When Brothers Share a Wife

This article discussed a form of marriage in Tibet called fraternal polyandry in which multiple brothers take the same wife. Though in some regions only one brother takes part in the formal ceremony, all brothers are involved in the marriage. If a brother is very young at the time of the marriage, he usually joins the marriage in his midteens. The oldest brother is the head of the household, though all brothers share in their duties equally. The wife is expected to treat the brothers the same, though this sometimes causes conflict in situations where the wife and brother are very far apart in age. There is no attempt made to determine the true parentage of children, and all brothers serve as fathers to the children. The children in turn treat all brothers as fathers, even if they know who their biological father is. Fraternal polyandry is designed to keep property in the family, eliminating the division of property that occurs when children start separate households. Keeping all family property in one family contributes to a higher quality of life then if the property had been fragmented. This makes fraternal polyandry an attractive form of marriage, especially since if a brother does choose to leave the family he is often given little or nothing at all of family property. Fraternal polyandry is also attractive to woman, as multiple husbands means multiple incomes to take care of her and her children. Fraternal polyandry also serves as a population control method. There is no shortage of woman of reproductive age in Tibet, and with fraternal polyandry only a certain percentage of those woman marry. Married woman have many more children than unmarried woman, this control on the population reduces the strain on available resources.

As I read this article it made me wonder why fraternal polyandry is not as common as polygamy. Is it because in other societies it would make someone "less of a man" to share a wife with his brothers, or that one man's accumulation of wealth and woman is a status symbol? It seems to me that fraternal polyandry would make alot of sense in societies where wealth is divided among the men of the family, or handed down only to the oldest son. The extra income per household makes sense in poorer nations as well, as does the built-in population control. I don't think this would work in the US because we place such a high value on monogomy, but in societies which already practice polygamy this makes sense. However, jobs and rights would have to awarded to the "leftover" women who don't marry, or this would just result in wealthy families and a very poor population of single woman.