Editing Polygamy (section)

====Incidence====
{{main|Legal status of polygamy}}
[[File:Prince Manga Bell and favorite wives.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|alt=Postcard photo of Prince Manga Bell seated for portrait with four women nearby, possibly late-19th century style|Prince [[Manga Ndumbe Bell]] and favorite wives]]

Polygyny, the practice wherein a man has more than one wife at the same time, is by far the most common form of polygamy. Many{{quantify|date=February 2019}}{{which|date=March 2022}} [[Muslim-majority countries]] and some countries with sizable Muslim minorities [[Polygyny in Islam|accept polygyny]] to varying extents both legally and culturally. In several countries, such as [[Polygyny in India|India]], the law only recognizes polygamous marriages for the Muslim population. [[Sharia|Islamic law]] or ''sharia'' is a [[religious law]] forming part of the [[Islam]]ic tradition which allows polygyny.<ref name=oxforddic>{{cite web |title=British & World English: sharia |url=https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/sharia |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=4 December 2015 |location=Oxford |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208120345/https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/sharia |archive-date=8 December 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/topics/religion/islam|title=Islam|website=HISTORY|date=20 August 2019|language=en|access-date=2020-01-24|archive-date=3 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200503051151/https://www.history.com/topics/religion/islam|url-status=live}}</ref> It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the [[Quran]] and the [[hadith]]. In [[Arabic language|Arabic]], the term ''sharīʿah'' refers to [[God in Islam|God]]'s ([[Arabic]]: الله [[Allāh]]) immutable [[divine law]] and is contrasted with ''[[fiqh]]'', which refers to its human scholarly interpretations.<ref name=ODI>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Islamic Law |editor=John L. Esposito |encyclopedia=The Oxford Dictionary of Islam |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |year=2014 |url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/print/opr/t125/e1107 |access-date=29 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331154513/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/print/opr/t125/e1107 |archive-date=31 March 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Knut S. |last=Vikør |title=Sharīʿah |encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics |publisher=Oxford University Press |editor=Emad El-Din Shahin |year=2014 |url=http://bridgingcultures.neh.gov/muslimjourneys/items/show/226 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140604214623/http://bridgingcultures.neh.gov/muslimjourneys/items/show/226 |archive-date=4 June 2014 |url-status=dead |accessdate=9 February 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Norman |last=Calder |title=Law. Legal Thought and Jurisprudence |encyclopedia=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World |editor=John L. Esposito |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |year=2009 |url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0473 |access-date=9 February 2023 |archive-date=31 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731040109/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0473 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Polygyny is more widespread in [[Africa]] than on any other continent,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-IOAAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Northwestern University Press |location=Evanston |page=17 |isbn=9780810102705 |title=Many Wives, Many Powers: Authority and Power in Polygynous Families |year=1970 |access-date=23 March 2023 |archive-date=4 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404115521/https://books.google.com/books?id=-IOAAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=African polygamy: Past and present|url=https://voxeu.org/article/african-polygamy-past-and-present|last=Fenske|first=James|date=2013-11-09|website=VoxEU.org|access-date=2020-05-28|archive-date=18 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190918162059/https://voxeu.org/article/african-polygamy-past-and-present|url-status=live}}</ref> especially in [[West Africa]], and some scholars see the [[Slave Trade|slave trade]]'s impact on the male-to-female sex ratio as a key factor in the emergence and fortification of polygynous practices in regions of Africa.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Henrich|first1=Joseph|last2=Boyd|first2=Robert|last3=Richerson|first3=Peter J.|date=2012-03-05|title=The puzzle of monogamous marriage|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|language=en|volume=367|issue=1589|pages=657–669|doi=10.1098/rstb.2011.0290|issn=0962-8436|pmc=3260845|pmid=22271782}}</ref> In the region of [[sub-Saharan Africa]], polygyny is common and deeply rooted in the culture, with 11% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa living in such marriages (25% of the Muslim population and 3% of the Christian population, as of 2019).<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/12/07/polygamy-is-rare-around-the-world-and-mostly-confined-to-a-few-regions/|title=Polygamy is rare around the world and mostly confined to a few regions|first=Stephanie|last=Kramer|date=7 December 2020 |access-date=6 September 2021|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407072545/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/12/07/polygamy-is-rare-around-the-world-and-mostly-confined-to-a-few-regions/|url-status=live}}</ref> According to Pew, polygamy is widespread in a cluster of countries in West and Central Africa, including Burkina Faso, (36%), Mali (34%) and Nigeria (28%).<ref name="auto"/>

