[451] Wake, op. cit., 179-81; Spencer, op. cit., 685. So the African has as many wives as he can buy; and only the rich in ancient Mexico indulged in polygyny: Waitz, Anthropologie, II, 108; IV, 130. Among the American Indians the cost and difficulty of feeding them make several wives the privilege of the opulent. Increased labor gives the California Wintun woman increased rights; "for then she extorts monogamy": Ratzel, History of Mankind, II, 124, 494 (China and Japan). Compare Avery, "The Indo-Pacific Oceans," Am. Antiquarian, VI, 366.
[452] Spencer, op. cit., I, 683, 684. Cf. Starcke, op. cit., 261, who says: "It follows from the nature of things ... that polygamy can never have been the normal condition of a tribe, since it would have involved the existence of twice as many women as men. Polygamy must necessarily have been restricted to the noblest, richest, and bravest members of the tribe." Spencer holds that polygyny is connected especially with the "militant" stage of society, as opposed to the industrial: op. cit., 706.
[453] Spencer, op. cit., I, 685, 686.
[454] Ibid., 685-88; cf. Starcke, op. cit., 261.
[455] Owing to the hard conditions of life, female beauty fades early among savage and barbarous peoples, sometimes even among those reckoned as civilized. A fresh wife is demanded when the first grows old. In some cases the husband is forbidden by custom to cohabit with his wife until the child is weaned, though suckling may continue two, three, or four years: Westermarck, op. cit., 483-88; Ploss, Das Weib, I, 58, 59 (fading beauty).
[456] Wake, Marriage and Kinship, 202 ff., thus summarizes the causes of polygyny: "First, the sterility of the first wife," as in the case of Rachel; "secondly, the length of time during which a woman suckles her child; thirdly, the sexual requirements of man while leading a hunting or pastoral mode of life; fourthly, the accidental scarcity of men; and, fifthly, the luxury or sensuality of man, or the desire for influence and power."
[457] Westermarck, op. cit., 489-91; cf. Starcke, op. cit., 261.
[458] Westermarck, op. cit., 495,496; Spencer, op. cit., I, 688.
[459] Spencer, op. cit., I, 688, 689, 690 ff., 697. Cf. on causes of polygyny, Lubbock, Origin of Civilization, 112.
[460] Spencer, op. cit., I, 682. Cf. the similar view of Wake, Marriage and Kinship, 219.