Get 3 audiobooks free with a 30-Day Free Trial Sign Up Free

Polygamy: A Very Short Introduction

Read by:
Holly Adams
Read Read Own Own

Unabridged Audiobook

Listen Free Now
  • Listen free with a 30-day free trial
  • Choose 2 bonus VIP books
  • Enjoy 10,000 always free books
Ratings
Book
Narrator
Release Date
March 8, 2022
Duration
4 hours 23 minutes
Summary
Marriage has not always meant just one man and one woman. For much of human history, the most common alternative was polygamy: marriage involving more than one spouse. However, polygamy has come to symbolize a problematic, even 'barbaric,' form of marriage that is often labeled as 'backwards,' embodying the oppression of women by men.



In Polygamy: A Very Short Introduction, Sarah M. S. Pearsall explores what plural marriages reveal about the inner workings of marriage and describes the controversies surrounding it. The book emphasizes the diversity of historical polygamist societies, from the Shi'ite Muslims and Wendat men who practiced short-term marriages to the Mixteca, Maori, Inca, Algonquin, and Marta indigenous people of North America and the Pacific Islands. Pearsall also explains the divides within Christianity that led to Joseph Smith's establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism).



Polygamy: A Very Short Introduction looks at how polygamous domestic and sexual relationships have influenced larger dynamics of power, gender, rank, race, and religion in societies all over the world, while also attempting to untangle the paradox of female constraint and liberty for women who advocated for polygamy, arguing that plural marriage offered security and stability rather than restraint for women.
Polygamy: A Very Short Introduction

Polygamy: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Sarah M.S. Pearsall
Read by: Holly Adams
Listen Free Now Get any book plus
2 bonus VIP books
1 book added to cart
Subtotal
$12.99
View Cart