Editing Polyandry (section)

==Types==

===Successional polyandry ===
Unlike in fraternal polyandry (where a woman will receive a number of husbands simultaneously), in successional polyandry, a woman will acquire one husband after another in sequence.

This form is flexible. These men may or may not be related. And it may or may not incorporate a [[Hierarchical|hierarchical system]], where one husband is considered primary and may be allotted certain rights or privileges not awarded to secondary husbands, such as biologically fathering a child.

In cases where one husband has a primary role, the secondary husbands have the power to succeed the primary if he were to become severely ill or be away from the home for a long period of time or is otherwise rendered incapable of fulfilling his husbandly duties.

Successional polyandry can likewise be [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]],  where all husbands are equal in status and receive the same rights and privileges.  In this system, each husband will have a wedding ceremony and share the paternity of whatever children she may bear.

===Associated polyandry ===
Another form of polyandry is a combination of polyandry and polygyny; whereas women are married to several men simultaneously and the same men may marry other women. It is found in some tribes of Africa such as villages in northern Nigeria and northern Cameroon. Usually, one of the woman's husbands will be chosen to be the husband of a woman from another tribe who would also have many husbands; this double-polyandrous union serves to form a marital alliance between tribes.

''Other Classifications: Equal polygamy, [[Polygynandry]]''

The system results in less land fragmentation, and a diversification of domestic activities.

===Fraternal polyandry===
{{see also|Polyandry in Tibet}}

Fraternal polyandry (from the [[Latin]] ''frater''—brother), also called '''adelphic polyandry''' (from the [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] ''{{Lang|grc|ἀδελφός}}''—brother), is a form of polyandry in which a woman is married to two or more men who are brothers. Fraternal polyandry was (and sometimes still is) found in certain areas of [[Tibet]], [[Nepal]], and Northern India, as well as some central African cultures<ref>{{cite news|last1=Banerjee|first1=Partha S.|title=Wild, Windy and Harsh, yet Stunningly Beautiful|url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020421/spectrum/travel.htm|work=The Sunday Tribune|date=21 April 2002|access-date=19 August 2008|archive-date=4 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804121514/https://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020421/spectrum/travel.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> where polyandry was accepted as a social practice.<ref name="Gielen1993" /><ref name="Levine, Nancy">Levine, Nancy, ''The Dynamics of Polyandry: Kinship, domesticity and population on the Tibetan border'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.{{Page needed|date=August 2011}}</ref> The [[Toda people]] of southern [[India]] practiced fraternal polyandry, but monogamy has become prevalent recently.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Sidner|first1=Sara|title=Brothers Share Wife to Secure Family Land|url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/10/24/polygamy.investigation/index.html|work=CNN|access-date=2008-10-24|archive-date=2020-01-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126210132/http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/10/24/polygamy.investigation/index.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In contemporary Hindu society, polyandrous marriages in [[agrarian societies]] in the [[Malwa (Punjab)|Malwa]] region of [[Punjab, India|Punjab]] seem to occur to avoid division of farming land.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/modern-draupadis-exist-in-mansa-villages/articleshow/7847515.cms|title=Modern Draupadis exist in Mansa villages &#124; India News - Times of India|website=The Times of India|date=2 April 2011 }}</ref>

Fraternal polyandry achieves a similar goal to that of [[primogeniture]] in 19th-century England. Primogeniture dictated that the eldest son inherited the family estate, while younger sons had to leave home and seek their own employment. Primogeniture maintained family estates intact over generations by permitting only one heir per generation. Fraternal polyandry also accomplishes this, but does so by keeping all the brothers together with just one wife so that there is only one set of heirs per generation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Goldstein |first=Melvyn |title=Natural History |year=1987 |publisher=Natural History Magazine |pages=39–48}}</ref> This strategy appears less successful the larger the fraternal sibling group is.<ref>{{cite journal|author2-link=Joan Silk |last2=Silk |first2=Joan B. |last1=Levine |first1=Nancy |title=Why Polyandry Fails: Sources of Instability in Polyandrous marriages |journal=Current Anthropology |year=1997 |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=375–98 |doi=10.1086/204624|s2cid=17048791 }}</ref>

Some forms of polyandry appear to be associated with a perceived need to retain [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocratic]] titles or [[agricultural]] [[Real Property|land]]s within kin groups, and/or because of the frequent absence, for long periods, of a man from the household. In Tibet the practice was particularly popular among the priestly [[Sakya (tribe)|Sakya]] class.

The female equivalent of fraternal polyandry is [[sororate marriage]].

===Partible paternity===
Anthropologist Stephen Beckerman points out that at least 20 tribal societies accept that a child could, and ideally should, have more than one father, referring to it as "[[partible paternity]]".<ref name=beckerman>Beckerman, S., Valentine, P., ''(eds)'' (2002) ''The Theory and Practice of Partible Paternity in South America,'' University Press of Florida</ref> This often results in the shared nurture of a child by multiple fathers in a form of polyandric relation to the mother, although this is not always the case.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Starkweather, Katie|title=A Preliminary Survey of Lesser-Known Polyandrous Societies|date=2009|journal=Nebraska Anthropologist|url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebanthro/50|access-date=2013-08-04|archive-date=2020-10-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001170847/https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nebanthro/50/|url-status=live}}</ref> One of the most well known examples is that of [[Trobriand]] "virgin birth". The matrilineal Trobriand Islanders recognize the importance of sex in reproduction but do not believe the male makes a contribution to the constitution of the child, who therefore remains attached to their mother's lineage alone. The mother's non-resident husbands are not recognized as fathers, although the mother's co-resident brothers are, since they are part of the mother's lineage.