Editing Polyandry (section)

==Known cases==

[[Polyandry in Tibet]] was a common practice and continues to a lesser extent today. A survey of 753 Tibetan families by [[Tibet University]] in 1988 found that 13% practiced polyandry.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ma |first1=Rong |title=试论藏族的"一妻多夫"婚姻 |journal=《民族学报》 |date=2000 |issue=6 |url=http://www.mzb.com.cn/res/Home/0904/1/%E8%97%8F%E6%97%8F%E5%A9%9A%E5%A7%BB.pdf |access-date=31 July 2018 |language=zh |archive-date=31 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731153518/http://www.mzb.com.cn/res/Home/0904/1/%E8%97%8F%E6%97%8F%E5%A9%9A%E5%A7%BB.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Polyandry in India]] still exists among minorities, and also in [[Bhutan]], and the northern parts of [[Nepal]]. Polyandry has been practised in several parts of India, such as [[Rajasthan]], [[Ladakh]] and [[Zanskar]], in the [[Jaunsar-Bawar]] region in [[Uttarakhand]], among the [[Toda (tribe)|Toda]] of [[South India]].<ref name="Gielen1993" /><ref name="Palm">{{cite news |title=Polyandry Practice Fascinates Prince |first=Dee |last=Whittington |newspaper=[[The Palm Beach Post]] |page=50 |date=December 12, 1976 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=blc0AAAAIBAJ&pg=2638,6668094&dq=polyandry+sri+lanka&hl=en |access-date=October 14, 2010}}</ref>

