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Research Suggests Polygamous Men Live Longer
Calopteryx writes "Want to live a little longer? Get a second wife. A study reported in New Scientist suggests that men from polygamous cultures outlive those from monogamous ones. After accounting for socioeconomic differences, men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12% longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations."
I would have thought having multiple sets of in-laws would shorten your life expectancy through frustration alone...
Q. "Why do married men die before their wives?" A. "Because they want to"
One CPU cycle wasted on digital restrictions management is ONE TOO MANY.
I wonder if serial polyagmy has any of the same benefits? I am sure I would not have lived this long if still with the ex.
In seriousness, I'm not surprised. From living this way for a while, I see a lot less stress on all parties most of the time. When there is stress, it's easier to deal with as you have a stronger close-knit support structure.
I'm just learning to walk now after mentioning this to my LAST wife...
...and I'll even share! I'm all for watching girl-on-girl action!
That being said, as much as my wife and I both love naked chicks, I can't imagine being married to more than one woman, let alone surviving longer from it. One woman is enough to kill me.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
I've read (sorry I won't look up the source) that women outlive men when in life long relationships. I wonder if being 1 of multiple lives affects this at all?
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
Men who are comfortable having multiple wives have no problems telling the in-laws to stuff it.
The most obvious explanation is that only the "fittest" men get to have multiple wives in the first place. They'll tend to be richer, and rich men live longer. They said they accounted for socioeconomic differences, but might it also be that physically fit men lived longer and attracted more wives?
I'm sure they tried to control for that and a host of other factors, but I'd really need to see the original paper to understand their work.
Q: Why do married men die sooner than their wives?
A: Because the want to.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
This doesn't bode well for for monogomous relationships, where the male has surpassed his life expectancy.
A quick check shows Hugh Hefner at 82, that's proof enough for me.
Now if I could just convince my wife...
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
often practice warfare to an unusual degree. High numbers of young male deaths leads to a surplus of marriageable women -- including widows. Polygamy allows the fertility rate to compensate, among other things.
It follows that while the cost of war is borne most by the dead, any potential benefits must be shared disproportionately more by the survivors.
By a similar logic, I'd bet that the countries in question have a much higher mortality rate for young men from all causes, and that survivors into old age posses, disproportionately, social fitness. In other words the poor die young and the rich live longer. This may also be exacerbated when you look at certain small and exceptional countries, such as Brunei.
In any case, there is only so far clever juxtaposition of gross numbers can get you. To really understand data, you have to disaggregate it, which is probably not possible in the datasets they have. Overall male life expectancy is a better measure of male health, not the survival rates of those who have already reached advanced age. That's practically asking to have your data confounded.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Correlation is not causation. There may just be something in common with longer lifespans and polygamy, like hormones, lifestyle, attitude... hundreds of things.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
Another reply here had a link to a study about how humans almost died out 70k years ago. Boring, but linked to THAT was a theory that the reason men generally live *shorter* lives than women was polygamy. According to the theory, having multiple reproductive partners (a harem) tends to produce larger, stronger, but more short lived males: since it takes a lot of strength to fend off the other males from taking your harem, but it happens eventually anyway, so why live a long life?
Combined with this study, one comes to the conclusion that studs outlive wimps, but women outlive them all.
Bitches.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
a. die young
b. eat more
c. go postal
d. All of the above
Since no one here has a even a girlfriend, I would say this is neither news for nerds or stuff that matters. :(
Sometimes, life itself is sarcasm...
I do a "science news of the day" at dinner with the wife and kids, picking out the best science news stories I read. Needless to say, this one just shot to the top of the list.
"But honey, it's for my health!"
Sure, the men in those countries lived longer, but the article made no mention of comparing the polygamous men to the monogamous ones (within a country). It just means that the genetics of the men in those countries have longer lifespans than monogamous countries.
01110000 01010111 01101110 00110011 01100100
I have only one question: what is the list of polygamous nations?
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
On a short-term basis, it might be true, but on the evolutionary scale, polygamy seems to have the opposite effect. at least this article suggests so: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/10/17/scisex117.xml
AltSlashdot. Because f'k the beta
Polygamy only really can work in a patriarchal society. It was a very useful social construct in the pre-modern world before the population explosion, and since then only the wealthy (who were usually so through superior capacity, especially in the ancient world) could really afford a harem's worth of wives and concubines, it increased the genetic footprint of the most capable of human genes. It was almost a sort of early incidental eugenics. However, this also was only possible because until the modern era, women were in fact or in function, chattel. Given an equal choice in the matter, most women would be too jealous to share a man (just as most men would similarly be too jealous to share one woman).
