marriage mating multiple wives and husbands

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Anonymous

#535532 Wed, 02 Jul 08 03:58 AM

A marriage in which a man has multiple women is called polygyny. If it has a woman and multiple men(husbands), the form of the marriage is called polyandry. Polygamy is a general term referring a marriage that is not a one-to-one monogamy. Then, is there an English term that refers a marriage in which multiple men mate with multiple women?

Anonymous

Marriage

ELL

#535578 Wed, 02 Jul 08 06:02 AM

Polyamory is a word currently used in US that covers multiple love-making partners. (&) Dog

ELL

Joined on Wed, Jul 2 2008

New Member (08)

Marriage

hiwarock

#535583 Wed, 02 Jul 08 06:39 AM

Thanks for the reply, from which I have managed to find a good article on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyamory

hiwarock

Joined on Wed, Jul 2 2008

Zipangu

New Member (04)

Articles, Marriage

hiwarock

#535661 Wed, 02 Jul 08 11:02 AM

Polyamory seems to be a 21st century new word in US. Aren't there older and more common, or academic, word(s) that denote the multi:multi marriage form, like those seen among some nativies in remote places?

hiwarock

Marriage

ELL

#535918 Wed, 02 Jul 08 05:03 PM

Note that Wikipedia shows traditional use of polygamy to mean either gender with -gyny and -andry for mutliple females or males respectively.Refer: Polygamy (polygyny and polyandry), in which one person marries several spouses (who may or may not be married to, or have romantic relationships with, one another). (&) Dog

ELL

Genders, Marriage

hiwarock

#536098 Thu, 03 Jul 08 02:09 AM

Thanks. The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygamy has phrases below:
<quote>
Polygamy exists in three specific forms, including polygyny (one man having multiple wives), polyandry (one woman having multiple husbands), or group marriage (some combination of polygyny and polyandry).
--
Group marriage, or circle marriage, may exist in a number of forms, such as where more than one man and more than one woman form a single family unit, and all members of the marriage share parental responsibility for any children arising from the marriage.
</quote>
Hmmm. The 'from a single family' part is somehow puzzling ...

hiwarock