresses the same question with the same answer. Section 4 is a further addendum showing that the flood narrative also addresses the same question in a more broad social and political context.

Communal democracy is shown to be significantly and negatively
correlated with polygyny. In turn, communal democracy is demonstrated
to be positively correlated with the democracy of supracommunal
structures. Consequently, it is suggested that the fact that
modern democracy developed in Europe (i.e. the very region that by
the Late Middle Ages was already characterized by the highest proportion of complex societies with small monogamous families and
democratic communities) might not be a coincidence.

For thousands of years, men have struggled to establish their supremacy. At first, they used spirits to secure for themselves a function in a natural world that seemed to have taken sides with the feminine. Eventually, they created an all-mighty divinity, and established their status as second to none other than that highest of all authority.

Sailing through history, we show that the way procreation was perceived has determined how men and women positioned themselves in the universe. It has wielded consequences that have deeply affected our evolution, from the primal vision of an all-encompassing natural world in which Mother Nature represented the source of all life, to the subjection of nature and woman, with God the Father sitting at the summit of the creation.

This emphasis on gender and nature brings into perspective the current social and economic resurgence of women and the new attitude towards environment that needs to be protected from our own deeds. These intricate leitmotifs make us witness a turning point in our history.

The text is devoted to the issue of plural marriages, which were introduced and practised as part of a religious ritual in the life of believers of  the  doctrine  of  the  prophet  Joseph  Smith  (1805-1844),  founder  of  the  Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, popularly called the Mormon Church. The article has been divided into several parts, where the issues of plural marriages of historical, theological and legal nature are discussed in succession. A separate part is trying to look at the essence of polygamy in the life of adherents of the discussed new religious movement along with trying to answer the question why the phenomenon of polygamy is still present in the lives of some of the sectarian Mormon communities.

MARKET entered into alliance with his government. But the piety, learning, seriousness, and political quietism of Ayatollah Khii'l gained him a broad international following and, consequently, control of immense wealth. This he administered with a quiet institutio11-building skill. Living in Najaf, his indifference to political power was always interpreted as distaste for the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, and may have become active opposition during the Shi'i revolt in southern Iraq which followed the Gulf War of r990-r99r. His institutional legacy lies in an extraordinary international network of mosques, schools, libraries, and other charitable institutions, which, through his rulings, have been integrated into the existing structures of national and international bodies, from London and New York to Bombay, Islamabad, Malaysia, and Thailand. How this will survive is still uncertain. The enduring legacy of his thought is likewise uncertain, but markedly pragmatic and eirenic, it might turn Out to be more significant for the needs of the Shi'l community in the twenty-first century than that of Khomeini.

Polygyny, the marriage of a man with more than one woman at the same time is a well-known practiced in human history. Islamic law accepts the institution of polygyny as a substitute provision if it fulfills the certain conditions and reasons, -and limited the maximum number of wives to four. Although polygyny is mubah (permissible) in Islamic law, it is not an absolute right that every man can use arbitrarily. Thus in Islamic law, the legitimacy of polygyny has been attributed to the presence of two basic conditions: the observance of justice among co-wives and providing maintnance. However, the observance of these conditions that is left to the mercy of men leads to the exploitation of the right for practicing to polygyny and victimization of the first spouse. Therefore, inserting some restrictions for using this right has come to the agenda from time to time in Islamic legal history. The first legal arrangements concerning the restriction of the polygyny (taaddud al-zawjāt) in the history of Islamic law were indirectly made with the Family Law Decree of 1917 which was prepared in the last periods of the Ottoman Empire. Among the late Islamic jurists, the issue of the limitation of polygyny by public authority in Islamic law continues to be discussed. The civil laws of contemporary Muslim countries contain different regulations on the issue. In this article, the restriction of polygyny by the public authority in Islamic family law will be focused on.

