Advantages And Disadvantages Of Polygamous Marriage: Polygamous marriage is the type of marriage where one can have more that one partner, it’s the opposite of monogamy. Polygamy is an ancient custom. It was practiced by people in all parts of the world. Polygamy is also practiced in modern America, Africa and Melanesia. Buddhism and Islam are religions that do not consider polygamous marriages a sin. But there is only one condition: the husband is totally responsible for all his wives.

However, Christianity does not endorse polygamous marriages, although a lot of Christian saints had numerous wives and also concubines. As for the ancient patriarchs, for example, King Solomon had 700 wives and also 300 concubines.
While there are some advantages to the concept of polygamy, there are also some problems related to it.

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Advantages (Merits) of Polygamy

1. Having Varieties: when there is multiple partners you have different varieties. In fact, if you are in a polygamous marriage, you can have multiple partners at the same time without being accused of cheating. Depending on your preferences, this can mean that you only have two spouses or even numerous different spouses at the same time.The exact number is up to you and to your individual preferences.

In general, polygamy allows you to have a bigger selection of partners at the same time and in case one partner annoys you quite a lot, you can simply spend your time with your other spouses and neglect the annoying spouse for a while Thus, a bigger variety of different partners can make your life easier in the sense that you can choose with whom you want to spend your time with.

2. Getting bored: Another advantage of polygamous marriage is that there will be lower risk of people getting bored in their marriage after the whole wedding and maybe child bearing couples tend to get bored in the marriage. Let’s be honest. In our current state of the world, most marriages are just maintained since some people are scared to divorce. Some people also fear the financial consequences of divorce and therefore stay married to their partners.

However, most people in a marriage get bored over time and urgently want to experience something new. Yet, they will not be allowed to do so since they are only allowed to have one spouse in a conventional monogamous partnership.

Consequently, in order to give people the option to explore new partners and to make life more interesting in general, polygamy can also make quite a lot of sense in this regard.

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3. More connections: You can’t compare the connection of a man with 5 wives and 15 educated and working children to a man with 1 wife and 3 children, the former will definitely be more richer and connected than the latter.

Moving further you’ll agree with me that If you live in a polygamous relationship, your family will be bigger than the family of people who live in monogamous relationships on average. In turn, this also implies that you will have more connections and a stronger social network. Networks and connections to different people are quite important to succeed in various parts of life.

For instance, if you want to get a demanding corporate job that pays quite a lot of money, your chances will increase significantly if you have connections inside the company. The same is true for many other parts of life and therefore, polygamy can also increase your overall chances in life in general.

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4. Status symbol: In some cultures, having multiple spouses at the same time is also considered as kind of a status symbol. This is especially true for men. In fact, the more wives a man has, the higher his social status will be in society. In turn, other men often want to be like this guy and the men that have multiple wives will often be the most respected men in those societies.

Thus, depending on the respective region, it can also make quite a lot of sense to live a polygamous lifestyle in order to increase social status and the overall level of acceptance in society.

5. Reduce cheating in marriage: Having more than one partner can reduce the rate of cheating. People who have multiple partners have a lower incentive to cheat on their partners. In fact, if you have a big selection of different partners, you will not feel too much urge to go out and to cheat on your partners. Instead, you can stay at home and choose the partner you want to spend time with according to your preferences.

In fact, many people in a monogamous relationship cheat on their partners since they are just quite fed up with him or her and want to experience new things. Therefore, polygamy can also make quite a lot of sense since cheating would no longer be necessary and feelings would not be hurt as often as in monogamous relationships.

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Disadvantages (Demerits) Of Polygamous Marriage

1. Problematic: Polygamy can be problematic from a legal and religious way. Inmany countries all over the world, polygamy is not permitted by law and marrying multiple partners is simply not allowed. Hence, in case you aspire to such a lifestyle, you may have to keep it secret and discrete instead of bragging about it in front of your friends.

In religious perspective, many religious people think that monogamy is the way to go and that anything else is not in line with religious beliefs. Consequently, people who live in regions where religious beliefs are quite important may also have a quite hard time living a polygamous lifestyle since they may get socially excluded by the local population due to that.

2. Expenses: If you have multiple partners and you have to provide for all of them, this can also be quite problematic from a financial standpoint. In fact, many people underestimate the costs related to polygamy and are surprised of how expensive it can be to have multiple partners. The more spouses you have, the more expensive your lifestyle tends to be.

Another problem with polygamy is that you will also need a bigger home in order to accommodate all of your spouses. This also implies that you have to pay a much higher rent compared to a state where you were in a monogamousmarriage.

In turn, this will imply an additional financial burden on you and you should make sure that you can afford having multiple partners in order to protect yourself from any financial difficulties related to your polygamous lifestyle.

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3. Unhappiness and Child’s neglect: Polygamous marriage can also lead to a state where spouses get stuck in unhappy marriages. In fact, in many polygamous relationships, spouses will be treated rather poorly and will also not be allowed to earn their own money. In turn, the level of dependence on their partner is enormous and those spouses will often not be able to leave the marriage due to financial reasons, even though they might not be happy in their marriage at all.

Polygamous households also tend to have many children. However, if there are too many children in a household, chances are that some of those children will suffer from serious neglect. In turn, those children may not get enough food or also not have the opportunity to get proper education or some children will be treated with more care than others.

It can also lead to gender discrimination; situation whereby one gender is valued than the other, the gender that is less valued tend to get neglected.

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Conclusion

There are numerous advantages and disadvantages of polygamy. In the end, everyone should decide for themselves whether a polygamous lifestyle is suitable for them or if they rather want to spend their lives with only one partner instead. And in all make sure your happiness is your priority.

Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka ACMC

Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka, ACMC, is a lawyer and a certified mediator/conciliator in Nigeria. He is also a developer with knowledge in various programming languages. Samuel is determined to leverage his skills in technology, SEO, and legal practice to revolutionize the legal profession worldwide by creating web and mobile applications that simplify legal research. Sam is also passionate about educating and providing valuable information to people.