This brings us to how potential health benefits could be accomplished today. The only real answer that mitigates the problem of human jealousy is polyamory. Polyamory is a grouping of men and women in an intimate long term relationship. I have no personal experience myself, but I would interested to see a study similar to this one done on polyamorous groups.
I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
Maybe it just feels like much, much longer when you have more than one wife?
-Styopa
Confucius say "Man who hosts two women under one roof sleep in doghouse."
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
The selection bias of polygamous men (mentioned already here) for richer and healthier persons over those who die younger likely explains the differences enough, but, in addition, it's long been known that widowers have a reduced lifespan. It's likely that the survival of the second wife protects against that reduction somewhat.
My experience is that polygamous men are more affluent, as they can afford to support more wives.
Affluent men live longer then poor men. No surprise there.
They live longer because they work hard, eat well, and don't watch much TV.
TV is the source of gov't manipulation, and by extension, satan. And while polyg's don't mind defrauding the welfare system and getting money FROM the gov't, they distance themselves thoroughly from gov't control.
They also have the most well-behaved kids you will EVER see in a Walmart. Make Hamish kids look like the Courtney Love.
THL phish sticks
May shorten your life expectancy.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
She guaranteed me that sleeping with other women would have the opposite effect on my longevity.
I read the internet for the articles.
Interestingly enough, it doesn't mean multiple partners in varying relationships. Also, keep in mind that the two primary religions which allow polygamy are also VERY morally strict - fundamental Mormonism and Islam.
I suspect that people who are happy with their lives in general will live longer.
There are studies that show that married people live longer than those who are not.
There are studies that claim that happily married people live longer than those who are not happy in their marriage.
What makes men happy?
Being a guy I know I am happier when I get more opportunity for some "good" lovin' from my woman.
Do you see where I'm going with this? It's all about what makes you happy (imho).
Now then, the next question is: What makes women happy?
Figure that out and your onto something.
It's the type of woman. These men aren't married to several typical American women. An American man with several wives would have a chorus of nagging behind his every move, and that's not counting the fun that happens when the wives decide to "gang divorce" him and go discover themselves.
Women are social creatures, when its just a single husband and wife sitting at home the wife needs someone to talk to about all the mundane or pointless things going on. (ie: gossip)
Most guys just learn to "block out the chatter", but it eventually wears on them and gets annoying.
Add another female to the household and instantly they bond with each other and have another person of the same sex to talk to pretty much 24/7. This can only be a benefit for everyone involved.
Not to mention but chances are the guy is having more sex, and I've seen several studies say that having more sex prolongs your life. (to a certain point anyways)
Not having to listen to as much annoying gossip and having more sex, thats pretty much a dream come true, who wouldn't want to live longer? :)
Why was I not invited to participate in this study? No matter which test group you are assigned to, you end up getting tail. I happen to be a strong proponent of getting tail.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
....that if my husband tries to have another wife he most certainly will not live longer. He might very well not live to see another sunrise. Now, when is the study starting to see how long women with multiple male partners live?
I dream of a better world... one in which chickens can cross roads without their motives being questioned.
Getting a decent shag out of a man is hard enough without having to share him with other women.
... and his recent appearance on Fox News. It should comfort any nerds worried about an early grave. Link.
Now then, the next question is: What makes women happy?
Figure that out and your onto something.
More like "figure that out, and she'll change her mind"
Just kidding, honey! Honest.
Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
If some men are getting more than 1 wife, that would mean that more men are getting no wives. This group is more than making up for the higher force of death amongst those that are married.
1. Engagement Ring
2. Wedding Ring
3. Suffering
Now I can get a perscription from my doctor to have more that one wife. I wonder if my medical plan will cover it?
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
Well, Ernest Borgnine says I only need to masturbate a lot to live a long time. And I believe him because he was in both "Escape from New York" *AND* "Baseketball."
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Equilibrium? He's the rock splitting the water. Or, he is the water flowing along two mounds...
Or, to bring it to the West, if he's Richard Pryor in "Which Way Is Up?", he better watch out for shuttle buses that run over preachers... and better watch out for the Ms Tyson's with vibrators...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
When someone is said to be leading a "double life" I assumed it meant they are doing more than most people might ordinarily do in an ordinary life. So now "two-timing" means I can extend my life or is it simply a more busy life doing twice as much in the same amount of time?
I would like to see the flip side of it.
