Editing Polygamy (section)

===Polyandry===
[[File:Polyandry (bold, color).svg|frameless|right]]

====Incidence====
{{Main|Polyandry}}
Polyandry, the practice of a woman having more than one husband at one time, is much less prevalent than polygyny. It is specifically provided in the legal codes of some countries, such as [[Gabon]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Gender Equality and Social Institutions in Gabon | url=http://genderindex.org/country/gabon | publisher=Social Institutions & Gender Index, genderindex.org | date=2007 | access-date=2009-04-27 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619172233/http://genderindex.org/country/gabon | archive-date=2010-06-19 }}</ref>

Polyandry is believed to be more common in societies with scarce environmental resources, as it is believed to limit human population growth and enhance child survival.<ref name=Stone2006>{{cite book |first=Linda |last=Stone |title=Kinship and Gender |year=2006 |publisher=Westview |isbn=9780813348629 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XjRWDgAAQBAJ }}</ref> It is a rare form of marriage that exists not only among poor families, but also the elite.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://case.edu/affil/tibet/booksAndPapers/pahari.html |jstor=3773200 |title=Pahari and Tibetan Polyandry Revisited |last1=Goldstein |first1=Melvyn C. |journal=Ethnology |year=1978 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=325–337 |doi=10.2307/3773200 |access-date=26 August 2021 |archive-date=26 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210826162501/https://case.edu/affil/tibet/booksAndPapers/pahari.html |url-status=live }}</ref> For example, in the Himalayan Mountains polyandry is related to the scarcity of land; the marriage of all brothers in a family to the same wife allows family land to remain intact and undivided.<ref name="Starkweather2012" /> If every brother married separately and had children, family land would be split into unsustainable small plots. In Europe, this outcome was avoided through the social practice of [[Historical inheritance systems|impartible inheritance]], under which most siblings would be disinherited.<ref>{{cite book |last=Levine |first=Nancy |title=The Dynamics of polyandry: kinship, domesticity, and population on the Tibetan border |year=1998 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago}}</ref>

====Types====
''Fraternal polyandry'' was traditionally practiced among [[nomad]]ic [[Tibetan people|Tibetans]] in [[Nepal]], parts of [[China]] and part of northern India, in which two or more brothers would marry the same woman. It is most common in societies marked by high male mortality. It is associated with ''[[partible paternity]]'', the  cultural belief that a child can have more than one father.<ref name="Starkweather2012" />

''Non-fraternal polyandry'' occurs when the wives' husbands are unrelated, as among the [[Velakkathala Nair|Nayar tribe of India]], where girls undergo a ritual marriage before puberty,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Levine |first1=Nancy E. |last2=Silk |first2=Joan B. |date=1997 |title=Why Polyandry Fails: Sources of Instability in Polyandrous Marriages |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/204624 |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=375–398 |doi=10.1086/204624 |jstor=10.1086/204624 |s2cid=17048791 |issn=0011-3204 |access-date=7 December 2023 |archive-date=30 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230530062802/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/204624 |url-status=live }}</ref> and the first husband is acknowledged as the father of all her children. However, the woman may never cohabit with that man, taking multiple lovers instead; these men must acknowledge the paternity of their children (and hence demonstrate that no [[Caste system in India|caste]] prohibitions have been breached) by paying the [[midwife]]. The women remain in their maternal home, living with their brothers, and property is passed [[matrilineally]].<ref name="Gough">{{Cite journal |last=Gough |first=E. Kathleen |title=The Nayars and the Definition of Marriage |journal=Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |year=1959 |volume=89|issue=1 |pages=23–34|doi=10.2307/2844434|jstor=2844434 }}</ref> A similar form of matrilineal, de facto polyandry can be found in the institution of [[walking marriage]] among the [[Mosuo women|Mosuo]] tribe of China.