Polyandry?! Thank God you don't live in Nepal, right?

[Frimost]

I looked the following up after reading this mentioned in passing in an article on the BBC website regarding the war against Maoist terrorists in Nepal.

The people are of Tibetan stock and property is passed along the female line.

Polyandry, women marrying more than one husband, is also widely practised.

Anthropologists say the system keeps the land from being endlessly subdivided among sons

Which prompted me to find this:

Cultural Diversity

The system of having more than one husband at the same time is no more in existence except in a very few uncivilised ones. However, the custom still exists in some parts of Africa and Asia including the Tibetan region, Indian sub-continents and in the Himalayan regions of the Tibeto-Burman speaking Nepali communities. As some few communities still have this custom, Nepal could very well be said a country of cultural diversity being inhabited by diverse ethnic groups. In the mountainous districts of Solukhumbu, Manang, Mustang, Dolpa, Humla and Mugu there are certain localities where people still practice polyandry custom.

Social scientist K.M. Kapadiya has stated that polyandry system is a kind of tradition in which more than one husband have commonly used a female as wife at the same time. Based on nature and characteristics polyandry has two parts: fraternal polyandry and non- polyandry. In fraternal polyandry, the wife comes to live with the fraternal groups of husbands in their house. In non- polyandry she remains in her house and the husbands come to her by turn as causal visitors. The number of husbands depends upon her choice and nature. In the Nepalese Tibeto-Burman communities, parents of three sons usually make middle child as a celibate monk. In this case, the two fraternal brothers share a woman as their wife. Thus, a family with three sons in a Tibeto-Burmese family is a rare case. If a family has more than three brothers, the first and second share one wife while third and others share another one. The wives as well as the children produced by them are common to all brothers. But when it comes to the identification of the children, the tradition prescribes that it is only the eldest brother who is regarded as social father of all children to the polyandry union. The eldest brother is called elder father and the others as younger fathers. Wife decides and identifies which child relates to whom. Generally, elder child is related to elder brother, middle child is related to middle father and remaining in the same way.

Fraternal polyandry is in existance among different sects of Sherpa societies of Solukhumbu, Bargaonle of Mustang, Manang, Bhotais of Mugu, Dolpa and Humla and so on. But the system of practicing polyandrous marriage is different from one place to another. Some sects of Sherpas, Gurungs and Lamas (Bhotais) are main ethnic groups involving in polyandry. Most of the Himalayan societies where polyandry system rules today's world are involved in pastoral farming and agriculture. The tradition among them has it that one husband, stays at home while others usually go to the field for shepherding or trading purpose for one season. In the other season the other husband comes to stay at home with the wife while others go for work. The chance for all the husbands comes on a regular time frame. This tradition helps maintain polyandry system because it provides time for every husband to live with wife and develop relations.

No Figure

Many studies have presented one fact that polyandry enables a set of brothers to cover and utilize all economic bases and resources and pool their earnings to strengthen the economy of the family. Polyandrous Himalayan people have worked on Tibetan antiques, wooden bowls, local carpets, statues etc. It is difficult to state the exact number of polyandrous people and their family size because census 2001 has covered only the information on polygamy and their size. The engagement on polyandry and polygamy is also common in this Himalayan high cast family. Modernization and engagement in different sectors and need of family kinship has influenced the breakdown in the polyandry system. The high difference in age group between brothers and their wife is also another factor to decrease the tendency of polyandry in the modern times.

Who would want to live in that kind of system?

 

[Freya]

Me.

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

Could be cool...different strokes for different folks, there's no such thing as a single 'right' way to do things.

 

[Samuari]

"Forgive him. He thinks that the customs of his tribe are Laws of Nature."

from the Notebooks of Lazuras Long

 

[Johnny Mayberry]

"Forgive him. He thinks that the customs of his tribe are Laws of Nature."

from the Notebooks of Lazuras Long

Excellent...

 

[horny_giraffe]

Hey, that system would be cool with me. Let women take the responsibility. It's the carefree life for me!

 

[Frimost]

"Forgive him. He thinks that the customs of his tribe are Laws of Nature."

from the Notebooks of Lazuras Long

Forgive yourself.
Sometimes when one is amused by a certain type of response one goes fishing for it by the way one states (or asks) something.

 

[p_p_man]

Hey, that system would be cool with me. Let women take the responsibility. It's the carefree life for me!

Who does all the 'wimmins'' work?



ppman

 

[Don K Dyck]

Polyandry Elsewhere Also . . .

Who does all the 'wimmins'' work? ppman

Also found in the West Indies . . . and there is matriarchal societies in Polynesia, but the marriage system seems to be structured on a mature man, young girl or mature woman, young man basis . . . thought to be caused by the loss of many men in the original Ra expedition from Peru and the surviving teenage males being feted by the ladies for favours . . . and to protect the much reduced male population . . . and the "wimmin" do all the work . . . just your cup of tea ppman . . . warm climate, hot women . . . male chauvinist's dream come true . . .