Polyandry In American Marriage

Marriage is the economic and sexual union between two or more people. Many people marry for love, economic reasons, and simply just to start a family. Many cultures throughout the world partake in different types of marriage such as monogamy, polygamy, cousin marriages, arranged marriages, and group marriages. For example, Monogamy is a marriage between two people that usually consists of a man and a woman. It is most commonly seen in societies like the United States. On the other hand, polygamy is the plural form of monogamy and consists of two types of marriage, polyandry or polygyny. Polyandry is marriage between one woman and more than one man, while polygyny is marriage between one man and more than one women. Polyandry is rarely ever seen in today’s cultures, but the Tibetans of India practice it. …show more content…
Another form of marriage is the cousin marriage, which takes place between two cousins. Within cousin marriage there are cross cousins and parallel cousins. Cross cousins are known to be the parent’s opposite sex sibling’s children, and Parallel cousins are the parent’s same sex sibling’s children. The Chippewa Indians used to partake in cross cousin marriage, and some Muslim societies such as the Kurds practiced parallel cousin marriage. The fourth form of marriage is the arranged marriage, which is a marriage that is handled between the two families or the families’ parents. Arranged marriages still happen regularly today in places like India, parts of Europe, China, and Japan. Lastly, group marriages are marriages where more than one man and more than one women marry in a group. This is the least common form of marriage, and it used to be practiced by the Oneida commune in New