Polyandry

Abstract

Polyandry is the marital practice of one woman taking multiple husbands. Most commonly practiced as fraternal polyandry or as a marriage between a woman and a set of brothers, polyandry creates a solution to kinship problems, especially in societies where an uneven sex ratio has negatively impacted mate selection. While this system has been commonly considered rare, recent research has questioned whether it may be more prevalent than previously assumed. Within the resurgence of the study of polyandry, the term has also been reconceptualized to apply more broadly in terms of behavioral ecology or adaptive patterns. Within this framework, polyandry is argued to hold a degree of importance in terms of the formation of the nature of human sexuality.