Consider the following: every culture that practices polygamy (actually polygyny, multiple wives, as opposed to polyandry, which would be multiple husbands) has to do something about the extra males. Each and every society like this, without exception, has been AMAZINGLY misogynistic - and that's continued today in the modern Muslim and Fundamentalist LDS "polygamist" cultures.
When you have a surplus of males, your option is pretty much either (a) kick them out into the world (what the FLDS do) or (b) get them killed off in warring, tribal or otherwise (which is what much of Africa and Middle Eastern muslim societies do).
If you get to be old in such cultures, you're wealthy. In fact, wealth is more an indicator of your life expectancy, in any culture.
However, now compare those cultures across the board. If you're in Europe or in America/Canada or another westernized nation, it's relatively easy to get past 60 - after all, you have the free health care systems and welfare setups to rely on.
On the flipside, look at the polygamist societies - in Middle Eastern/African muslim societies, those who aren't going to reach 60 (read: the poor) usually kill themselves off FAR faster in various tribal conflicts and wars. In the FLDS, tracking down their "lost boys" usually winds up giving you an example of kids who have the world yanked from under them and wind up becoming drug addicts and worse because they've been taught from day one that the "outside world" was out to kill them anyways for being FLDS.
What you have there isn't a real phenomenon. "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc" is a classic mistake that is made by this fatally flawed "study."
...two wives at the same time!
I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class, especially since I rule.
"A man's only as old as the woman he feels."
"After accounting for socioeconomic differences"
Translation, the study handicapped the polygamists
If there is any causal relationship here, I'm gonna live to be 200!
And most of us can't even get one like me (an old fart too). :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
...it just makes them feel as if they lived a lot longer.
Not sure this is always true.....Obama's 'father' had a few wives and died in an auto accident likely while under the influence (He was a big fan of Scotch)...See 'Obama Nation' for details.....
Of course, accidents shouldn't count here but how many men take up drink because of their wives?
Getting one female is already a problem for slashdotters... as if poligamy is even remotely attainable by the /. crowd...
It just seems longer.
Any reliable wife will tell you that what she needs most on any given day is a wife. We compensate for monogamy by hiring wives for our wives; house cleaners, babysitters, daycare, diaper service, food delivery. Also, by living (well in the US) in a throw-away technical society we have striped away the need to make or repair clothes (sewing), prepare complex meals (eating out), corresponding (email, phone) and many other things that women "had" to do or felt needed to be done in a proper society.
My wife and I, married almost 14 years and with two kids, have discussed "getting" (not sure how to put it) a second wife. She's not opposed to it, understands it completely, but we haven't had a chance to try it yet. Since we live sustainably and don't take advantage of the many means to rent a wife, we don't really have much choice except to look for help. If you are going to use a woman that way, then you should support her, I feel. Renting is just a way to use something and throw it away, in the end. And paying for services that a woman could do herself is expensive the realm of the rich.
I don't know how having two wives would make me live longer as such, never gave it any thought, but it would reduce how much I worry about our family economy if I had two wives working as sisters to hold everything together, get back to simpler ways of doing things by hand and without technology. Homeschooling, food preparation and gardening are suddenly easier. My wife works so hard... she needs a wife.
[PS: Some will chorus "then help her do her work you smuck!" To which I reply "Ah, but I'm the one building the house." You see, when you really adopt the idea of do-it-yerself you bite off this enormous load of work that nobody even thinks about any more.]
=^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
I'm sure you'll find their diets and other aspects are probably much better because my experience with one woman at a time says anymore than that would lead to a quick stress related death.
how about their life-expectancy in the same countries? In other words - if you are old you can expect to live longer than if you die young!
Remember, you're going to have four women who are all menstruating at the same time - I think that would have some negative effect ;-)
McClintock effect
The McClintock effect, also known as menstrual synchrony or the dormitory effect, is a theory that proposes that the menstrual cycles of women who live together (such as in prisons, convents, bordellos, or dormitories) tend to become synchronized over time.
It is thought to be analogous to the Whitten effect, which is the synchronization of the estrous cycle and has been noted in small animals such as mice and guinea pigs. In contrast to the Whitten effect, which is driven by male pheromones, the McClintock effect is postulated to have only female pheromonal involvement.
Woopty Doo Basil, what does it all mean?!
Read the summary of the study's conclusion again. What the study claims to demonstrate isn't that polygamists live longer than other men in their own society; what it demonstrates is that in societies where a minority of the men have multiple wives, the mean longevity of all men is longer.
