POLYGYNY, the system under which a man is married to several women at the same time (Gr. roXin, many, and -yvvi, woman), popularly called polygamy (76Luos, marriage), which derivatively also includes the practice of polyandry. Polygyny is nowhere the exclusive form of marriage, and among most peoples who practise it the large majority of men live in monog amy. It may be modified in a monogamous direction both from the social and the sexual point of view. Very frequently one of the wives, generally the one first married, holds a higher position than the rest or is regarded as the principal wife. In some cases this position implies certain sexual privileges; but more often we are told that it is the custom for the husband to cohabit with wives in turn, or that this is actually required of him. Another matter is how far theory and practice coincide. We have reason to suspect that one of the wives is for a time the favourite.
Among the uncivilised races polyg yny does not seem to be practised on a large scale by any of the lower hunters and food-collectors, except some Australian and Bushman tribes, nor by any incipient agriculturists, at least among those of the lower type. On the other hand, a considerable number of these low hunting and slightly agricultural tribes—such as some of the South American Indians, the aboriginal tribes of the Malay Peninsula, most of the Andaman islanders, the Veddas of Ceylon, certain tribes in the Malay archipelago, most of the Negritos of the Philippine islands, and some at least of the Central African Pygmies—are represented as strictly monogamous. Among the higher hunters polygyny is more frequent, although in the major ity of their tribes it is practised only occasionally; and exclusive monogamy is very rare, though perhaps not unknown. Among pastoral peoples there seems to be no one who can be regarded as strictly monogamous; and both among them and the higher agriculturists polygyny is undoubtedly more frequent than among the hunters and incipient agriculturists, although cases of regular monogamy are more frequent among the higher agriculturists than among the higher hunters. The cases in which polygyny is repre sented as "general" are comparatively much more numerous among African than among non-African pastoral peoples and higher agriculturists. Polygyny is at its height in Africa, both
in point of frequency and in number of wives. King Mtessa of Uganda and the king of Loango are said to have had 7,000 wives. This is apparently the high-water mark of polygyny anywhere.
Polygyny, or a sort of concubinage hardly distinguishable from genuine polygyny, is found among most peoples of archaic civilization. In China there are, or have been, besides the legal principal wife, so-called wives "by cour tesy" or lawful concubines. In Japan concubinage of the Chinese type existed as a legal institution until 1880. In ancient Egypt po lygyny seems to have been permitted but to have been unusual, except in the case of kings. The Babylonian Code of klammurabi assumes that marriage shall be monogamous; yet "if a man has married a wife and a sickness has seized her," he may take a second wife; and if she remained childless he might take a concu bine. Among the Hebrews a man could in any circumstances have a plurality of wives, and there was no difference in the legal status of different wives, nor was there any limit to the number of wives a man might take. In Arabia Mohammed ordained that a man's legal wives should be not more than four. Polygyny has been permitted among many of the Indo-European peoples— among ancient Slays and Teutons, the ancient Irish and the Vedic Indians—though it seems to have been as a rule confined to kings or chiefs or nobles. None of the Hindu law-books restricts the number of wives a man is allowed to marry; yet some preference is often shown for monogamy, and at the present day most castes object to their members having more than one wife, except for some cogent reason. On the other hand, there can be little doubt that monogamy was the only recognized form of marriage in Greece; concubinage existed in Athens, but it was well distin guished from marriage, conferring no rights on the concubine. Ro man marriage was strictly monogamous; liaisons between married men and mistresses were not uncommon by the close of the Republic, but such a relation was not considered lawful concu binage in after-time.