Co-Wife Conflict and Co-operation

Abstract

Conventional wisdom holds that the polygynous family system is as sexually and emotionally satisfying as a monogamous one. Ethnographic accounts of 69 polyg>nous systems, however, provide compelling evidence that the majority of co-wives in a polygynous family prefer pragmatic co-operation with one another while maintaining a respectful distance. Moreover, there often is a deep-seated feeling of angst that arises over competing for access to their mutual husband. Co-wife conflict in the early years of marriage is pervasive, and often marked hy outbursts of verbal or physical violence. Co-wife conflict may he mitigated hy social institutions, sucb as sororal polygyny and some form of "social security" or healtb care. Material wealth may he divided more or less equally, hut as a husband's sexual attention {a primary source for increased fertility) and affection cannot always be equitably distributed, there is ongoing and contentious rivalry among co-wives. (Co-wife conflict, jealousy, co-operation, pair bond)Cultural anthropologists generally assume that humans are highly adaptable to a wide range of life circumstances. Less accepted is the qualification that "cultural models can have significant psychic costs for individuals" (Shore 1996:49). The assumption of enormous adaptability has also been challenged by many anthropologists (see Brown 1990 for overview) concerned with the topics of reproduction and family intimacy. For example, some (Ekvall 1968;Levine and Silk 1997) find that the fraternal polyandrous marriage system is unstable largely due to sexual and emotional factors, rather than economic considerations. Research on co-wife relationships in polygynous families find them to be emotionally unsatisfactory forthe majority of participants (Al-Krenawi 1999;Al-Krenawi and Graham 1999;Chisholm and Burbank 1991;Hill and Hurtado 1996; Jankowiak 200 l;Meekers and Franklin 1995;Strassman 1997;Ware 1980), However, other researchers (Borgerhoff-Mulder 1992Kilbride 1994;Madhavan 2002;Mason 1982) report that under certain circumstances, women living in a polygynous family system enjoy material and emotional satisfaction.This article examines the effect of structural and psychological factors on co-wife confiict and co-operation. Specifically, it seeks to determine whether a pair-bond impulse is present in every culture, and if so, whether it undermines co-wife co-operation. Unlike previous studies of co-wife conflict and co-operation that focus only on one culture or a single geographical region, we have expanded the scope to include co-wife interactions in cultures from all over the world. We also identify the material, social, and emotional factors that can undermine or strengthen co-wife bonds. Examining how individuals respond to the polygynous family allows for a more thorough exploration of the polygynous family's divisiveness. To this end, we use the reasons for co-wife conflict as a means to identify anxieties within the polygynous family.

A Survey of Non-Classical Polyandry

“…What we draw from our study and that of Jankowiak et al (2005) is that both men and women find it difficult to share a spouse and that the apparent greater stability of polygynous unions is not that men are less satisfied in polyandrous unions and women more satisfied in polygynous unions, but rather that men have the power to abandon unions that do not meet their marital and reproductive needs whereas women typically lack such power (Smuts 1992). It is also clear that when certain ecological conditions are met, men can tame their sexual jealousy and cooperate as co-husbands.…”

“…Jankowiak et al (2005) challenge the common perception that women in polygynous unions are just as content as women in monogamous unions. After combing through the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (Murdock and White 1969) they were able to assemble 69 case studies with information about co-wife conflict and cooperation.…”

“…Reciprocally, one might ask whether cowives in a polygynous union are engaged in cooperative breeding. The comparative work of Jankowiak et al (2005) suggests that more often than not the answer is no, but this issue requires further investigation to understand what conditions or forms (e.g., sororal polygyny) lead to co-wife cooperative breeding.…”

Polygynous marriage and child health in sub-Saharan Africa: What is the evidence for harm?

“…Joffe (2016) points out that in several African languages the word co-wife is synonymous with jealousy: "in Luo, nyieka, means 'my partner in jealousy'; in Hausa, kishiya means simply 'jealousy'; in Setswana, the word for polygamy is lefufa, which means jealousy while the word for co-wife is mogadikane, derived from the verb meaning 'to rival, annoy or cause a pain in the stomach'" (Joffe 2016: 342). Ethnographic evidence is consistent with sharing a husband causing emotional distress in many contexts, although the situation is clearly culturally variable (Jankowiak, Sudakov, and Wilereker 2005;Meekers and Franklin 1995). It is also possible that cowife competition leads to relative inefficiency in resource production and consumption compared to hypothetically more harmonious monogamous unions, in turn reducing child health (discussed in Arthi and Fenske 2018).…”

“…The idea of co-wife cooperation has been used to argue in defense of polygyny (Madhavan 2002). A general and somewhat supported expectation is that shared interests driven by close relatedness and residential proximity leads to greater co-wife cooperation in cases of sororal polygyny (Jankowiak, Sudakov, and Wilereker 2005). However, in cases of nonsororal polygyny, which is much more common across Africa, available ethnographic evidence indicates that co-wife relationships are more often a source of emotional stress (Jankowiak, Sudakov, and Wilereker 2005).…”