Summary: Polygyny, the marriage of a man with more than one woman at the same time is a well-known practiced in human history. Islamic law accepts the institution of polygyny as a substitute provision if it fulfills the certain conditions and reasons, and limited the maximum number of wives to four. Thus, relevant verses in the Qur’an (al-Nisa 4/3, 129) and the Prophet’s own practice (al-Ahzab 33/50, 51, 59 al-Tahrim 66 / 3-5) show that it is legitimate for a man to marry more than one woman (up to four) at the same time in Islamic law.

Although polygyny is legally permissible (mubah) in Islamic law it is not an absolute right that every man can arbitrarily use. Thus in Islamic law, the legitimacy of polygyny has been attributed to the presence of two basic conditions: the observance of justice among co-wives and providing maintenance.

On the other hand, there may be some exceptional circumstances permitting polygyny in Islamic law. For example, when female population is much more than male in the society and when a, woman is can not fulfill her family duties due to her cureless illness, polygyny is permitted in Islamic law.

As it can be understood from the explanations above, polygyny in Islamic law is not a general and mandatory provision that should be applied by every man who has legal capacity to marry. On the contrary, it is an exceptional provision that is justified if there are certain conditions and justifications.

According to this; polygyny is a moral and legal institution that is made up of mutual consent based on individual and social conditions and needs in Islamic law. Therefore, men do not have to marry a second woman on their current wives, as well as women have the right to say “no” to marry a married man as a second wife.

When the conditions and rationales indicated in the relevant verses and doctrine are evaluated together, it can be said that in order to be able to legitimize the polygyny in Islamic law, there must be three basic conditions:

(1) Observing justice among spouses,

(2) Having sufficient financial power to provide maintenance for spouses,

(3) Existence of individual or social need or necessity.

Therefore, in order to prevent the exploitation of polygyny, which is justified under certain conditions and justifications in Islamic law, the above-mentioned conditions must be fulfilled. Otherwise, polygyny can cause some problems, unrest and injustice for individual, family and society. Hence, in the presence of certain conditions and justifications, polygyny accepted in Islamic law as a moral and legal institution aiming the elimination of individual and social arbitration.

Although the legitimacy of polygyny in Islamic law depends on the existence of certain conditions and special circumstances, it is a known fact that they are not always observed in practice. It can be said that the right of polygyny is a subject of abuse in practice. Therefore, the limitation of polygyny  by the public authority has come to the fore in Islamic legal history. Today, control of the public authority and inserting some restrictions of polygyny  continue to be discussed among the Islamic jurists.

In the past, it is possible to say that the control of the exercising of this right has been done relatively by society (social environment). However, nowadays, since the society cannot perform the control mechanism, it is brought up by the state (public authority) on behalf of the society.

Among the contemporary Islamic jurists regarding the supervision or limitation of polygyny  by the public authority; there are two approaches: “those who accept” and “those who do not accept” such restrictions.

Islamic jurists, who accept that public authority is allowed to intervene in polygyny, grounded their views on two perspectives: The first is that the polygyny is legally permissible and the public authority has the authority to limit the permissible (mubah) in Islamic law. The second is that polygyny is restricted with the conditions in the Qur’anic verses such as “husband’s observation supervision of justice among his wives” and “having the power for ensuring the livelihood (nafaqa) of his wives” and it is more appropriate for the benefit of society and the purpose of the legislator (Shari’) to be subject to the control of the public authority whether these conditions are present or not.

Islamic jurists, who do not agree that the public authority has the right to intervene in polygyny grounded their views on two perspectives as well: First, polygyny is a legitimate right mentioned in the verses in Islamic law and there is no definite proof that this can be prohibited or restricted by the public authority. Secondly, it is contrary to the verses to prohibit or limit the right that the Qur’an makes legitimate (free).

Thus, it is possible to say that the opinion which accepts that the public authority has to limit polygyny is more accurate in terms today’s social conditions. Namely, polygyny is linked to two basic conditions: ”husband’s observance of justice among his wives and having the power to provide maintenance for his wives. Therefore, supervision of the public authority on checking the existence of these conditions is more appropriate for the purpose of the legislator (Shari legitimizing polygyny  and social benefit.

