Culture.
Cultures, like animals, compete for environment. Monogamy (which works every time!) is pervasive in culture, and so The Other must be banned and Evil. Thus, it is. You can come up with a bunch of reasons why, but in the end it's subjective, like everything else.
As to why it ended up being more successful culturally, my guess is because it's more socially permissible from a stability perspective. If every man has one wife, there's less conflict. If one man has five wifes and four men have no wives, there's more likely to be societal conflict. The same would be true in a female dominant society, though as evolutionary biologists have frequently pointed out, females bear children and men bear conflict. So from a cultural perspective, it makes sense to "tame" socially aggressive men by giving them more opportunities to bear offspring. For women, it may make sense to actually be with a man if he's relatively extremely wealthy/dominant to other men, even if he has multiple wives.
Mmmm... girls.
Cultures, like animals, compete for environment. Monogamy (which works every time!) is pervasive in culture, and so The Other must be banned and Evil. Thus, it is. You can come up with a bunch of reasons why, but in the end it's subjective, like everything else.
As to why it ended up being more successful culturally, my guess is because it's more socially permissible from a stability perspective. If every man has one wife, there's less conflict. If one man has five wifes and four men have no wives, there's more likely to be societal conflict. The same would be true in a female dominant society, though as evolutionary biologists have frequently pointed out, females bear children and men bear conflict. So from a cultural perspective, it makes sense to "tame" socially aggressive men by giving them more opportunities to bear offspring. For women, it may make sense to actually be with a man if he's relatively extremely wealthy/dominant to other men, even if he has multiple wives.
Mmmm... girls.
I cannot even copy his manner because the manner of his prose was the manner of his thinking and that was a dazzling succession of gaps; and you cannot ape a gap because you are bound to fill it in somehow or other -- and blot it out in the process. -- Nabokov
Polygamy, why is it illegal?
07/10/2010 03:36:18 AM
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When potential welfare issues are removed, it's all just a matter of tradition and false morality.
07/10/2010 05:34:21 AM
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This explains Friday nights at Gilleys.
07/10/2010 01:26:37 PM
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Think of the implications of China's one-child policy in that light
07/10/2010 01:37:11 PM
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have you ever been to Gilley's on a friday night?
07/10/2010 05:12:11 PM
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No. Country music hasn't been produced since the mid-fifties.
08/10/2010 11:17:27 AM
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really? I guess that is when they stopped making real rock and roll as well
08/10/2010 02:33:15 PM
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I would assume due to practicality issues and such.
07/10/2010 07:49:16 AM
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I have a feeling the ACTUAL reasons are closer to moralistic reasons...
07/10/2010 12:30:33 PM
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This.
07/10/2010 05:35:40 PM
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There's a name I've not seen in a while.
08/10/2010 11:22:01 AM
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I don't think single wife mutiple husband can work
07/10/2010 05:55:33 PM
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Oh, it can
07/10/2010 06:51:59 PM
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Didn't you see Paint Your Wagon?
07/10/2010 07:21:54 PM
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Paint Your Wagon was about the California gold rush
07/10/2010 08:24:24 PM
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Lol.
07/10/2010 08:27:14 PM
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and that is the best back handed compliment I have had since the last time I saw my ex-wife
08/10/2010 04:24:40 PM
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Because we need someone for the far right to demonize now that gays are becoming mainstream.
07/10/2010 01:22:24 PM
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I only see a problem when it is run by a cult and girls are married off at 14
07/10/2010 05:18:13 PM
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For the same reasons Americans don't eat horse meat.
08/10/2010 02:58:24 AM
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I'm an American and I eat horse meat. *NM*
08/10/2010 05:19:51 AM
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Re: I'm an American
08/10/2010 01:02:23 PM
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At this rate, we'll soon be asking why kids can't have sex with adults. *NM*
08/10/2010 02:23:16 PM
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What the heck does that have to do with polygamy?
08/10/2010 02:57:37 PM
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Re: What the heck does that have to do with polygamy?
13/10/2010 04:22:24 PM
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You are also a Muslim, correct? Islam doesn't seem to have a problem with up to 4 wives. (at a time)
13/10/2010 04:12:44 PM
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