African Americans and Need for Polygamy Research Paper

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Place of polygamy in the contemporary society

Preamble

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary (2018), polygamy is the practice in marriage where one of the partners, of either sex, has more than one mate at the same. In the more contextually known setting is that a man gets to have more than one wife at the same time and commits to each of them as a husband. This is the definition that is more widely known, maybe because it is the arrangement that is socially experienced and acceptable in some societies spread across the globe. In the American concept, legally and socially and to some extent morally, polygamy has not been accepted as a normal way of life. There is that tendency to insist and emphasize on one partner at one time, such that if the partner would like to get into another relationship, then she or he has to obtain a legal separation and divorce before officially committing to the next relationship. This has however not worked well with most relationships within the USA and this can be seen in the 2015 statistics which pegged the rate at 16.9% divorces for every 1,000 married women of ages 15 years. Though this is still a high rate, it is considered as having dropped from the higher rate of 17.6% in 2014 (Abrams A., 2016).

Thesis

The legalization and socially acceptance of polygamy particularly among the African Americans will significantly reduce the social menace of single parenthood, high rates of divorces and effectively manage the sex population disparity of more women than men.

Theory

The main theory employed in this particular research is the social relations approach which gives the conceptualization of the social roles and the gender relations and how these roles, attributes, power, capabilities and privileges determine the access to resources that men and women have respectively, within the household sphere and beyond (Newbury E., 2017). It is upon this theory that the conceptual foundation of this research will be based to focus on the practice and experiences of polygamy especially in African societies, and how these models can be replicated into the African American society for the good of the society without destabilizing the existing community structure. This theory establishes that with the social gender roles correctly distributed, it is possible to have polygamy well established in any society and work well like I any other.

This theory is further supported by the feminist anthropological framework which takes on the perspective that gender, sex and sexuality are mere constructs and categorizations rather than biological or natural. This theory proposes the use of historical perspectives as well as localized analysis to addressing inequalities within the particular specific cultural contexts. This theory rejects the use of biology and religion or god to justify the rejection of polygamy (Dominguez J., Franks M. & Boschman J., 2009). This theory emphasizes that social institutions like marriage are culturally constructed and only shows the connotation of being natural. Hence, the practices and ideas that come from such institutions and ideologies appear to be natural and have a deep influence on shaping ideologies.

Opposing view

There those perspectives that oppose the continued practice of polygamy or the proposal to reintroduce and encourage it in any society.

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Their argument is that polygamy is detrimental to the women in the marriage who do not get sufficient space and chance to obtain and express their full value, being there are other alternatives. Grossbard S., (2013) further indicates that the age gape between the man and the women who come into the relationship later on is wide hence high chances of early widowhood. In such arrangements, the opposing team argues that the men can easily obtain divorce unlike the women and the custody of the child is the autonomous right of the father. Women are often isolated. There are several other similar arguments ranging from the legal aspect to the moral grounds, but none has been able to offer an efficient alternative that would sort out the high numbers of children without parents, women raining families as single mothers and the increasing imbalance in the sex population with more women than men being an ever present phenomenon.

Methodology

In order to obtain the data herein, the research was based on extensive use of literature on the subject, content analysis and case analyses. The literature review was guided through topical approach to the subject. Online books and peer reviewed articles and reliable educational websites formed an important part of the literature review. In the process of literature review, the religious and social as well anthropological content guided the choice of the material to use. This was a strong inclusion criteria that was seen as instrumental in formulating relevant material for the research topic. In as much as there are opinions both supporting and opposing the topic, the mainstay of the paper is to find those that had strong support for the topic in content and perspective.

Discussion

The issue of polygamy cannot be wished away in a society that is in realistic touch with itself. There are various reasons why the challenges that the contemporary society can be solved by allowing and not stigmatizing polygamy. This discussion will be based primarily on the African American society due to the fact that it is herein that high numbers of single mothers exist and there is a high sex population disparity. It is estimated that majority of the African American youth (67%) live in single parent households (Parent J., 2013). This means that there are many women who are not married yet they have children or long to be in a marriage setup, a fact that cannot be allowed by the law. There is need to legalize polygamy as a measure towards reducing the number of single parents particularly single mothers. With the legalization of polygamy in the US, the African American population will highly since the single mothers will have a good number of them established in stable marriages and significantly reduce the number of single mothers. Through the adoption of the polygamous system, there will be several domestic issues that will be solved since the second woman will become part of the legal marriage hence get catered for within that social setting.

The acceptance of polygamy will also go a long way in lowering the high rates of divorce among African Americans s it stands now. The American populace shows a striking disparity in marriage patterns.....

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