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.
Everyone’s citing Christianity, but that’s not completely accurate—monogamy isn’t really promoted in the New Testament outside of the letters of the apostles, who were trying to promote Christianity to a Roman audience. The church enforced monogamy through the Middle Ages, but it was originally adopted from the Romans.
As for why the Romans practiced it, there are several theories—for one, Roman women had relatively higher status than women in most Middle Eastern cultures; another theory is that the prospect of marriage for more men made Roman armies more effective.
Also, being a slaver society, if you wanted a side-chick as a middle class roman, you just bought one, and since the kids from those slaves were not able to inherit, the wives basically let it slide (although I am unsure how much fight they put up verbally. Letting husbands have a servant for “entertainment” as well as domestic chores were not unheard of even by the victorians)