Polygamy

[Daremo]

Since it appears that western civilization is becoming used to the idea of gay marriage or civil unions. I think the next step is now in order.

What about polygamy? Should it be legalized. Should it be one man and several wives? One woman and several husbands? Or group marriages with an unspecified number of partners?

Think about it, it has real benefits:

Not everybody would be out of work at the same time
There's always someone to watch the kids
Not all of you can have a headache on the same night
Threes, fours and group gropes could be interesting
Financially the benfits are obvious
One or more members could pursue risky venues with less chance of failure
What other benefits or risks do you see?
Would society accept such a concept?

Many of Robert Heinlein's books have polygamy as the social norm in the future.

What do you thinK?

[SyntaxHeir]

I don't it will ever fly due the stigma of ownership and "property" associated with polygamy. Typically a man with several wives does not enter into each of those marriages to "honor and cherish in sickness and in health".

To me, polygamy has a certain "livestock" ring to it, which does nothing to further the idea of equality or even basic human rights.

Having said that, I would like to discuss further your idea of a "marriage commune". As Kitz has said in a different thread, that's much like a business. They'd all file taxes jointly, share expenses and duties jointly, rise and fall as a unit. Kind of like their own little private entity without the feds getting to know the details.

Oh wait, did I say something that resembled privacy and the freedom to live without gov't interference? That'll never fly.

[MrsMo]

Polygamy does not have to involve ownership or a reduction of rights for any of the partners. If everyone in the marriage is treated as an adult with a full say in the "partnership", then it could work. Of course I realize this calls for people to treat each other with respect, but many people don't achieve that in a monogamous marriage either, so the trick is to choose the right partner, regardless of the type of partnership being entered into.

Perhaps the whole idea of marriage should be scrapped and everything should be handled like businesses. You can be a sole owner or be part of a corporation. Of course the government would never allow this - family groups being able to take advantage of the tax breaks available to corporations could cause whole countries to go bankrupt.

[Kitz E Kat]

Well according to Frederick Engles in his book "The orign of the Family" the woman was the head of the household, she as the bearer of children was more powerfull in society and had , normally , several "husbands" this is a pretty obvious thing to do as it made sure that there was a stronger lightly hood of having healthy children.

Ain't nothing new :-)

[SyntaxHeir]

Well it's been a while since I took any sociology courses but if I remember correctly, amatriarchal society is the stuff of Sci-Fi and cheesy B movies.

[TreeFrog]

How do, for example, monkeys do it?
Are we different to monkeys?
Do we want to make use of any of those differences if there are any?

What is it to be Human?
if there are differences are there any advantages to being different to monkeys?
Is the realization of our aspirations something worth working towards. (Is that not the point of being more than just another animal species)

What do you want to do?

Just do it.


I'm not saying Yay or Nay to the idea.
We as humans seem able to construct/mold almost any social structure we want. Once set up it becomes natural.
Mothers have gladly let babys get sacrificed to gods. People have eaten other people. Some people have been castrated and some have castrated themselves.
We seem to be able to do anything to each other and ourselves.

The transition might be a bit awkward. but after a few generations it would be a norm.

I guess there would be less infidelity. Less STDs.

It might lead to stronger children and more genetic diversity. A household would be like a little village.

I’m not sure if there would be many people mature enough to handle it the way it at least could work. A pecking order or hierarchy of some sort would inevitably emerge either through some social structure or naturally through dominant characteristics.

Sounds like monkey business to me.

Lots of monk eying around .. lol