It also occurs or has occurred in [[Nigeria]], the Nymba,<ref name="Palm" />{{Clarify|reason=see Talk:Polyandry#Nymba|date=November 2014}} <!-- 
 making that §reference an actual wikilink 
 {{Clarify|reason=see [[Talk:Polyandry#Nymba]]}}
 screws up the page somethin' awful! 
--> Irigwe<ref>Sangree, W. H. (1980). The persistence of polyandry in lrigwe, Nigeria. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 11(3), 335–343.</ref> and some pre-contact [[Polynesians|Polynesian]] societies,<ref>Goldman I., 1970, ''Ancient Polynesian Society''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press'</ref> though probably only among higher caste women.<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=40332354 |pages=261–270 |last1=Thomas |first1=N. |title=Complementarity and History Misrecognizing Gender in the Pacific |volume=57 |issue=4 |journal=Oceania |year=1987|doi=10.1002/j.1834-4461.1987.tb02221.x }}</ref> It is also encountered in some regions of Yunnan and Sichuan regions of China, among the [[Mosuo people]] in [[China]] (who also practice polygyny as well), and among some sub-Saharan Africans such as the [[Maasai people]] in [[Kenya]] and northern [[Tanzania]]<ref>''The Last of the Maasai''. Mohamed Amin, Duncan Willetts, John Eames. 1987. Pp. 86–87. Camerapix Publishers International. {{ISBN|1-874041-32-6}}</ref> and American indigenous communities. The [[Guanches]], the first known inhabitants of the [[Canary Islands]], practiced polyandry until Spanish colonization.<ref>{{cite journal |date=October 1891 |title=On Polyandry |journal=[[Popular Science]] |publisher=Bonnier Corporation |volume=39 |issue=52 |pages=804 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7CEDAAAAMBAJ&q=polyandry+Guanches&pg=PA801 }}</ref> The [[Zoe (tribe)|Zo'e tribe]] in the state of [[Pará]] on the [[Cuminapanema River]], [[Brazil]], also practice polyandry.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Starkweather |first=Kathrine E. |degree=Master's |title=''Exploration into Human Polyandry: An Evolutionary Examination of the Non-Classical Cases'' |url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=anthrotheses |year=2010 |publisher=[[University of Nebraska–Lincoln]] |access-date=October 14, 2010 |archive-date=June 11, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611172207/http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=anthrotheses |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Africa===
[[File:Polyandry (bold, color).svg|thumb|Polyandry]]
*In the Lake Region of Central Africa, "Polygyny ... was uncommon. Polyandry, on the other hand, was quite common."<ref>Warren R. Dawson (ed.): ''The Frazer Lectures, 1922–1932''. Macmillan & Co, 1932. p. 33.</ref>
* Among the Irigwe of Northern Nigeria, women have traditionally acquired numerous spouses called "co-husbands".
* In August 2013, two [[Kenya]]n men entered into an agreement to marry a woman with whom they had both been having an affair. Kenyan law does not explicitly forbid polyandry, although it is not a common custom.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23840824|title=Kenyan trio in 'wife-sharing' deal|publisher=BBC|date=26 August 2013|access-date=20 June 2018|archive-date=11 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180811224427/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23840824|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Asia===
{{See also|Polyandry in India|Polyandry in Tibet}}
* In the reign of [[Urukagina]] of Lagash, "Dyandry, the marriage of one woman to two men, is abolished."<ref>J. Bottero, E. Cassin & J. Vercoutter (eds.) (translated by R. F. Tannenbaum): ''The Near East: the Early Civilizations''. New York, 1967. p. 82.</ref>
* M. [[Nicolas Notovitch|Notovitck]] mentioned polyandry in [[Ladakh]] or Little 'Tibet' in his record of his journey to Tibet. ("[[The Life of Issa|The Unknown life of Jesus Christ]]" by [[Virchand Gandhi]].)
* Polyandry was widely (and to some extent still is) practised in Lahaul-Spiti situated in isolation in the high Himalayas in India.
* Prior to Islam, in Arabia (southern) "All the kindred have their property in common ...; all have one wife" whom they share.<ref>Strabōn : ''Geographia'' 16:4:25, C 783. Translated in Robertson Smith: ''Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia'', p. 158; quoted in [https://books.google.com/books?id=HWAbAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154&dq= Edward Westermarck: ''The History of Human Marriage''. New York: Allerton Books Co., 1922. vol. 3, p. 154.] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018042907/https://books.google.com/books?id=HWAbAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154&dq= |date=2015-10-18 }}</ref>
* The Hoa-tun ([[Hephthalite]]s, White Huns) "living to the north of the Great Wall ... practiced polyandry."<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090529002250/http://www.taiwandna.com/ChineseXinjiangPage.html Xinjiang]}}</ref> Among the Hephthalites, "the practice of several husbands to one wife, or polyandry, was always the rule, which is agreed on by all commentators. That this was plain was evidenced by the custom among the women of wearing a hat containing a number of horns, one for each of the subsequent husbands, all of whom were also brothers to the husband. Indeed, if a husband had no natural brothers, he would adopt another man to be his brother so that he would be allowed to marry."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rick-heli.info/silkroad/eph.html |title=The Hephthalites of Central Asia |website=Rick-heli.info |access-date=6 April 2018 |archive-date=10 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130310060957/http://www.rick-heli.info/silkroad/eph.html |url-status=usurped}}</ref>
* "Polyandry is very widespread among the [[Sherpa people|Sherpas]]."<ref>René von Nebesky-Wojkowitz (translated by Michael Bullock) :one research done by one organization about Fraternal Polyandry in Nepal and its detail data find [http://volunteercharitywork.org/polyandry_research.php here] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110803141335/http://volunteercharitywork.org/polyandry_research.php |date=2011-08-03 }} ''Where the Gods are Mountains''. New York: Reynal & Co. p. 152.</ref>
* In Bhutan in 1914, polyandry was "the prevailing domestic custom".<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/cu31924023234531/cu31924023234531_djvu.txt L. W. Shakespear: ''History of Upper Assam, Upper Burmah and North-eastern Frontier''. London: Macmillan & Co., 1914.] p. 92.</ref> Nowadays polyandry is rare, but still found for instance among the Brokpas of the Merak-Sakten region.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kuenselonline.com/feature-all-in-the-family/ |title=Feature: All in the Family |access-date=2014-12-08 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150511100949/http://www.kuenselonline.com/feature-all-in-the-family/ |archive-date=2015-05-11 |publisher=Kuensel |date=27 August 2007 }}</ref>
* In several villages in [[Nyarixung]] Township, [[Xigaze Prefecture|Xigaze]], Tibet, up to 90% of families practiced polyandry in 2008.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Suozhen |title=西藏一妻多夫婚姻研究 |date=2009 |publisher=China University of Political Science and Law |url=http://xuewen.cnki.net/ArticleCatalog.aspx?filename=2009087442.nh&dbtype=CMFD&dbname=CMFD2009 |access-date=31 July 2018 |language=zh |archive-date=31 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731153758/http://xuewen.cnki.net/ArticleCatalog.aspx?filename=2009087442.nh&dbtype=CMFD&dbname=CMFD2009 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* Among the [[Nivkh people|Gilyak]]s of Sakhalin Island "polyandry is also practiced."<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/russiannihilisme00buelrich/russiannihilisme00buelrich_djvu.txt ''Russian Nihilism and Exile Life in Siberia''. San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Co., 1883.] p. 365.</ref>
* Fraternal polyandry was permitted in Sri Lanka under Kandyan Marriage law, often described using the euphemism ''eka-ge-kama'' (literally "eating in one house").<ref>{{cite web |last=Hussein |first=Asiff |title=Traditional Sinhalese Marriage Laws and Customs |url=http://www.lankalibrary.com/rit/marry.htm |access-date=28 April 2012 |archive-date=21 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120521061007/http://www.lankalibrary.com/rit/marry.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>{{disputed inline|date=September 2019|talk=Sri Lanka}} Associated Polyandry, or polyandry that begins as monogamy, with the second husband entering the relationship later, is also practiced<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lavenda |first1=Robert H. |last2=Schultz |first2=Emily A |title=Additional Varieties Polyandry |url=http://www.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195189766/student_resources/Supp_chap_mats/Chap13/Additional_Varieties_Polyandry/?view=usa |work=Anthropology: What Does It Mean To Be Human? |access-date=28 April 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081005175758/http://www.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195189766/student_resources/Supp_chap_mats/Chap13/Additional_Varieties_Polyandry/?view=usa |archive-date=5 October 2008 }}</ref> and is sometimes initiated by the wife.<ref>{{cite web |last=Levine |first=NE |title=Conclusion |url=https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fileDownloadForInstitutionalItem.action?itemId=6274&itemFileId=10010 |work=Asian and African Systems of Polyandry |access-date=28 April 2012 |archive-date=16 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190216001112/https://urresearch.rochester.edu/fileDownloadForInstitutionalItem.action?itemId=6274&itemFileId=10010 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* Polyandry was common in Sri Lanka, until it was banned by the British in 1859.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kok |first1=Jan |last2=Bulten |first2=Luc |last3=Leede |first3=Bente M. de |title=Persecuted or permitted? Fraternal Polyandry in a Calvinist colony, Sri Lanka (Ceylon), seventeenth and eighteenth centuries |journal=Continuity and Change |year=2021 |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=347–348 |doi=10.1017/S0268416021000308 |s2cid=246905403 |doi-access=free |hdl=2066/247308 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

