The term polygyny (neo-
Greek: poly+gune Many + Wives) is used in related ways in social anthropology and sociobiology.In
social anthropology polygyny refers to the practice of having more than one wife at the same time. This is the most common form of
polygamy. Polygynous marriage must be differentiated from polygamy in sexual partners. Monogamy, for example, may occur alongside sexually polygynous relations, such as Concubinage, casual sexual partners, paramours, recognized secondary partners, and a range of other patterns.
Marriage itself takes an enormous range of forms cross-culturally. In
biology, excluding references to marriage, polygyny would refer to a
mating practice in which a male has more than one female sexual partner. (The opposite form—where a female has more than one male sexual partner —is known as
polyandry). In
eusocial insects polygyny refers to situations where colonies have multiple queens, and polyandry refers to queens that mate with several males. There are extensive
cross-cultural research findings on polygyny by social anthropologists and others.
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