In a ‘Sociological Study’ on the Lower Congo, Mr. Phillips remarks, “It is a mistaken opinion that in a polygamous society most men have more than one wife: the relative numbers of the sexes forbid the arrangement being extended to the whole population; really only the wealthier can indulge in a plurality of wives, the poorer having to be content with one or often with none.”[2705] Proyart says the same of the people of Loango, adding that the rich, who can use the privilege of having many wives, are far from being numerous;[2706] and like statements are made with reference to several other negro peoples.[2707] Among many Kafir tribes,[2708] the Bechuanas,[2709] Hottentots,[2710] and Eastern Central Africans,[2711] monogamy is the rule; whilst, amongst the Touaregs,[2712] Tedâ,[2713] Marea,[2714] Beni-Amer,[2715] &c.,[2716] polygyny is expressly stated to be confined to a few men only. “La plupart des Kabyles,” say Messrs. Honateau and Letournex, “n’ont ... qu’une femme;”[2717] and in Egypt, according to Mr. Lane, not more than one husband in twenty has two wives.[2718] We may, indeed, say with Munzinger[2719] that even in Africa, the chief centre of polygynous habits, polygyny is an exception.
It is so among all Mohammedan peoples, in Asia and Europe, as well as in Africa.[2720] “In India,” says Syed Amír’ Alí, “more than ninety-five per cent. of Mohammedans are at the present moment, either by conviction or necessity, monogamists. Among the educated classes versed in the history of their ancestors, and able to compare it with the records of other nations, the custom is regarded with disapprobation amounting almost to disgust. In Persia, according to Colonel Macgregor’s statement, only two per cent. of the population enjoy the questionable luxury of a plurality of wives.[2721] Moreover, although polygyny is sanctioned by custom among the Cochin Chinese, the Siamese, the Hindus, and many other races of India, the mass of these peoples are in practice monogamous.[2722] In China, among the labouring classes, it is rare to find more than one woman to one man, and Dr. Gray thinks that, in the earliest ages, concubinage was a privilege of the wealthy classes only.[2723] Among the peoples of Central and Northern Asia and, generally, among all the uncivilized or semi-civilized peoples belonging to the Russian Empire, polygyny is, or, before the introduction of Christianity, was, an exception.[2724]
In the Indian Archipelago, says Mr. Crawfurd, polygyny and concubinage exist only among a few of the higher ranks, and may be looked upon as a kind of vicious luxury of the great, for it would be absurd to regard either one or the other as an institution affecting the whole mass of society.[2725] The truth of this assertion is fully confirmed by Raffles, as regards the Javanese; by Low and Boyle, as regards the Malays of Sarawak; by Marsden, Wilken, and Forbes as regards the Sumatrans; by Schadenberg, as regards the Aëtas of the Philippines; and so on.[2726]
In various parts of the Australian continent monogamy is said to be the rule.[2727] In the Larrakía tribe (Port Darwin), for instance, only about ten per cent. of those who are married have two wives.[2728] In Tasmania, polygyny, if not unknown, was quite exceptional.[2729] Among the Maoris, according to Dieffenbach, it is “very uncommon.”[2730] In the Sandwich Islands, it was practised only by the chiefs, whose means enabled them to maintain a plurality of wives.[2731] Indeed, in almost every group of the Pacific Islands polygyny is expressly stated to be an exception.[2732]
The same is the case with the American aborigines.[2733] Dalager states that, on the west coast of Greenland, in his time, hardly one man in twenty had two wives, and it was still more uncommon for one man to have three or four.[2734] Among the Thlinkets, as a rule, a man had but one wife.[2735] The aborigines of Hispaniola, with the exception of the king or chief, seemed to Columbus to live in monogamy.[2736] And Mr. Bridges writes that, in Tierra del Fuego, polygyny is practised “in some districts very rarely, in others more frequently, but in no part generally.”
