Polygamous Marriage Formation

I began fieldwork in Bamako with the mistaken assumption that polygamists and monogamists were intrinsically different, harboring distinct values and attitudes. But monogamy and polygamy are never definitive states. Either can be curtailed by death, divorce, or (in the case of monogamy) remarriage....

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEnduring Polygamy pp. 51 - 64
Main Author Whitehouse, Bruce
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca, NY Rutgers University Press 14.04.2023
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Summary:I began fieldwork in Bamako with the mistaken assumption that polygamists and monogamists were intrinsically different, harboring distinct values and attitudes. But monogamy and polygamy are never definitive states. Either can be curtailed by death, divorce, or (in the case of monogamy) remarriage. Nor is it helpful to think of Bamako’s monogamists and polygamists as distinct populations. Dividing our interview sample into people who happened to be monogamous and others who happened to be polygamous at the time, then comparing those two groups, would be pointless. When we ascribe entry into polygamy using solely individual-level factors, we overlook the marriage
ISBN:9781978831148
1978831145
DOI:10.36019/9781978831162-006