===Europe===
[[File:Sepulchral inscription of Allia Potestas (1st–4th century CE) - 200505.jpg|thumb|Sepulchral inscription for Allia Potestas, ''Museo Epigrafico'', ''Terme di Diocleziano'', Rome]]
*Reporting on the mating patterns in ancient [[Greece]], specifically [[Sparta]], [[Plutarch]] writes: "Thus if an older man with a young wife should take a liking to one of the well-bred young men and approve of him, he might well introduce him to her so as to fill her with noble sperm and then adopt the child as his own. Conversely a respectable man who admired someone else’s wife noted for her lovely children and her good sense, might gain the husband’s permission to sleep with her thereby planting in fruitful soil, so to speak, and producing fine children who would be linked to fine ancestors by blood and family."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://vico.wikispaces.com/Sparta63|title=Sparta63|website=Vico.wikispaces.com|access-date=6 April 2018|archive-date=28 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180728011840/https://vico.wikispaces.com/Sparta63|url-status=live}}</ref>
*"According to Julius Caesar, it was customary among the ancient Britons for brothers, and sometimes for fathers and sons, to have their wives in common."<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/1/9/3/11934/11934.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100625021451/http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/1/9/3/11934/11934.htm |url-status=dead |first=Henry Theophilus |last=Finck |title=Primitive Love and Love-Stories |date=1899 |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |archivedate=June 25, 2010}}</ref>
*"Polyandry prevailed among the Lacedaemonians according to Polybius."<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/cu31924021847060/cu31924021847060_djvu.txt John Ferguson McLennon : ''Studies in Ancient History''. Macmillan & Co., 1886.] p. xxv</ref> (Polybius vii.7.732, following Timæus)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2078&chapter=157846&layout=html&Itemid=27 |title=Henry Sumner Maine : ''Dissertations on Early Law and Custom''. London: John Murray, 1883. Chapter IV, Note B. |access-date=2009-12-11 |archive-date=2011-02-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110211125743/http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=2078&chapter=157846&layout=html&Itemid=27 |url-status=live }}</ref>
*"The matrons of Rome flocked in great crowds to the Senate, begging with tears and entreaties that one woman should be married to two men."<ref>Macrobius (translated by Percival V. Davies): ''The Saturnalia''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969, p. 53 (1:6:22)</ref>
*The gravestone of [[Allia Potestas]], a woman from [[Perusia]], describes how she lived peacefully with two lovers, one of whom immortalized her in his famous epigraphic eulogy, dating (probably) from the second century.<ref name="horsfall85">Horsfall, N:''CIL VI 37965 = CLE 1988 (Epitaph of Allia Potestas): A Commentary'', ZPE 61: 1985</ref>