In fact, the Ottoman Family Law Decree of 1917 indirectly limited the right of the husband to marry more than one woman, giving the woman right to stipulate a condition in her marriage contract that her husband not to marry a second woman. In the 1924 Draft of Family Law Decree, which was prepared after the repeal of the Family Law Decree of 1917, but not enacted, it was proposed that the application of polygyny should be presented to the approval judge.

In today’-s Muslim countries, there are three different practices: namely “completely prohibiting polygyny”, ”releasing polygyny” and “giving the court the right to monitor the existence of necessary conditions “. In countries such as Morocco, Algeria, Iraq, Syria, Indonesia, Malaysia (and Pakistan), the validity of polygyny  depends on the permission and supervision of the judiciary. Some of these countries which have accepted judicial review have given the judicial control for the requirement of justice, some of them the conditions of justice and maintenance some of them for the conditions of justice, maintenance and a legitimate justification.

In sum, in accordance with the provisions of the relevant verses, polygyny in Islamic law is legitimately permissible (mubah). However, the public authority has the right and authority to limit the mubah in Islamic law in the case of the elimination of damage and the necessity of the public interest. On the other hand, the public authority has the right and authority to enact the law in Islamic law by preferring one of the existing ijtihads that meet the needs of the society and conforms to the conditions of the age.

According to this, when the public authority made a statutory regulation that links the use of right of polygyny  to the permission of the judge, this regulation is binding on society.Therefore, in the event of such a legal arrangement, it is possible for the public authority to allow the men who comply with the conditions and not to allow the ones who are not to comply with the conditions after conducting the necessary investigation. As a matter of fact, now Family Laws of many Muslim countries now include such legal arrangements.

It is also worth mentioning here that there may be a necessity for a man to marry more than one woman (up to four) at the same time in terms of social benefits, when the population of male and female in a society is excessively disproportionate. In such circumstances, it is also possible that the public authority encourages, or even mandates, the marriage of men who have fulfilled the conditions to more than one woman.

The drastic cut in government expenditure on health with the extension of the 'user pays' principle to health care utilization in Nigeria following the adoption of the Structural Adjustment Program is probably having its greatest effect on the family. Contrary to what happened in the past, when the cost of treatment was usually borne by the mother of a sick child, the role of the father is becoming increasingly significant. Before the introduction of the 'user pays' principle to health care, treatment in many government hospitals was free. Intra-household variations in response to and treatment of child illness, especially in polygynous Yoruba households in Nigeria, occurred for a number of other reasons. Probably because the mother and her children usually form a social unit within a polygynous union, meeting the cost of treatment and some other minor daily needs of the child has always been the responsibility of the mother, although the economic independence of mos...

Recent years have seen rising numbers of Malaysian couples contracting
cross-border marriages (CBMs) in Southern Thailand to
“halalise” (render permissible) romantic relationships and secret
polygynous unions. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork
conducted at the Malaysian–Thai border, this article examines the
Malaysian state’s increasing bureaucratic intervention in these elopements,
and the streamlining of marriage procedures in Thailand
that raises the legal standard of these marriages to one recognised
by Malaysian Syariah Courts. It argues that the strengthening cooperation
between the Malaysian and Thai Islamic bureaucracies creates
a level of standardisation and synchronisation that allows for
a more facile recognition of each other’s authority, and an easier
“translation” of their policies, practices and certification standards.
Although this unveils new pathways and possibilities for Malaysian
couples to access intimacy halal (lawful) in Islam, Malaysian Syariah
law and Malay custom (adat), it also facilitates men’s circumvention
of existing legal restrictions on polygyny in the Islamic Family Law.
Through the lens of CBMs, this article illustrates how transnational
and cross-border collaborations between neighbouring Islamic
bureaucracies in Southeast Asia engender unintended but direct
detrimental consequences in the everyday practice and experience
of polygyny for Muslims in Malaysia.