Note the following two things that follow from this:
The second point I just made is at odds with what you're telling us here:
For this to be consistent with the results of the study, the negative effect of such early deaths on average longevity must be smaller than the positive effect that the polygamists have on the same statistic. Which suggests you're totally overblowing this by reasoning on the basis of stereotypes.
Are you adequate?
99.99% of all people that have died have eaten a banana...
- Bananas thus ruled as major cause of death.
PLEASE! I would not have expected such a stupid article on Slashdot. Oh, wait, perhaps I would... nevermind.
Seriously though, polygamy is not the cause, but one of many results of things like religious beliefs and technological advancement (still subjugating women? read about the widespread rape in Amish communities?) Whatever the reason, less technology causes less pollution and stress... strange religious views often also ban the use of alcohol and crappy food.
Two wives + Divorce = 100% of your stuff going bye bye. But you might have bigger issues if it went to court, seeing as how it's illegal.
how long do you live if you're nongamous?
Is this cause or effect? I vote effect.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Wives 3-7 need satisfaction, when you're done with the lawn. Hop to it!
Anti-Globalism, Traditionalism, and FreeBSD.
By this logic, the average Slashdot reader, having *no* wife (except perhaps battery powered ones), will die at the age of 47.5, surrounded by manga, pizza boxes, O'Reilly books and WoW paraphernalia.
Better get ours while we still can -- we're doomed.
Or maybe they are in better physical shape because they have sex with all of their many wives (sex is a good cardiovascular workout that improves heart health as well as mood), and trying to feed that many wives means that a man has to live off of cheap, healthy foods, like cabbage, beans and rice!
In other news, people who have SEX live longer, you fucking pricks. How is this news?!@
fuck you all
Oil money. A large portion of the polygamous population is in middle eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, Dubai, etc., which are rich with oil money. That much money would tend to lead to better medical care and improved longevity, I would think.
It should be illegal to say that freedom of speech should be limited.
is any analysis of whether the more long-lived men in a polygamous society are those with multiple wives, or those with no wives.
Ray Beckerman +5 Insightful
Yes he could have lots of great sex but, for example, is it worth having 5 women in that time of the month around you? It might be enough to put you off sex for good!
As is typical with statistical accounts in journalism there seems to be a big piece of information listing.
Did the study only review married men? By basic mathematics it should be obvious that in a polygamist society there will be more bachelors than in a monogamist society. So while the married polygamist may fair better and live longer it stands to reason that the unmarried may fair far worse. It may be that a polygamist society, on average, lowers the lifespan of the average male, just not the lifespan of the average married male.
"...men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12% longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations."
Nations that mostly practice polygamy are also mostly desert cultures. So you could also word those findings as "...men aged over 60 from 140 countries that have alot of sand lived on average 12% longer than men from 49 mostly non-sandy nations."
Peter: "What would you do if you had a million dollars?"
Lawrence: "Two chicks at the same time man!"
Maybe the man who can afford two wives can afford better health care?
Or maybe, just maybe, having a more, hum, "lively" household keeps you mind sharper and your feet fleeter.
"Piter, too, is dead."
You'd marry them based on the timing of their period, so that they'd go on the rag in shifts and you'd always have 3-4 non-menstruating wives.
Another possible confounding factor: Polygamy is often associated with religions (Mormon offshoots, Islam, ...) whose practitioners also have less exposure to a number of biochemical health risks due to religious prohibitions or discouragements: Alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, other psychotropic drugs, pork-borne diseases, ...
Other aspects of their cultural or religious practices (such as their legal system, requirements to self-suppor and, support the family rather than depending on government charity, individually defend self, home, family, and/or society against human predators, etc.) may also reduce risk - from criminal activity, lack or mistiming of acquisition of important resources, etc.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
No you do not live longer. With multiple wives it just seems that way.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
In most polygamous cultures only the wealthy end up with multiple wives. The poor often end up without any prospects. The wealthy tend to live longer than the poor so the report is nonsense.
Let's see the rest of the data, I'm not buying it.
The article says that polygamous cultures have longer *average* male lifespans. That includes all men, not just the ones with lots of wives. Since in a polygamous culture there is a great excess of men, that means most of the men are NOT married. I think we may have found the cause of the increased longevity. :)
Because with more wives, the cooking is better.
It is for these reasons, especially for reason number 2, which 'fundementalist' Muslims believe is the quickest route to hell should you screw up that polygamy is actually not that widely practised in proportion to just having one spouse. Now, compare this to the de facto polygamy that is practised in the Western world and see who is mysogynistic.
more time to make alimony payments to multiple recipients?
