POLYGAMY (from Gk. 71)? vyapia, plural marriage, from roi.i; apoc, polyga mos, much married, from polys, much, many -ycirc, ganios, That form of marriage and the family in a man has two ur more wives. Strictly speaking, polygamy, meaning plural marriage, includes polyandry (more than one husband) as well as polygyny (more than one wife). Polygyny is found in all climes and among all races: Fuegians, Australians, Negritos, the Malayo-Polynesians, American Indians. and peoples of Africa. It flourishes in China and in Turkey, and in former ages it prevailed among the peoples of Western Asia. It seems not to have been practiced to any extent by Greeks or Romans. and' its occurrence among Celts and Germans was occasional. Tacitus says of the Germans of his day that "almost alone among barbarians" they "are content with one wife:" but he notes a few exceptions of noble birth. Polygamy has never been the only family form in any tribe or nation. Usually it has been only
the relatively well-to-do and the powerful that have maintained polygamous families, while the majority of men and women have commonly lived in monogamous relations, the very poor resort ing at times to polyandry. Under some condi tions polygamy has been favored on economic grounds. Where a simple agricultural industry is carried on by women, as in parts of Africa and of North America, the possession of many wives may mean not mere luxurious expenditure, hut increase of productive power. Ancestor worship was favorable to polygamy because failure of the first wife to bear sons was equivalent to bringing the supreme purpose of the family to naught. The line of the family priesthood was broken. In other ways also the religious sanction has been appealed to. The Mormons. for example, have regarded the multiplication of offspring as the supreme duty. See MAIIRLkGE.