Asking this as a Qatari with a polygamous father. My father’s second wife is Swedish and I know it was a tough pill to swallow for her family and friends back home.
Asking this as a Qatari with a polygamous father. My father’s second wife is Swedish and I know it was a tough pill to swallow for her family and friends back home.
First, the simple answer is religion, Christianity (the primary religion of the west) mostly rejected the idea in the middle ages which means that culturally most of the west grew up seeing it only as a practice engaged in by groups that aren’t “us” Even those of us who aren’t religious are still impacted by religious imprints on cultural norms for the area.
The actual reason?
The gender balance at birth is generally close to 50/50, I think it’s closer to 51/49 but it’s close enough that it doesn’t matter. If one man takes two or more wives, it means there will not be enough women for every other man to also find a wife.
When a lot of these cultural norms were set, the gender ratios in specific regions were often completely skewed by wars and other deaths related to fighting, most of which happened in men. This left more women than men.
The other significant factor was that women used to die in childbirth, a lot, so having multiple wives was almost an insurance policy to make sure you still had a wife after a few years.
As death from injuries/war and childbirth decreased it has become less of a practical arrangement and there’s little reason to switch away from monogamy to polygamy given that it’s the current cultural norm anyways.
That being said, I don’t see anything inherently wrong with polygamy myself it as long as all parties are informed and consenting.
Unfortunately a lot of the groups that still practice polygamy often do not educate women, do not provide paths for them to succeed independently, or even outright control them as property.
Setting aside the wider point, I’m pretty sure that’s not true, because to have multiple wives you have to be able to provide for multiple wives and multiple sets of children. I’d guess the percentage of men who can do that is small enough in most if not all places to not have an effect on the wider population.
This is true. Each wife is entitled to her own house, car, allowance, etc. They have to be treated equally; at least that’s how it is in Islam. For example, my mom and father’s other wife don’t even interact that much except for communal family events and holidays for example.