The article is a supplement to an article published in the Jewish History
Quarterly in 2014, entitled "Polygamy of the East-European Karaites: An Unknown Document from Crimea". It contains an edition of another document, dated to 1836, thus far unknown, from the collection F 946, Op. 1 (Private Archive) of the National Library of Russia in St. Peters burg. This document is a testimony of the procedure and argumentation used in the process of applying for permission to marry a second wife.
Keywords: Karaite polygamy/polygyny, Karaites in Crimea, Abraham Firkowicz's manuscripts

In this paper we review the literature on the association between polygyny and women's health in sub-Saharan Africa. We argue that polygyny is an example of ''co-operative conflict'' within households, with likely implications for the vulnerability of polygynous women to illness, and for their access to treatment. We begin with a review of polygyny and then examine vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections (STIs, including HIV) and differential reproductive outcomes. Polygyny is associated with an accelerated transmission of STIs, both because it permits a multiplication of sexual partners and because it correlates with low rates of condom use, poor communication between spouses, and age and power imbalances among other factors. Female fertility is affected by the interplay between marital rank, household status, and cultural norms in polygynous marriages. Finally, we present areas which have received only cursory attention: mental health and a premature, ''social'' menopause. Although data are scarce, polygyny seems to be associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression, particularly around stressful life events. It is our hope that the examples reviewed here will help build a framework for mixed method quality research, which in turn can inform decision makers on more appropriate, context-dependent health policies.

As patterns of family formation change, it is important to know how children's lives are affected by their parents' marital and socioeconomic circumstances. Using data from the 1993 Kenya Demographic and Health Survey, this study shows that children of never married and formerly married mothers have significantly higher probabilities of polio dropout and acute undernutrition than those of monogamously married mothers. The number of male household members of working age greatly enhances the chances of full immunization and the nutritional status of children whose mothers were previously married. For children of never married mothers, the benefits of residing with males of working age are largely a function of ethnicity. The results also show that, although children are not disadvantaged nutritionally when their fathers have more than one wife, polygyny is associated with a higher probability of polio dropout and lower probability of full immunization than monogamy. Higher socioeconomic status is associated with a greater probability of full immunization and a lower probability of malnutrition but socioeconomic factors do not explain the effects of mothers' marital status. The findings underscore the complex realities of family interaction and the importance of the broader social context in accounting for variations in child welfare across diverse marital situations.

We conducted male-removal experiments in harems of the protogynous angelfish Centropyge vroliki on the coral reefs of Okinawa. The largest female of a harem started male role sexual behavior on the day of male removal and started to spawn with smaller females from 1–3 days after the removal. Smaller females often spawned with the sex changer, although the eggs released in the spawning events were unfertilized until the completion of the gonadal sex change (ca. 2 weeks). The largest female could completely perform male sexual behavior before the completion of the sex change. We observed that a smaller female with which the sex changer rarely spawned left the harem to perform extraharem spawning. This observation suggested that sexual behavior by the sex changer may function to secure future mates. Behavioral sex change may commonly precede the gonadal sex change in protogynous fish.

The Constitution puts common law and customary law on a par. However, the courts have often replaced customary law dispute resolution rules with the common law rules. For instance, the Constitutional Court in Bhe and Others v Magistrate, Khayelitsha and Others; Shibi v Sithole and South African Human Rights Commission and Another v President of the Republic of South Africa and Another 2005 1 SA 580 (CC) and the High Court in Maluleke v Minister of Home Affairs 2008 JDR 0426 (W) substituted the rules of common law for those of customary law in order to resolve customary law disputes. The legislature could not be outdone. A meticulous study of the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 120 of 1998 and the Reform of Customary Laws of Succession and Regulations of Related Matters Act 11 of 2009 reveals that their provisions almost appropriately reflect the common law marriage and intestate succession rules respectively. The Recognition of Customary Marriages Act has, furthermore, adopted the provisions of the Divorce Act of 1979. Section 28 of the Constitution read with the Children's Act 38 of 2005 has generally substituted the fundamental human rights for the unequal rights provided by the customary law of parent and child. The Maintenance Act 99 of 1998 has substituted the communal form of maintenance under customary law.