Anthropologist [[Jack Goody]]'s comparative study of marriage around the world utilizing the [[Human Relations Area Files|Ethnographic Atlas]] demonstrated a historical correlation between the practice of extensive [[Shifting cultivation|shifting horticulture]] and polygamy in the majority of sub-Saharan African societies.<ref name="Goody" /> Drawing on the work of [[Ester Boserup]], Goody notes that the sexual division of labour varies between the male-dominated intensive [[Plough agriculture|plough-agriculture]] common in Eurasia and the extensive shifting horticulture found in sub-Saharan Africa. In some of the sparsely-populated regions where shifting cultivation takes place in Africa, women do much of the work. This favours polygamous marriages in which men seek to monopolize the production of women "who are valued both as workers and as child bearers". Goody however, observes that the correlation is imperfect and varied, and also discusses more traditionally male-dominated though relatively extensive farming systems such as those traditionally common in much of West Africa, especially in the West African [[savanna]], where more agricultural work is done by men, and where polygyny is desired by men more for the generation of male offspring whose labor is valued.<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511621697.014|doi = 10.1017/CBO9780511621697.014|chapter = Polygyny, Economy and the Role of Women|title = The Character of Kinship|year = 1974|last1 = Goody|first1 = Jack |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages = 175–190|isbn = 9780521202909}}</ref>

Anthropologists Douglas R. White and Michael L. Burton discuss and support Jack Goody's observation regarding African male farming systems in "Causes of Polygyny: Ecology, Economy, Kinship, and Warfare"<ref name="White & Burton 1988">{{cite journal|last1=White|first1=Douglas|last2=Burton|first2=Michael|title=Causes of Polygyny: Ecology, Economy, Kinship, and Warfare|journal=American Anthropologist|volume=90|issue=4|date=December 1988|pages=871–887|doi=10.1525/aa.1988.90.4.02a00060|url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0468q4xq|access-date=12 December 2021|archive-date=3 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903145915/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0468q4xq|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|884}} where these authors note:

{{blockquote|Goody (1973) argues against the female contributions hypothesis. He notes Dorjahn's (1959) comparison of East and West Africa, showing higher female agricultural contributions in East Africa and higher polygyny rates in West Africa, especially the West African savanna, where one finds especially high male agricultural contributions. Goody says, "The reasons behind polygyny are sexual and reproductive rather than economic and productive" (1973:189), arguing that men marry polygynously to maximize their fertility and to obtain large households containing many young dependent males.<ref name="White & Burton 1988"/>{{rp|873}}}}

[[File:Kwong Sue Duk with his three wives and fourteen children, Cairns, 1904 (9623512597).jpg|thumb|Chinese immigrant with his three wives and fourteen children, [[Cairns]], 1904]] 
An analysis by James Fenske (2012) found that child mortality and ecologically related economic shocks had a significant association with rates of polygamy in sub-Saharan Africa, rather than female agricultural contributions (which are typically relatively small in the West African savanna and sahel, where polygyny rates are higher), finding that polygyny rates decrease significantly with child mortality rates.<ref>{{Cite web  | last = Fenske  | first = James  | title = African polygamy: past and present  | url = https://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/materials/papers/12544/csae-wps-2012-20.pdf  | publisher = Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford  | pages = 1–30  | date = November 2012  | access-date = 27 September 2019  | archive-date = 22 September 2017  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170922005828/https://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/materials/papers/12544/csae-wps-2012-20.pdf  | url-status = dead  }}</ref>