A sacred bond between two people who will go through a great journey. marriage seems to be important in all cultures. Since everyone in the world understands the wonderful sanctities of marriage, why shouldn't people do it as many times as they see fit. Many questions have been raised as to whether plural marriages should be a practice. Some even question the morality of plural marriages. But is there really anything wrong with Polygamy? Perhaps polygyny, a practice where a man has more than one, or even several wives is more practical. Or for a woman to have more than one husband in polyandry for that matter. So maybe it isn't so bad to practice polygamy.
Polygamy is not widely accepted in western culture. It is seen as unethical and immoral in most cases. Especially for a woman to have more than one spouse, as there is a double standard for men and women in western culture. What people don't understand is that culture is completely relative. Most people adhere to whatever culture they grew up with. What you see is obviously what you are going to accept. One person may think another person is immoral for having to wives, and that person may think the other is even immoral for eating beef, or pork, or shellfish. It is all relative to your own culture. One way to prove the cas one way or the other is to look at the entire spectrum. In a conducted study, almost 75% of the worlds societies preferred polygamy (Murdock 1949: 28). There is an obvious majority rule for plural marriages throughout the world. Having more than one spouse can be very practical. Polygyny is most practical in horticulture societies (Nanda & Warms:pg 202). With many spouses working in a horticulture society, it is much more productive. It allows the family to be much more financially stable, in any society. It can create ties and alliances with different tribes or groups if marriages take place between them.