Donna is a middle-aged, white woman living in a small town in the mountains of western Virginia in the first half of the twenty-first century. She and her two sons attend a popular Christian church on Sundays and several times during the week. Her sons do well in the local public school, and she is active in both of their classes. To all appearances, Donna is a very ordinary mom, but there is more to her story. Donna shares household responsibilities with Bobbi. Donna and Bobbi are co-wives, and their husband, Lucas, is the father of all of their children. Because they live in the United States, where monogamy is mandated by law, Lucas is legally married only to Donna, but they all three share an agreement that Bobbi is also his wife.

Author: Kayla White
Publisher: CBE International

Biblical narratives of barren wives such as Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, and the mother of Samson paint a picture of God’s sovereignty and faithfulness to fulfill promises to a burgeoning nation. In these narratives, the modern reader encounters polygyny and polycoity,1 wife rivalry, preferential treatment of certain wives and their children, and divorce, all of which are seemingly at odds with our biblical notions of marriage, divorce, and ethical treatment of others. Though scripture is mostly silent on the ramifications of barrenness, it is possible to look beyond the biblical witness to the broader ancient culture in order to understand its impact both on the women involved and society as a whole. Ancient legal, mythical, ritual, and medical records not only provide us with the broader cultural understanding of barrenness, but also, at times, mirror some of the personal and spiritual responses found in the biblical material. As a means of further understanding how this malady impacted ancient near eastern civilization, this article focuses on barrenness in legal records.

"More than just Monogamy" takes a serious look at traditional marriage forms in a variety of modern world cultures. Readers will discover that lifetime monogamy - or even serial monogamy - may not be the one true path for a lot of individuals and families throughout the world. Readers are afforded a different view of love, relationships, responsibility, and family than they may have experienced in their own lives.

Chapter 2: Economic and Social Rights Article 14: Right to property Article 15: Right to work and the right to just and favourable conditions of work Article 16: Right to health (including the right to food and water and sanitation) Article 17: Right to education and culture Article 18: Right to protection of family, women, children and the disabled (including the right to housing and social security)

How males gain access to mates and the potential for female choice will determine whether polygyny can operate at several levels, from within litters and groups to the wider population. Female lesser flat-headed bats (Tylonycteris pachypus) form maternity groups in bamboo stems. Unusually for bats, they are multiparous, providing the opportunity to test whether multi-level polygyny differs among males depending on whether they roost with females, with males or are solitary. We genotyped 662 individuals from 54 internodes and analysed parentage of 165 litters. Our results revealed 170 sets of paternal twins ⁄ triplets, of which 96 were full-sibs and 74 were halfsibs. We found that males captured roosting with females typically sired more offspring overall than did other males and also showed a greater tendency to monopolize paternity within both litters and roosting groups. In comparison, males that sired fewer full-sibs were assigned more maternal half-sibs. These latter individuals, which included solitary males and those from all-male groups, might gain copulations either via roaming with furtive mating or during visits by females. Indeed, female lesser flat-headed bats store sperm, so could benefit from multiple mating to reduce genetic incompatibilities. At the same time, however, we found no evidence of outbreeding. Finally, relatedness and mtDNA analyses revealed that polygyny also operated within matrilineal kin, suggesting a system that might promote social cohesiveness. Future studies of individual movements will help to determine the extent to which mixed paternities in litters, matrilines and groups are driven by male or female behaviour.