Women aren't happy unless you are miserable.
Oppsie, typo. Fixed it for you
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
The real proof of this theory, it seems to me, would be also verifying that women in POLYAMOROUS relationships also live longer.
Correlation is not causation. There may just be something in common with longer lifespans and polygamy, like hormones, lifestyle, attitude... hundreds of things.
A steady supply of pies?
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Not so long ago, my wife's friend stopped by for a 3 week vacation. She'd just graduated college and since we just moved to Florida, she felt that was a great way to spend part of the summer. Anyway, while she was here for the better part of a month I noticed a few things:
1. My wife was generally happier. She had someone to (willingly) go shopping with, watch soaps with and just chat about, well, the things that eventually end up sounding like background noise to me after about 3 hours.
2. We had home cooked meals and a clean house. The girls worked together to cook and clean leaving me some extra time to work a few extra hours and earn some extra income.
3. We had more free time and more money and a heck of a lot less tension.
4. I had time to myself.
As such, and overlooking the obvious theoretical sexual benefits for me, this little experiment of sorts really opened up my eyes to polygamy. While the friend was staying with us we were actually better off in every respect. That said my wife is not the sort to ever consider such things (just casually glancing at another woman lands me on the couch) so we'd never actually go through with it.
But it's kind of a shame because now that I've considered it, I think it could work.
A doctor, lawyer, and programmer are discussing the pros and cons of polygamy.
The doctor says, "Nah, that's not for me! Think of all the stress, one wife's tough enough on the ticker, two would kill me!"
The lawyer says "No, thanks. What if one wife wanted to divorce, and the other didn't, what happens to the property? How does the estate get handled? That, and I think it might be illegal, but don't quote me."
The programmer jams his glasses into his nose and says "What do you mean, guys, this would be great! I'd tell the first wife that I was with the second wife, then I'd tell the second wife I was with the first, and then, I could go read Slashdot in peace!"
I can't resist the challenge of classifying the duties of 13 wives:
Wife#1 - Head Wife , as in lead wife, the matriarch of the harem. For head wife, see #7
Wife#2 - Sports equipment maintenance: cleans balls, buffs club heads, wipes shafts, etc. For similar duties see wife #7
Wife#3 - Food servicing: food prep for friends, beer fetcher, pizza gofer, etc.
Wife#3 - Personal comfort: Fanning, AC/heat control, recliner inclination monitor, foot massage, etc.
Wife#4 - Communications: answering phone with excuses as to why husband can't answer, getting the door, etc.
Wife#5 - Media control: Monitoring location of all TV and video remote controls, summarizing viewing habits of husband and printing list of shows for him, etc.
Wife#6 - Cleaning: Washing, ironing, vacuuming, etc.
Wife#7 - Head Wife - oh yeah!
Wife#s8,9,10 - Bedtime playmates, multiple partners to alleviate boredom.
Wife#11 - Backup wife for positions 1-10
Wife#12 - Secondary (redundant) backup wife.
Wife#13 - I have no idea why he would need a 13th wife! What a self-centered A-hole!
I knew it! My wife is killing me.
I put on 50 pounds in a year after I got married and switching to an office career. It's possible that married men live shorter because they eat too much. Then again it's also possible that having all those nagging wives will send you to an early grave. So the majority of men that don't have wives end up longer and raise the national average.
How is this news for nerd again? Multiple wifes? Not any nerd I know of.
The only possible interpretation of any research whatever in the 'social sciences' is: some do, some don't
provided none of the wives finds out ^_^
The lives of men with many wives only SEEM longer...
IMHO everyone seems to have missed the most glaring flaw in the study. 140 countries that 'practice polygamy'? Really? I strongly doubt that there are 140 countries where the number of polygamists is statistically significant and is large enough to cause a measurable effect on a property of the average male. And only 49 'mostly monogamous' countries? Rubbish.
The problem seems to be the 'monogamy scale' mentioned in the article. Perhaps they considered every country where polygamy in some form is legal as ones that 'practice polygamy'. For example in India, polygamy is legal (only) for Muslims, but there are so few Muslims that practice it that it cannot possibly have any effect on the average male. So this correlation observed among countries that 'practice polygamy' (which in reality just have a tiny causally insignificant number of polygamists) is probably just noise.
My gongfu shifu was raised in a Taoist temple in the Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture. He tells me that group marriage (multiple husbands and wives) tradition is still practised amongst the Qiang people (at least practitioners of the gongfu lineage).
You might find some more info here, HTH.
Me lost me cookie at the disco.
See my reply to GP.
