A Survey of Non-Classical Polyandry

Starkweather, Katherine; Hames, Raymond

doi:10.1007/s12110-012-9144-x

Cited by 93 publications

(65 citation statements)

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“…Marriages, especially first marriages, are often arranged by older family members, although the married partners may have influence on whether those arrangements proceed (Apostolou, 2007). While polyandrous mating systems tend to be rare in mammals generally, including humans, it is occasionally observed among huntergatherers, and typically when there is a shortage of men (Starkweather and Hames, 2012). Affairs also occur, with love triangles (e.g., men competing over a woman) a regular context of competition among foraging societies such as the !Kung and Hadza (Gat, 2006).…”

Section: Hunter-gatherer Sexualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution and human sexuality

Gray

2013

American J Phys Anthropol

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The aim of this review is to put core features of human sexuality in an evolutionary light. Toward that end, I address five topics concerning the evolution of human sexuality. First, I address theoretical foundations, including recent critiques and developments. While much traces back to Darwin and his view of sexual selection, more recent work helps refine the theoretical bases to sex differences and life history allocations to mating effort. Second, I consider central models attempting to specify the phylogenetic details regarding how hominin sexuality might have changed, with most of those models honing in on transitions from a possible chimpanzee-like ancestor to the slightly polygynous and long-term bonded sociosexual partnerships observed among most recently studied hunter-gatherers. Third, I address recent genetic and physiological data contributing to a refined understanding of human sexuality. As examples, the availability of rapidly increasing genomic information aids comparative approaches to discern signals of selection in sexuality-related phenotypes, and neuroendocrine studies of human responses to sexual stimuli provide insight into homologous and derived mechanisms. Fourth, I consider some of the most recent, large, and rigorous studies of human sexuality. These provide insights into sexual behavior across other national samples and on the Internet. Fifth, I discuss the relevance of a life course perspective to understanding the evolution of human sexuality. Most research on the evolution of human sexuality focuses on young adults. Yet humans are sexual beings from gestation to death, albeit in different ways across the life course, and in ways that can be theoretically couched within life history theory. Am J Phys Anthropol 57:94-118, 2013. V C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.The aim of this review is to put core features of human sexuality in an integrative, evolutionary light. Given the central importance of sexuality to the evolutionary imperative-reproductive success-there is strong theoretical impetus for understanding how evolution has shaped human sexuality in the past, and for how the influence of past selective forces continue to manifest in the present. For biological anthropologists, interdisciplinary social and biomedical scientists, and even wider audiences, questions about human sexuality can be among the most compelling and meaningful, another reason to try informing answers to fundamental questions of human sexuality with the most scientifically supported and current views. An understanding of human sexuality is central to topics as diverse as predicting the dynamics of a sexually transmitted infection (STI) outbreak to the reasons why people pour so much of their time and resources into mating effort. Human sexuality, as much as any other topical focus within biological anthropology, warrants ongoing evolutionary scrutiny.For several reasons, this is arguably an opportune time for providing a current overview of the evolution of human sexuality. For one, many of the foundati...

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Section: Hunter-gatherer Sexualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution and human sexuality

Gray

2013

American J Phys Anthropol

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“…Shared paternity implies polyandrous mating and thus is puzzling in light of the aforementioned traits of human males. Recent research has demonstrated that polyandrous arrangements are more common cross-culturally than previously thought (Starkweather and Hames 2012). Thus, we must give serious consideration to the once suspect notion that women can benefit from multiple mating and polyandrous relationships (Hrdy 2000) and that human reproductive strategies are more complex than traditionally conceived by sociobiologists.…”

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confidence: 97%

Relatedness, Co-residence, and Shared Fatherhood among Ache Foragers of Paraguay

Ellsworth¹,

Bailey²,

Hill³

et al. 2014

Current Anthropology

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“…The study agrees and uses the term informal polyandry as enunciated by Starkweather and Hames (2012) who argued that, "Non-classical informal polyandry does not involve marriage or co-residence in the same domicile but necessitates that multiple men were or are simultaneously engaged in sexual relationships with the same woman, and that all men in the relationship have socially institutionalized responsibilities to care for the woman and her children". Starkweather and Hames (2012) do not include marriage and co-residence in their definition of informal polyandry, but, the writer"s elucidation and use of the phrase "informal polyandry" does differ with the way Starkweather and Hames (2012) defined and used it in that, this study includes marriage and co-residence in his explanation of informal polyandry, because some women in Zimbabwe were married and were involved in polyandry mainly for the sake of bearing children and, secondly for the sake of sexual satisfaction for their first husbands had erectile dysfunction.…”

Section: Definitions Of Termsmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…Jenni (1974) defined polyandry as the concurrent sexual union/bond between one female and cohusbands. Long established traditional polyandry is distinguished by community -wide recollection of a nuptial coupling as legal and co-habitation of co-husbands and wife (Starkweather and Hames, 2012). Polyandry alludes to one woman simultaneously having more than one husband or male sexual partners both or all of them knowing, accepting and approving of the sexual relationship, while, polygyny is a case in which a man concurrently has more than one wife or female sexual partners and every one of them being aware of and accepting the sexual relationship.…”

Section: Definitions Of Termsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dynamic nature of non- traditional unconventional polyandry: A Zimbabwean perspective

Machoko¹

2017

Int. J. Sociol. Anthropol.

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Uncustomary and unofficial polyandry is very usual in Zimbabwe than is recorded and embraced by the majority of Zimbabweans. This study argues that nontraditional, unceremonious polyandry is frequent and appealing among some Zimbabweans despite the fact that it is condemned and rejected by traditional chiefs, diviners and the Christian churches. The study also contends that polyandry should be publicly practiced just like polygyny for it is not strange, not eerie and should be adopted and unreservedly experienced for it is not interdicted by both African Indigenous Religion (AIR) and SubSahara African constitutions. The research results are that non-classical unorthodox polyandry in Zimbabwe is furtively experienced because polyandrists and their co-husbands are afraid of requital and popular vilification by the community at large, and by traditional chiefs, diviners and Christian churches in particular. There are some social and economic advantages which amass to polyandrists and their children, and also to the 'co-husbands' intentionally, at the same time sexually share a polyandrist. The conclusion is that polyandry should be openly embraced and consummated among Zimbabweans just as polygyny is plainly approved by them, and is openly acknowledged. Polyandry seems more likely to be a plan used by Zimbabwean women to realize their sovereignty and sexual independence.

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A Survey of Non-Classical Polyandry

Cited by 93 publications

References 64 publications

Evolution and human sexuality

Evolution and human sexuality

Relatedness, Co-residence, and Shared Fatherhood among Ache Foragers of Paraguay

The dynamic nature of non- traditional unconventional polyandry: A Zimbabwean perspective

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