===North America===
* [[Aleut people]] in the 19th century.<ref>Katherine E. Starkweather & Raymond
Hames.  "[http://www.unl.edu/rhames/Starkweather-Hames-Polyandry-published.pdf A Survey of Non-Classical Polyandry] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130228165115/http://www.unl.edu/rhames/Starkweather-Hames-Polyandry-published.pdf |date=2013-02-28 }}".  Human Nature An Interdisciplinary Biosocial Perspective ISSN 1045-6767 Volume 23 Number 2 Hum Nat (2012) 23:149–172 DOI 10.1007/s12110-012-9144-x 12 Jun 2012.</ref>
* [[Inuit]]<ref>Starkweather, Katherine E. and Raymond Hames. [https://www.academia.edu/1785593/A_Survey_of_Non-Classical_Polyandry "A Survey of Non-Classical Polyandry."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161106101913/http://www.academia.edu/1785593/A_Survey_of_Non-Classical_Polyandry |date=2016-11-06 }} 12 June 2012. Retrieved 28 Dec 2013.</ref>

===Oceania===
* Among the [[Kanak people|Kanak]] of [[New Caledonia]], "every woman is the property of several husbands. It is this collection of husbands, having one wife in common, that...live together in a hut, with their common wife."<ref>Dr. Jacobs: ''Untrodden Fields of Anthropology''. New York: Falstaff Press, 1937. vol. 2, p. 219.</ref>
* [[Marquesan]]s had "a society in which households were polyandrous".<ref>Roslyn Poignant: ''Oceanic Mythology''. Paul Hamlyn, London, 1967, p. 69.</ref>
* [[Friedrich Ratzel]] in ''The History of Mankind''<ref>{{cite web |first=Ratzel |last=Friedrich |publisher=MacMillan |date=1896 |url=http://www.inquirewithin.biz/history/american_pacific/oceania/courtship-weddings.htm |title=The History of Mankind |access-date=2010-04-10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120727043227/http://www.inquirewithin.biz/history/american_pacific/oceania/courtship-weddings.htm |archive-date=2012-07-27 }}</ref> reported in 1896 that in the [[New Hebrides]] there was a kind of convention in cases of widowhood, that two widowers shall live with one widow.

===South America===
*"The [[Bororo]]s ... among them...there are also cases of polyandry."<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/cu31924029884099/cu31924029884099_djvu.txt ''Races of Man : an Outline of Anthropology''. London: Walter Scott Press, 1901.] p. 566.</ref>
*"The Tupi-Kawahib also practice fraternal polyandry."<ref>C. Lévi-Strauss (translated by John Russell): ''Tristes Tropiques''. New York: Criterion Books, 1961, p. 352.</ref>
*"...up to 70 percent of Amazonian cultures may have believed in the principle of multiple paternity"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101110161930.htm|title=Multiple fathers prevalent in Amazonian cultures, study finds|website=Sciencedaily.com|access-date=6 April 2018|archive-date=9 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809212333/https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101110161930.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>
*[[Mapuche polygamy|Mapuche polyandry]] is rare but not unheard of.<ref name=Milla2018>{{Cite thesis|title=Poligamia mapuche / Pu domo ñi Duam (un asunto de mujeres): Politización y despolitización de una práctica en relación a la posición de las mujeres al interior de la sociedad mapuche|last=Millaleo Hernández|first=Ana Gabriel|degree=PhD|year=2018|publisher=[[University of Chile]]|url=http://repositorio.conicyt.cl/bitstream/handle/10533/220808/TesisDocAnaMillaleoCONICYT.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|place=Santiago de Chile|language=Spanish|access-date=2021-01-30|archive-date=2019-07-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190711025315/http://repositorio.conicyt.cl/bitstream/handle/10533/220808/TesisDocAnaMillaleoCONICYT.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y|url-status=live}}</ref> The men are often brothers.<ref name=Milla2018/>