Me lost me cookie at the disco.
"Lummaa stressed that their monogamy score is a crude first stab, and they are working to find multiple ways to assess marriage patterns. The conclusions could evaporate under further analysis, she adds."
Mortality rates for married vs. single are based on people born in the 1930s or even 1920s. For those age cohorts, only the very sickly or very ugly did not get married, it was standard issue social behavior for their time. Correlation != causation, as always. Being married did not make people healthy, it was the other way around. Now, look at people today and it's obvious to a casual observer that a whole different dynamic is at work. The data backs it up: not only are the people who stay single happier ( http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/women-are-happiest-with-first-love-and-men-with-serial-monogamy-study-finds-577451.html ) but they don't get as fat as married people (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-10-22-marriage-weight_N.htm ). Again, this is stating the obvious for any single guy or gal who's watched misery and widening waistlines begin to make their mark on newly married couples after about 2 years. Marriage not only makes people miserable, it will probably shorten your life if you're born after 1970.
I think most posters that are attacking polygamy for various reasons, either religious (of example as a practice in Islam) or sociological are simply dead liars and hiding behind their finger.
Polygamy is a practice done widely for the past, today and the future in our modern western societies. It is simply a practice mostly awarded for the reach and famous. And when we are talking about polygamy, we are not talking for only married, because in most countries it is forbidden by law to be married more than two persons concurrently.
Thus the practice of polygamy is reserved for those that can afford it (rich), or have the option to do it very easily (famous), or in societies where one gender is very small in percentage from the other. For example in some parts of India and Nepal, women marry more than one man, and it is a common practice brothers to share one woman as their wife. Polygamy is not always one man and more that one women. In ancient times, there was a shortage of men, because of wars. Wars was a common practice and the cities or nations were almost all the time at war. That meant a lot of killed men, thus a shortage. The polygamy it was a necessity in that time.
So, comments about the bad nature of polygamy, and why it is not common in our western christian societies are simply a joke. Polygamy, especially in men, is an attractive option, but is reserved to be practiced by few of us. Some of the rest can shield their incompetence in this, by saying how bad it is, because thats the only way to accept the fact that they can't have more than woman concurrently.
In some african cultures land is inherited matrilineally but the husband is responsible for working it.
Matriarchy is also found in American Indian tribes. For instance what clan a Cherokee mother is is the clan of her children. Iroquois Indians and other tribes of the Northeast US and eastern Canada are the same. Actually when Europeans came to America they were shocked by the matriarch and matrilineal systems.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
the statement is likely true. Most polygamous houses have the concept of a head wife, to whom the other wives must address first.
The simple fact is is a polygamous household can have more than one husband. Those households where the man has more than one wife but each wife only has one husband is a polygynyist household not a polygamous household.
The recent events in Texas highlight this.
Despite what the mass media says that Mormon sect practices polygyny not polygamy.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
You're talking about polygyny, not polygamy, although that's a common mistake.
Thank you, thank you. Now I know I'm not the only person on /. that knows what polygamy is and that what most people call "polygamy" is really polygyny. I wonder what they would think of polyandry.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
In societies where women are not even meant to be seen let alone heard can clearly live a far more relaxed live with more women waiteing on the men.
But in the western world woman presume the dominant role within the house (most men beg their wives to let them buy that new PC, TV, etc..) more than one woman would mean more than one dominant control freak in the house.
Polygamy in the west is a terrible idea. I have no frigging idea how to keep up with all the demands of one woman (my wife who's reading this now agrees that I'm clueless and she feels it's for my own good) having a second woman demanding I do this, that, or the other thing would kill me in a year or two.
P.S. - My wife wishes that I relay that men are good for three things. Opening jars, killing bugs and changing tires. She says, the other things she can buy in a store with or without batteries.
I hope you're not equating polyamory with swinging.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I think that this study needs a lot more work. As others have observed, they're only sampling men who have already lived past 60, and of those who are polygamous
I think what's wrong with the study was that it looked at polygyny not polygamy.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Polygamy is often associated with religions
The problem is polygamy is confused with polygyny.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
In Islamic countries, polygamy is allowed but usually on several conditions and is highly regulated.
No, polygamy is not allowed in Islamic countries, polygyny is allowed there. A man, even if highly regulated, is allowed more than one wife but a woman is not allowed more than one husband.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Malak Hifni Nassef, as quoted in A Very Short Introduction to Islam, in the chapter on women, pp96.
This is by way of agreement, I thought it was one of the most harrowing descriptions of polygamy I've read, though I haven't read many.