All the statements we have from the ancient world seem to indicate that polygyny was an exception. Speaking of the Hebrews, Dr. Scheppig says that, although our information about the marital affairs of common Hebrews is too scanty to entitle us to conclude, from the scarcity of cases of polygyny recorded, that such cases were actually rare, we may assume that keeping up several establishments was too expensive for any but the rich.[2737] In Egypt, as we may infer from the numerous ancient paintings illustrative of domestic life in that country, polygyny was of rare occurrence; and Herodotus expressly affirms that it was customary for the Egyptians to marry only one wife.”[2738] Spiegel thinks that the ancient Persians were as a rule monogamous,[2739] and Sir Henry Maine and Dr. Schrader make a similar suggestion as to the early Indo-Europeans in general.[2740] Among the West Germans, according to Tacitus, only a few persons of noble birth had a plurality of wives;[2741] and, in India, polygyny as a rule was confined to kings and wealthy lords.[2742] In a hymn of the ‘Rig-Veda,’ which dwells upon the duality of the two Aświns, the pairs of deities are compared with pairs of almost everything that runs in couples, including a husband and wife, and two lips uttering sweet sounds.[2743]
Where polygyny occurs, it is modified, as a rule, in ways that tend towards monogamy: first, through the higher position granted to one of the wives, generally the first married; secondly, through the preference given by the husband to his favourite wife as regards sexual intercourse.
Among the Greenlanders,[2744] Thlinkets,[2745] Kaniagmuts,[2746] Crees,[2747] and probably most of the North American tribes who practise polygyny,[2748] the first married wife is the mistress of the house. The Aleuts distinguish the first or real wife from the subsequent wives by a special name.[2749] Among the Ahts, the children of a chief’s extra wives have not the father’s rank.[2750] The Algonquins, says Heriot, permit two wives to one husband, but “the one is considered of a rank superior to the other, and her children alone are accounted legitimate.”[2751] Among the Mexicans,[2752] Mayas,[2753] Chibchas,[2754] and Peruvians,[2755] the first wife took precedence of the subsequent wives, or, strictly speaking, they had only one “true and lawful wife,” though as many concubines as they liked. In Nicaragua, bigamy, in the juridical sense of the term, was punished by exile and confiscation of property;[2756] and, in Mexico, neither the wives of “second rank” nor their children could inherit property.[2757] Among the Mosquitoes, Tamanacs, Uaupés, Mundrucûs,[2758] and other South American peoples,[2759] the first wife generally has superiority in domestic affairs. Among the Brazilian aborigines, however, no difference in rights exist between the children of different wives.[2760]
The first wife is superior in authority to the others among the Western Victorians, Narrinyeri, Maoris,[2761] &c.[2762] In Samoa, a chief had, besides his wife, one, two, or three concubines;[2763] and in Tahiti, according to Ellis, it was rather a system of concubinage than a plurality of wives, that prevailed among the higher chiefs, the woman to whom the chief was first united in marriage, or whose rank was nearest his own, being generally considered his wife in the proper sense of the term, while the others held an inferior position.[2764]
In the Indian Archipelago, according to Mr. Crawfurd, the wife of the first marriage is always the real mistress of the family; the rest are often little better than her hand-maids.[2765] The same holds good for the Burmese, according to Lieutenant-General Fytche; for the Santals, according to Colonel Dalton.[2766] In Siam, “the wife who has been the object of the marriage ceremony ‘khan mak’ takes precedence of all the rest, and she and her descendants are the only legal heirs to the husband’s possessions.”[2767] Among the Khamtis, Samoyedes,[2768] and other Asiatic peoples,[2769] the first wife is always the mistress of the household and the most respected in the family; whilst, among the Ainos,[2770] Mongols, and Tangutans,[2771] one man can take only one lawful wife, though as many concubines as he pleases. But, except among the Ainos, the children of concubines are illegitimate and have no share in the inheritance.