Well, as far as I'm aware the religions/sects that allow polygamy actually allow polygyny, ie a man having more than one wife, and do not allow polyandry, a wife having more than husband. This just seems to be asking for problems, imo; if the birth rate is roughly 50/50 boys and girls, but each man who marries is going to need 2 or more women, how does this work out?? You either have to attract more women from outside (difficult if they're not culturally conditioned to the idea of plural marriage), or you have to remove a large number of young men from the equation, and/or you have to marry off younger and younger women to cover the shortage. It doesn't add up, and it's hardly surprising that suspicions of child abuse come into play. I wouldn't be so sure that abusers are the occasional "bad eggs" in this set-up, because the whole society seems so inherently unbalanced.
Aside from that, I find it hard to believe that it's on the whole the best answer for the women.
Having said that, if adult individuals make this kind of arrangement for themselves (not legal marriage in my country, as that isn't allowed, but cohabiting outside the usual one-man-one-woman arrangement), I'm not really bothered by it. It's up to them. I think it's unlikely to catch on in a big way so it won't really affect the rest of us. |