I seriously doubt that that book describes polygamy. I bet what it describes is polygyny.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
in a polygamous society there are much, much fewer women to go around
In a polygamous society, because women would be able to have more than one husband, there would be plenty of women to go around. It is in a polygynist society, like the FDLS practices, where there are not enough women to go around.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I think that's gay.
Yes, the mass media gets words wrong. And what would be gay is if they got words right.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
There's at least one more. To be fair, polyandry is rather rare, though it does have its practical appeal (e.g., Paint Your Wagon!).
I loved that movie. I thought Clint Eastwood was real funny, then again the whole movie was. As for polyandry, though they are at least partly polygamous it seems the Zoe, Marrying, tribe in Amazonian Brazil is very much polyandrous.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
The average pregnancy ratio might be close to 51:49 (with no intervention women outnumber men from birth) but to say it's an even split worldwide is just ignorant. Some cultures value women so little female babies are aborted and so the balance has become so off kilter even WITHOUT polygamy that many men go without wives.
Another example: in the FSU, some states became completely out of balance as a direct result of the Russian war with afghanistan: so many (then) young men went off to war and never came back, there is an abundance of unattached women in their mid 30's to 40s.
And "better off from a liberal western point of view" doesn't really mean much, even to many westerners. One of the biggest problems with those "liberal westerners" is that they always seem to think they know more about being happy (and everything else) and have no reservations about inflicting those values upon others no matter how unwelcome.
Maybe my friends are the only ones in America doing it for what I would consider to be the right reasons.
I too have thought I'd rather teach my children when, if, I have them at home. What some parents are able to do is have their children in school only a couple of hours a day then they spend the rest studying at home. By doing this the children are able to get some social interaction with other kids their age.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
And polyandry (when one woman has multiple men) would be great, too. I don't believe in god, why the heck should I be bound by judeo-christian practice of monogamy?
I lived with 4 people to a house as roommates in college and we drove each other nuts.
TFA links to another article, "Love unlimited: The polyamorists" where two, or more, men and women live in the same house. I don't want to ruin it but I thought it was interesting.
Finally, I've gotten caught in a triangle of two guys and 1 girl and I tell you it was awful. I'd need a serious mind scrubbing to be dandy with it. I was jealous as hell and hated the other guy and knew he hated me equally as well.
That, jealousy, is why it's not for everyone but I prefer polygamy/polyamory. I've got a couple of dozen websites bookmarked, I got my first one more than 10 years ago. Actually almost all are several years old at least.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Dude, I am from the middle east and have lived here for nearly three decades.
Your post is so ignorantly amazingly sweepingly wrong that it's almost offensive, if I cared about what you think, that is.
Come down here and see for yourself how we live.
Sheesh. It looked like you're describing a jungle and a bunch of monkeys.
Fucking A, this stuff is being passed and discussed as "fact". WTF.
Too late to the discussion, I never posted on Slashdot, your post was just THAT bad.
So making corrections is pedantry? And all those people who believe in polygamy, of which I am one, have nothing to fear when the word is used wrong?
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
What I can't figure. Some of the ancient kings who had a hundred, two hundred wives all living in the same palace. With the dorm effect, could you imagine that?
The Dorm effect, or McClintock effect has never been proven.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
To a practicing polygamist such as myself this comes as no surprise. You're not hemmed in by the same biatch all the time.
I remember reading somewhere that men who masturbate regularly live longer. I suspect with more wives we get more sex (come on they cant possibly have migraines all at the same time) and therefore has the same effect as masturbation = longer life.
Also, about Polygamy in general, I find that developed countries have stupid laws. 1: you probably cant mary more than one person at the same time 2: if you already are married to multiple people, only the "first" partner counts, the others are in a "civil partnership" with you. Marriage being a legal/civil contract in most countries, I dont see why 2 men and 2 women for example cant be married to each other (though this would involve gay/lesbian marriage, another anciant bug in the law).
Somehow, It's sad to see that the biggest community driven projects such as democracy lack a decent debug team. The bug report tools dont even come with GUI, TUI, or CLI ( It's a useless daemon taking up system resources). Also, in most cases, the core dev team sucks a lot too.
Basically we're doomed.
This seems extremely flawed. If you are comparing longevity among those who already reached 60, the first question I would ask is what are the numbers for everyone? I am betting they are reversed when you include all those who didn't make it to 60.
First many of these countries identified are probably harsher environments, then you create additional pressures by having polygamy, which means much higher mate competition pressures. If one guy has 4 wives, 3 guys get no wives.
