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Pious Perverts
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Title: Polygamy’s Many Wives Don’t Capture ‘Market Value’
Source: American Renaissance
URL Source: [None]
Published: Dec 15, 2010
Author: Daphne Bramham
Post Date: 2010-12-15 11:15:49 by Turtle
Keywords: None
Views: 240
Comments: 4

Economist Shoshana Grossbard admits she was naive when she did her doctoral thesis on polygamy more than 30 years ago at the University of Chicago.

Then, she believed that a simple supply-and-demand analysis would explain the economics of polygamous societies.

Besides, she says, “I thought it was cool to say that polygamy might be advantageous to women and repeat what Gary Becker (her thesis adviser and Nobel laureate) has said.”

Now, having written several books on the economics of marriage, Grossbard says, “I know better.”

If the most basic economic rule is applied, she says women in polygamous societies would have power and value because virtually all polygamous societies are polygynous—meaning that it’s men who have multiple spouses.

Women of marriage age are a rare and highly desirable commodity and should have “increased market value” in economics speak. In practice, they should have their pick of marriage partners.

But they don’t.

Over her years of study, Grossbard has found that far from women having increased value, invariably the male leaders in polygamous societies have institutionalized women into subservience.

It takes a number of guises, says the San Diego State University professor, who testified as an expert witness this week at the constitutional reference case, to determine the validity of Canada’s polygamy law.

Polygamous societies have a higher frequency of arranged marriages. It’s not surprising, says Grossbard. Young women aren’t likely to choose old men for husbands, plus men find young wives easier to control.

Of course, that increases the likelihood of early widowhood and financial hardship.

In societies where a bride price is paid, women don’t “capture their increased market value.” Instead, she says, potential husbands pay the fathers. No money goes to the bride.

Divorce tends to be easier in polygamous societies. The threat of it keeps women in line and it allows men to shed wives who are too old or noncompliant.

Child custody almost always is the right of the father.

Isolating women makes it more difficult for them to escape and makes them even more financially dependent on their husbands.

As beautiful as the harem in Grenada’s Alhambra is, Grossbard says, “The whole institution is typical of polygamous societies.”

There, eunuchs—castrated men—guard the wives.

But isolation doesn’t necessarily mean a harem or purdah, the economist says. It’s as easily done by limiting job opportunities and participation in the labour force, denying women education, locating communities in remote locations such as Bountiful, B.C. or basing the economy on jobs that are best done by men, such as logging, construction or heavy labour.

Other common features of polygamous societies include the playing down of romantic love and inculcating women with the belief that sex is for procreation, not pleasure.

In some African societies, she notes that female circumcision is prominent and used as a tool to curb women’s sex drive and ease the pressure on the husband to satisfy all of his wives.

Grossbard also found established cultural practices aimed at alleviating some of the harms of polygamy.

Islam restricts the number of wives to four to limit competition among men for women and limit competition among wives for their husband’s attention.

Among the Kanuris of Nigeria, where Grossbard’s research has focused, husbands rotate among the wives on a fixed schedule.

In other societies, wives are given separate homes. And in many, men marry sisters, believing they may be better able to get along.

Far from polygamy being beneficial to women, Grossbard has come to realize that polygamy is anathema to women’s economic, social and emotional well-being.

And if Canada were to decriminalize polygamy and become the only developed nation to do so, polygamy will almost inevitably become more prevalent.

Grossbard can’t prove it. But the economist says it only makes sense that wealthy, well-educated polygamists might prefer living in Canada to Nigeria or even South Africa—where the president himself has five wives.

And if there is an influx due to immigration or an increase due to inclination, Grossbard is certain there will be pressure to accept the kinds of cultural practices and institutions she has observed in other polygynous societies.

If that happens, she warns, “Women and men will have less ability to create loving relationships.”


Poster Comment:

Actually I should have 400 wives. I wouldn't kill all the short guys, just castrate and turn them into eunuchs to guard my harem.

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#1. To: cynicom, farmfriend, abraxas (#0)

"If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose between reform and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one or the other is inevitable." - Thomas Jefferson

Turtle  posted on  2010-12-15   11:16:33 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Turtle (#0)

Several good points. In most polygamous societies - including Fundie Mormon - the women have virtually no say in their assignment to husbands (and among the Fundamentalist Mormons and some other religious cults in the English-speaking world, the leadership can re-assign women from their first husband to some other man virtually at whim). In the English-speaking countries, since polygamy is itself illegal, the cult not only ignores that legal prohibition but any other legal impediments such as age of consent and consanguinous marriage, so that, frequently, girls are often "married" very young and sometimes to first cousins or other near relations (a very peculiar genetic defect has been found in the Fundie Mormon communities because of this inbreeding).

But there is another facit: the effect on males. Births, in and out of polygamous communities are pretty much equal male and female, the harem system means that there are not enough marriagable females for all the males. This leads to a great many men being left with no wife at all. Among the cults, the usual "remedy" is the occasional purge of one or several men, frequently on the flimsiest of reasons; in Mormon regions there are scandalous numbers of teenage boys being forced out of the Fundie Mormon compounds into the cities - homeless, destitute and with the bleakest of futures. In antiquity, and in the Third World now, polygamous societies, having a shortage of women for every man often leads to resentments, murder, and the like, and even warfare with a view toward seizing the women of another tribe.

This last may be an eventuality with some present-day non-polygamous societies which have taken to sex-selective abortion to avoid giving birth to girls; such as China and India. The shortage of women in the rising generation may trigger serious social instability or warfare.

Shoonra  posted on  2010-12-15   11:43:57 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: Shoonra (#2)

What you wrote is one of the main reasons "libertarianism" won't work. Under it, what would be wrong with one man with many wives?

A LOT.

"If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose between reform and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one or the other is inevitable." - Thomas Jefferson

Turtle  posted on  2010-12-15   11:46:20 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Turtle (#0)

Actually I should have 400 wives

Turtle, it is evident that none would have you. : )

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of." Edward Bernays, Father of Public Relations

abraxas  posted on  2010-12-15   12:05:14 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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