Infant abuse by males has been observed in many pinniped species, but its adaptive significance and defense mechanism remain uncertain, We studied harassment and abduction of pups by nonterritorial male northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) on St. Paul Island, Alaska, from 1993 to 1998. Juvenile, subadult, and adult males entered the breeding area and sniffed, bit, grabbed, or mounted pups. They also abducted pups to other places on land or to sea. Three pup mortalities caused by drowning, skull damage, or separation from the mother leading to emaciation were observed during the study period. Nonterritorial males did not exhibit a preference for the sexes of pups they attacked, and never consumed dead pups. Intrusions of juvenile and subadult males into breeding areas increased in the late breeding season, when harassment and abduction of pups occurred frequently. Frequency of intrusion and harassment of pups by adult nonterritorial males was lower than that by juvenile and subadult males, and did not increase in the late breeding season. On average, each pup was harassed or abducted 3.8 times in a breeding season. Pups changed their behavior to avoid nonterritorial males as pups moved out of the central breeding area in the late breeding season. Territorial males protected pups indirectly through territory defense, but their vigilance against juvenile and subadult males diminished in the late breeding season. Adult females protected their pups against juvenile and subadult males only while they were attending pups within the breeding territories. However, formation of breeding aggregation in rocky habitats may contribute to reducing the risk of harassment of pups by nonterritorial males because it provides pups with protection by territorial males as well as shelters created by irregular terrain.

Reproductive behaviors of vertebrates are often underpinned by temporal patterns of hormone secretion. We investigated interspecific patterns of circulating testosterone in male birds to test the hypothesis that testosterone plays a crucial role in sexual selection as determined by degree of polygyny and extra-pair paternity. We predicted that the evolution of increased levels of polygyny and extra-pair paternity would have resulted in the evolution of increased levels of testosterone to allow males more efficiently to compete for mates. This hypothesis was tested in comparative analyses of 116 species of birds using Generalized Least Squares Models. We assessed the importance of latitudinal distribution, because this can confound the relationship between testosterone and mating success. There were weak positive phylogenetic correlations between measures of testosterone and estimates of mating success at the social level, but this association appeared to be confounded by latitudinal distribution, a significant correlate of testosterone titers. However, we found a significantly positive relationship between peak and residual peak testosterone (which is the peak testosterone level that is controlled for the baseline level) and extra-pair paternity independent of latitude. These results suggest that selection pressures arising from social and sexual mating differently affected testosterone levels with the former being mediated by factors associated with latitudinal distribution. An analysis of residual testes size revealed a positive association between peak and residual testosterone and testes size relative to body size. In a path analysis, we show that relative testis size primarily evolved in association with intense sperm competition and thus high sperm production, and these mechanisms had a secondary impact on blood testosterone levels at a phylogenetic scale. Our results suggest that sperm competition has played an important role in the evolution of reproductive mechanisms in birds. D

Current metapopulation models assume that migration rate remains constant from one generation to the other, leading to a constant population foundation rate. In the butterfly Proclossiana eunomiu, the mating behaviour is a main factor affecting individual migration. In a field study, male harrassments induced female emigration at high male density. Males moved away in search of mates at low female density. Simulations of male-female movements based on behavioural data from the field revealed that changes in mate density will induce sex-biased emigration. Assessement of migration within a metapopulation in the field during 2 years supported these predictions. Such bias in migration has been reported earlier in other butterfly species with a similar mating system. Consequences of sex-biased emigration on metapopulation dynamics may be spasms in population foundation as these occur only when density oversteps a certain threshold. Patterns of colonization in a region where P. eunomia did not occur naturally correspond to this prediction. Variability in the rates of emigration and population foundation between generations may affect metapopulation viability analysis by current models. 0 Elsevier, Paris

Positive density dependence (i.e., the Allee effect; AE) often has important implications for the dynamics and conservation of populations. Here, we show that density-dependent sex ratio adjustment in response to sexual selection may be a common AE mechanism. Specifically, using an analytical model we show that an AE is expected whenever one sex is more fecund than the other and sex ratio bias toward the less fecund sex increases with density. We illustrate the robustness of this pattern, using Monte Carlo simulations, against a range of body size-fecundity relationships and sexallocation strategies. Finally, we test the model using the sex-changing polygynous reef fish Parapercis cylindrica; positive density dependence in the strength of sexual selection for male size is evidenced as the causal mechanism driving local sex ratio adjustment, hence the AE. Model application may extend to invertebrates, reptiles, birds, and mammals, in addition to over 70 reef fishes. We suggest that protected areas may often outperform harvest quotas as a conservation tool since the latter promotes population fragmentation, reduced polygyny, a balancing of the sex ratio, and hence up to a 50% decline in per capita fecundity, while the former maximizes polygyny and source-sink potential.