So you have a survival of the fittest regime, that is likely killing off a lot of the weaker samples early. Then you compare the 60+ year old survivors to average 60 year olds in non polygamous societies (likely the west) where most of those weaker individuals make it to 60.
Can we have a: "Well Duh!"
Someone got paid for this?
I didn't RTFA, but if birthrates are near parity between genders, polygamous cultures have more unpaired males. What happens to the lifespan of the unpaired mails?
Want to live A LOT longer? Get rich enough to have a second wife, and then don't.
Bob Stein, http://bobste.in
1st wife: nag, nag...
2nd wife: nag, nag, nag, nag, nag...
3rd wife: nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag...
nth wife: nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag, nag....
See the problem here?
-ted
fortune -m "get some work done"
(men-women)
A sociologist, a psychologist, and a engineer were discussing the
consequences and implications of a married man's having a mistress. The
sociologist's opinion was that it is absolutely and categorically unforgivable
for a married man to forfeit the bond of matrimony, and engage in such lowly
and lustful pursuits.
The psychologist's opinion was that although morally reprehensible,
if a man MUST have a mistress to achieve his full potential as a human being,
then -- well -- he may go ahead and choose to have a mistress, as long as he
is considerate enough to keep this secret from his wife.
The engineer then interjected: "I also believe that, if necessary,
a married man is entitled to a mistress. However, I do not see why the
affair should be concealed from the wife. On the contrary, if the affair
is out in the open, then on Friday evenings he may tell his wife that he
is going to see his mistress, tell his mistress that he is going to be with
his wife, then go to his office and get some work done!"
Hmmm, I don't see the list of 140 countries that allow polyny or polyandry. :)
Anybody know where to find the list??? I might want to do an internship there!
XXX sounds good to me :)
This is just another way of stating that wealthier people live longer. To have multiple wives you generally need to be richer than others in your community.
Women who make man sleep too long in doghouse, will soon see him sneaking to sleep in cathouse.
credit to someone funnier than me, can't think of who
My understand as well is that women living or working in close quarters often have the dates of their cycles begin to merge. I'm not sure which is worse, having several wives throughout the month PMS'ing (constant PMS), or having a bunch of them all PMS'ing at the same time (mega-PMS)
Also, has anyone ever heard of any polygamist female sects, or is strictly a male/ego thing?
Haven't heard of those ones, but these are along perhaps a similar meme
but why the MULE?
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
And the only way your going to see a doctor in 30 minutes in this "all american" city is if you are actually dying BEFORE you come in the door. American health care is jacked up. At least there are a few systems working better, but overall, the reliance on the ER for "family practice medicine for the Poor" is shrinking the availability of timely treatment.
However, if your just talking about calling up a gp/family practice office as a known patient and make an appointment, you get in w/in 30 min of your appt in my experience it's usually 10 min.
Thanks for the explanation, and it totaly makes sense here on /.
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
What does the study say about ZERO wives?
.
- aqk
F U
You have posted 24 comments to this article (most of which are to inform people about polygyny/polygamy).
When I get upset about something I speak up. As for how many tymes I've said it, the mass media has stated the wrong stuff so many tymes I could spend my life pointing them out and not get anywhere. And polygamy/polygyny isn't the only, or the first. I also point out the same when someone says a programmer who's a criminal is a hacker. If they don't follow the hacker ethic they aren't a hacker. I can get passionate about both.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
if you think that I'm even talking about polyamory in the liberal West. Nothing I've said thus far is even any sort of criticism of that lifestyle. I'm talking about polygamous cultures, not a niche subculture that has at best tiny effects on the broader monogamous culture in which it's embedded.
No, you're being obtuse. Some people use polyamory instead of polygamy because the dominate culture has basterized the meaning of polygamy. I bet most people, when asked what polygamy means, will say it's what the FLDS and other sects of Mormons as well as Muslims do, one man having more than one wife but not the opposite.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
I don't think you can be arrested for living with 4 women
Actually cohabitation, which is what this is, is illegal in some states. Even one male and one female is illegal, without a marriage license or as relatives that is.
I'm sure there are local laws that might prevent this arrangement in some places, but I haven't heard of them being enforced.
According to TFA I linked to above North Carolina was enforcing their law. In 2004 a woman who had moved from New York to North Carolina was arrested for "lewd and lascivious association" because she lived with her boyfriend, who was the father of her 2-year-old daughter.
Falcon
Should there be a Law?
Hmmmm...I wonder if more than one husband can extend life for a woman?
you're all gay.