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Article Excerpt
Conventional wisdom holds that the polygynous family system is as sexually and emotionally satisfying as a monogamous one. Ethnographic accounts of 69 polygynous systems, however, provide compelling evidence that the majority of co-wives in a polygynous family prefer pragmatic co-operation with one another while maintaining a respectful distance. Moreover, there often is a deep-seated feeling of angst that arises over competing for access to their mutual husband. Co-wife conflict in the early years of marriage is pervasive, and often marked by outbursts of verbal or physical violence. Co-wife conflict may be mitigated by social institutions, such as sororal polygyny and some form of "social security" or health care. Material wealth may be divided more or less equally, but as a husband's sexual attention (a primary source for increased fertility) and affection cannot always be equitably distributed, there is ongoing and contentious rivalry among co-wives. (Co-wife conflict, jealousy, co-operation, pair bond)
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Cultural anthropologists generally assume that humans are highly adaptable to a wide range of life circumstances. Less accepted is the qualification that "cultural models can have significant psychic costs for individuals" (Shore 1996:49). The assumption of enormous adaptability has also been challenged by many anthropologists (see Brown 1990 for overview) concerned with the topics of reproduction and family intimacy. For example, some (Ekvall 1968; Levine and Silk 1997) find that the fraternal polyandrous marriage system is unstable largely due to sexual and emotional factors, rather than economic considerations. Research on co-wife relationships in polygynous families find them to be emotionally unsatisfactory for the majority of participants (Al-Krenawi 1999; Al-Krenawi and Graham 1999; Chisholm and Burbank 1991; Hill and Hurtado 1996; Jankowiak 2001 ; Meekers and Franklin 1995; Strassman 1997; Ware 1980). However, other researchers (Borgerhoff-Mulder 1992; Kilbride 1994; Madhavan 2002; Mason 1982) report that under certain circumstances, women living in a polygynous family system enjoy material and emotional satisfaction.
This article examines the effect of structural and psychological factors on co-wife conflict and co-operation. Specifically, it seeks to determine whether a pair-bond impulse is present in every culture, and if so, whether it undermines co-wife co-operation. Unlike previous studies of co-wife conflict and co-operation that focus only on one culture or a single geographical region, we have expanded the scope to include co-wife interactions in cultures from all over the world. We also identify the material, social, and emotional factors that can undermine or strengthen co-wife bonds. Examining how individuals respond to the polygynous family allows for a more thorough exploration of the polygynous family's divisiveness. To this end, we use the reasons for co-wife conflict as a means to identify anxieties within the polygynous family.
EXPLANATIONS FOR CO-WIFE CONFLICT AND CO-OPERATION
The conceptual frameworks of behavioral ecology and evolutionary psychology are two of the more predominant explanatory schemes used to account for variation and continuities in polygynous family life. Although the two frameworks can form a unified theory, most researchers emphasize either the cultural variations or the continuity in their data. The behavioral ecologist Monique Borgerhoff-Mulder (1988, 1989, 1992) argues that material and related structural factors exert an enormous impact on shaping the quality of co-wife interaction, and that the degree to which a woman is materially dependent on her husband determines her willingness to co-operate or compete with a co-wife over material resources and reproductive considerations. From this it follows that the greater a wife's material dependence on her husband, the more frequent and Intense will be her conflicts with a co-wife. If co-wife conflicts arise more from structural factors, there may be societies where they are muted or absent.
Borgerhoff-Mulder's (1989, 1992) research finds that because women's material dependence on their husbands is markedly reduced among East African herders (e.g., Masai, Samburu, Kipisgis, Sebei), there is a marked reduction in co-wife conflict combined with a noticeable increase in co-wife co-operation. This is indeed the case, but we have a different understanding of its cause. We argue that reduced conflict arises less from a woman's decreased material dependence on a husband than from her sexual and emotional satisfaction.
In contrast to the behavioral ecology framework, the evolutionary psychology perspective focuses less on variation than on the identification of underlying universals that affect an individual's reaction to kinds of human interaction. It also has sought the presence of sex-linked differences in men's and women's mate selection criteria (Symons 1979), reaction to a spouse's infidelity (Shackelford et al. 2004), and parenting styles (Hrdy 1999). This research also has explored traits common to both men and women (Brown 1990; Barrett, Dunbar, and Lycett 2002). Although the human pair bond is often implied in the literature, there is no attempt to document where it also constitutes a human universal. Some cultural anthropologists (Bohannan 1995; Harrell 1997) suggest that the pair bond is a byproduct of community social organization. Others suggest that an impulse to form a pair bond is present in every type of society, even those that strive to deny its existence (de Munck and Korotayev 1999; Gray et al. 2004; Jankowiak and Fischer 1992; Jankowiak 1995; Kaplan and Lancaster 2003; Peachey 2001; Schlegel n.d..).
"Pair bond" refers to an attachment based on a shared sexual intimacy and at times on a deep sense of mutual belonging. It further assumes that men and women have sexual and emotional desires best fulfilled within a dyadic relationship that can endure. In this way, reproductive interest and pair-bond attachment are intertwined. A pair bond is thus not a casual relationship, nor is it necessarily lifelong in duration. The impulse to form a pair bond is ubiquitous, albeit in different proportions, even in societies that discourage its formation; e.g., those with arranged marriages or the polygynous family. People in a viable pair bond assume that sexual fidelity is important for both partners. They tend, therefore, to be involved in monitoring and preventing their partner's extramarital sexual behavior (Jankowiak and Ramsey 2000; Jankowiak, Nell, and Buckmaster 2002).
In most societies, the pair bond is associated with a desire for long-term mating or marriage. There are exceptions. It was common, for example, among the upper classes of early-nineteenth-century Russia to form intense love bonds outside of marriage, as Tolstoy portrayed in his fiction. A pattern of emotional and reproductive bifurcation is also found among the Masai and Samburu herders of East Africa, some Middle Eastern Bedouin groups, and in numerous Amazonian cultures (Beckerman and Valentine 2002; Gregor 1985; Lizot 1985; Crocker and Crocker 2004). This suggests that men and women's sexual, emotional, and material interests structure co-wife interaction. Yet there are few analyses of co-wife interaction that explore whether the presence of a pair-bond inclination promotes co-wife conflict and thereby undermines co-operative exchanges in polygyny.
In not attending to the importance of the pair bond, anthropologists have overlooked a factor that can produce co-wife resentment, hostility, and conflict. Due to differences in reproductive interests, co-wife conflict is seldom simple or fleeting. This is not to suggest that other behavioral ecology factors do not influence a woman's decision or willingness to remain in a polygynous family. Issues such as birth order, the number of children a woman has, the presence of an ethos of sharing, a woman's physical limitations, the need for child-care assistance, or related reproductive concerns may all be determining factors for the willingness of women in some subsistence systems to stifle or mute their desire for sexual and emotional exclusivity. However, the presence of these ecological factors does not negate the importance of the pair bond as a potential disrupting factor that can undermine co-wives' ability to get along with each other.
HYPOTHESES
Our first hypotheses are linked to an overarching behavioral ecology model:
1) Co-wife conflict and co-operation are a function of the degree of social complexity or stratification present within a society. The greater the complexity in a society, the greater the possibility for envy and resentment to arise.
2) A corollary hypothesis states that co-wife conflict is related to the degree a woman is dependent on her husband for material support. From this it follows that co-wife conflict will be more prevalent in societies where women are responsible for material production. Thus, African societies where women form the core laboring group should have the least conflict compared to societies where women are not the primary source of production....
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