In a polygynous mating system, males frequently compete by locating and defending sites with resources essential to female survival and reproduction. We investigated seasonal changes in site occupancy in a sexually dimorphic, harem-forming insect, the Auckland tree weta (Hemideina thoracica). First we established artificial cavities as diurnal refuge cavities and potential harem guarding sites. We then examined cavity occupancy changes, and, based on our knowledge of prior occupants, determined sex-specific patterns of arrival, departure, and aggregation at a population level throughout the year. Both season and the sex of prior occupants influenced weta occupancy patterns. Most observations were of single females. However, both males and females moved into cavities previously occupied by a weta of the opposite sex more often than expected by chance alone. Females avoided cavities where other females were present, except during summer when most harems formed. In early summer, male and female tree weta previously living apart began co-habiting. Generally there was little relationship between the number and sex of the weta inside cavities and female departure rates from cavities. Males who were sharing with other males departed cavities more frequently than single males, as might be expected in a polygynous species with male-male combat. Males were less likely to depart if they were sharing a cavity with a harem of more than two females during the summer-autumn period. Analysis of departure rates from artificial cavities indicates males are more mobile than females only in winter and spring. Based on our arrival and departure data, and high occupancy of artificial cavities, we suggest that female weta at this site are mobile and may search for mates during the summer. The data are consistent with a polygynandrous mating system as inferred for other tree weta species (Hemideina spp.).

Although polygyny can potentially increase male reproductive success, the benefits of this strategy could be offset by losses to extra-pair paternity or reduced offspring survival. We developed microsatellite markers to assess the influence of extrapair offspring (EPO) on reproductive success and paternity in monogamous and polygynous pairs of the facultatively polygynous Southwestern Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus). Based on genotypes of 140 offspring from 56 clutches over six years, 14% of nestlings in our study population were extra-pair offspring, with 23% of all successful nests containing at least one EPO. We found that polygynous males produced 2.11 6 0.35 offspring per season, compared to 1.15 6 0.18 for monogamous males. This increased reproductive success was due primarily to the increased number of nests of polygynous males, as the number of offspring per pair did not differ between monogamous and polygynous males. Twenty of the 140 genotyped nestlings were extrapair offspring. Sires could be assigned to 16 of these; one polygynous male sired two EPO in one nest, two monogamous males sired eight EPO in two nests, and four nonterritorial males sired six EPO in four nests. Overall, these results indicate that in this population, females of polygynous males did not raise a disproportionate number of EPO as a result of the polygynous mating strategy of their mate, and that both territorial and nonterritorial males sired EPO.

Centromyrmex bequaerti is a ponerine ant of the African equatorial forest which nests in the termitaries of diverse Termitinae and Macrotermitinae, occupying several chambers and galleries of the termitaries and preying on their guests. This species presents four traits convergent with termitolestic Myrmicinae: a parasitic nesting habit (but shelters directly in the cavities of the termitaries and not in the walls), blind workers, a strong dimorphism between the queens (20 mm in length) and the workers (from 5.75 to 12 mm total length) and polymorphism in the worker caste. We recorded two other traits considered as evolutionarily-derived: oligogyny, a kind of polygyny (the societies include up to 13 queens, but each queen lives in a separate cavity of the termitary) and large colon size. Behavioural observations show that there is a relationship between worker size and polyethism in this species. Although workers of all size classes participate in hunting, the media are more often engaged in this activity and the largest workers guard the nest entrance,