Have you ever wondered why LGBTQ+ is without a P for polygamy? Are there old taboos that even the LGBTQ community would not touch? 😊
What is wrong with polygamy/polyamory if anything? Should the choice of partnership not be a right or freedom as well?
This research seems largely focused on a few countries in Africa. This by itself may introduce some issues casting doubts like that other factors (e.g. cultural) might be involved etc..
"... men in high-polygyny populations usually marry more than men in low-polygyny ones ..." Of course, any man would be a fool not to marry quickly before less single women are available! A matter of competition?
"... In the vast majority of cases, polygamy takes the form of one husband and multiple wives – more precisely referred to as polygyny, originating from the Greek words “poly” (“many”) and “gynē” (“woman or wife”). The opposite arrangement of one wife and multiple husbands is referred to as polyandry (from “anēr” meaning “man” or “husband”) and is exceedingly rare worldwide. ...
Critics of polygyny present two main arguments. First, they contend it squeezes low-status men out of the marriage market, fostering social unrest, crime and violence against women by frustrated unwed men. Second, it harms women and children by dividing limited resources among more dependents.
This logic has led leading political scientist Rose McDermott to describe polygyny as evil. Other researchers, such as anthropologist Joseph Henrich, even go as far as to credit Christianity’s derision of polygyny as a driving force of Western prosperity. ...
However, a trio of new studies, all relying on the highest standards of data analysis, contend that these arguments are misguided. ...
A new study published in October 2025 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences presents the first comprehensive, large-scale analysis of polygyny and men’s marriage prospects. The project is a collaboration between demographer Hampton Gaddy and evolutionary anthropologists Rebecca Sear and Laura Fortunato.
The researchers drew on demographic modeling and an extraordinary trove of census data – over 84 million records from 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Oceania, plus the entire U.S. census from 1880, when polygyny was practiced in some American communities. They demonstrate that polygyny does not lock large numbers of men out of marriage. In fact, in many contexts, men are actually more likely to marry where polygyny is common than where it is rare. ...
Women typically live longer than men, men frequently marry younger women, and populations in many parts of the world are growing, ensuring younger spouses are available for older cohorts. These factors, which are characteristic of many contemporary African nations, tilt the marriage market toward a surplus of women. Under many realistic conditions, a sizable proportion of men can have multiple wives without leaving their peers out in the cold. ...
a study that uses a detailed, longitudinal dataset from a 20-year prospective study in another region of Tanzania. Analyzing survival, growth and education for thousands of children, they found no evidence that monogamous marriage is advantageous. ...
Another recent study ... goes further, suggesting that polygyny has unrecognized advantages when times are tough.
Drawing on crop yield data from over 4,000 farm households across Mali, census data on marriage patterns and detailed meteorological records, they found that in villages where polygyny is rare, droughts cut harvests dramatically. But in villages where polygyny is common, that blow is softened. ..."
High rates of polygyny do not lock large proportions of men out of the marriage market (open access)
Little evidence that nonmonogamous family structures are detrimental to children’s well-being in Mpimbwe, Tanzania (open access)
Figure 2.Distribution of Polygyny and Drought in Africa (Source)
