Question

List and discuss the various forms of marriage arrangements. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each type? Why would only monogamy work in American life (other than the legal statutes)? Could you envision any benefits of polygyny in America? Polyandry?

Answer 1

Monogamy refers to a marriage of one man with one woman at a time. Monogamy is of two types such as serial Monogamy and non-serial Monogamy.

In serial Monogamous marriage, the possibility of remarriage exists in case of divorce or death. In the case of non-serial monogamy, the question of remarriage does not arise by either of the couple. Here a spouse has the same single spouse throughout his life.

Advantages of monogamy- suitable for ideal and civilized society, promotes better understanding among couples, healthy environment in the family, children brought up in such families are confident and mentally strong as they are taken care of both the parents equally.

The only disadvantages of Monogamy are divorce which is resulted due to the monogamous boredom.

Polygamy - having many partners for marriage. Polygamy is of three types such as polygamy, polyandry and endogamy or group marriage.

Polygamy is a type of marriage in which a man marries more than one wife at a time. It is of two types-

Sorroral polygamy is often called as a surrogate. It refers to a marriage practice in which a man marries the sisters of his wife at a time or after the death of his wife.

NON- Sorroral polygamy when a man marries several women at a time who are not necessarily sister to each other it is known as non-sororal polygamy.

Polyandry is a very rare type of marriage in the present day. In this type of marriage, a woman marries several men at a time. It is of two types-

When several brothers share a common wife it is called as fraternal polyandry.

Non-fraternal polyandry is opposite of fraternal polyandry. In this type of marriage husbands of a woman is not necessarily brother to each other.

Endogamy or group marriage-  In this type of marriage, a group of men marry a group of women at a time. Every woman is the wife of every man belonging to the particular groups.

Disadvantages of polygamy- mental agony, society status declining, posing problems for growing children. causes an increase in the population.

Advantages- For the men, it means less pressure because there will be more buddies to help keep her happy. For the womwn, it will be more fulfilment of desires from so many husbands so she could be mentally and economically satisfied with so many options available to her.

Benefits of polygyny -

1) Polygyny checks sexual immorality because the husband gets adequate satisfaction of his sexual urge in the company of the number of wives.

(2) It brings economic stability in the family because both husband and his wives and children earn something for the family.