Consequences of Polygamous Marriage on Christian Home
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study are;
- To identify the consequences of polygamous family unit on the Christian in Oredo local government area
- To highlight the factors which gave rise to polygamous family unit
- To offer suggestion that will bring about lasting solution to this menace.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
CONCEPT OF POLYGAMOUS
Polygamy means multiple spouses. The most common form is polygyny, where a man can have many wives. Less common, but found in some societies such as Tibet, is polyandry, where a woman can have many husbands. Polygyny was accepted or even preferred in three/fourths of preindustrial traditional societies, though it was seldom practiced by the commoners or lower classes. It tended to occur most frequently in societies where the route to winning wealth and political power was through attracting followers or having lots of sons to hunt for the family head or defend the family’s land. So a man might marry several wives and have them produce textiles he could trade, or grow food for elaborate feasts he could use to put poorer members of the community in his debt. In other cases, wealthy men accumulated many wives to produce more sons. It was very common for kings and other royalty to have many wives, both as a way to make alliances with other states or noble families and to ensure that they would have plenty of heirs. The king of the Merina in the highlands of Madagascar had twelve wives, each with a palace in a different part of his country. He stayed with whichever one was nearest when he traveled through the kingdom, thus avoiding the juggling problems that are fictionally portrayed in the HBO series, “Big Love.” It takes a certain amount of wealth to support more than one wife, but in many preindustrial societies, having several wives increased a man’s wealth and political power rather than being a drain on his resources. Polygyny is not usually associated with a high status for women, and in many cultures it involved very young women being forced to marry older men. Still, in a society where gender roles are very rigid and women do most of the work around the farm and household, some women like having a co-wife. In Botswana, women have an interesting twist on the old saying “a woman’s work is never done.” They say “without co-wives, a woman’s work is never done.” Such women claim that having other wives to help meet some of their husband’s demands and to share the child-rearing gives them more freedom than women in monogamous unions. An example of this from America can be found among the Plains Indians. The traditional division of labor between men and women, where man hunted and women tanned the hides, was pretty evenly divided in the old days. But when the men acquired guns and horses from the Europeans and started to kill more buffalo for the fur trade, the most successful and richest hunters began to marry more wives. The age of marriage fell, and restrictions on women’s independence became harsher. Yet some women actually welcomed the extra help when their husband took more wives. A researcher who worked with the Cheyenne Indians in the 1930s and 1940s told the story of a chief who wanted to get rid of two of his three wives. The wives joined ranks and said that if he sent two away, he would have to send the third as well. Polygyny is not so much about sex as it is about hoarding the productive and reproductive labor of women. It has often been used to deny younger men access to wives and hence to adult status, increasing the authority of older men over younger ones. There are easier ways for a man to get sex, if that’s all he wants, and cheaper ones too, in societies where women’s labor is not essential to family subsistence. Polygamous societies are often ones where both men and women are more emotionally invested in their relations with siblings and parents than in their marriage relations. The main tensions among wives in polygynous societies are not usually about sex, but about the distribution of resources among the wives and to their children. In many ancient kingdoms, these tensions often led to one wife plotting to kill the children of another. Polygamy of either sort is far less common than it used to be, and is now concentrated in Africa, the Middle East, India, Thailand, and Indonesia. The trend over the past century has been toward limiting polygamy. Some societies have introduced a gradual reduction in the number of wives permitted, while others have relegated the status of secondary wives to that of concubines, and some have outlawed it outright. The Mormons are an exceptional case of polygyny being adopted in an industrializing society. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began in 1830 with a revelation about the role of Jesus in the New World. Early Mormons condemned much of nineteenth century Christianity as a corruption of the true church, and sought to return to a purer faith, one which harkened back to God’s ancient law. Among other important innovations, Smith’s 1843 Revelation on Celestial Marriage reinstituted polygyny, and referred to the law of the family followed by Biblical patriarchs. Patriarchal marriage, as it was often called, was believed to elevate the family in this world and the next, and those involved in polygyny had access to higher levels of salvation. They were also the leaders of the church in this world. Smith never lived openly with his plural wives, but when the Mormons migrated to Utah after Smith’s martyrdom, polygyny was more openly practiced. Brigham Young had more than 50 wives. Nineteen of them were connubial wives, and they bore him 56 children. However, the U.S. government moved to penalize Mormons through a series of federal statutes that outlawed polygamy and limited the power of the Mormon Church to acquire property (1862); provided that non-Mormons could serve on juries (1874); punished the practice of living with more than one wife (1882); and forfeited Church property (1887). The Supreme Court upheld these statutes, despite Mormon claims to a right to practice their faith without outside interference. In 1890, the church president issued a Manifesto forgoing plural marriage. Some Mormons persisted in the practice and a relatively small number of new polygamous marriages were celebrated after the Manifesto, but since 1904 the Church has had a policy of excommunicating followers who practice it. Groups of disaffected former Mormons, who have generally refused to accept the Manifesto, have formed polygamous communities or enclaves. Some communities are isolated in rural locations, while others exist in more settled and populous areas. These groups have stimulated much public discussion and debate. Advocacy groups such as Tapestry Against Polygamy, composed of former plural wives, are countered by defenders of polygyny such as the women who wrote Harmony of Polygamy.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research design
The researcher used descriptive research survey design in building up this project work the choice of this research design was considered appropriate because of its advantages of identifying attributes of a large population from a group of individuals. The design was suitable for the study as the study sought consequences of polygamous marriage on Christian home
Sources of data collection
Data were collected from two main sources namely:
(i)Primary source and
(ii)Secondary source
Primary source:
These are materials of statistical investigation which were collected by the research for a particular purpose. They can be obtained through a survey, observation questionnaire or as experiment; the researcher has adopted the questionnaire method for this study.
Secondary source:
These are data from textbook Journal handset etc. they arise as byproducts of the same other purposes. Example administration, various other unpublished works and write ups were also used.
Population of the study
Population of a study is a group of persons or aggregate items, things the researcher is interested in getting information consequences of polygamous marriage on Christian home. 200 selected polygamous residents in Oredo local government of Edo state was selected randomly by the researcher as the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION OF DATA
Introduction
Efforts will be made at this stage to present, analyze and interpret the data collected during the field survey. This presentation will be based on the responses from the completed questionnaires. The result of this exercise will be summarized in tabular forms for easy references and analysis. It will also show answers to questions relating to the research questions for this research study. The researcher employed simple percentage in the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain consequences of polygamous marriage on Christian home. In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of polygamous marriage on Christian home
Summary
This study was on consequences of polygamous marriage on Christian home. Three objectives were raised which include: to identify the consequences of polygamous family unit on the Christian in Oredo local government area, to highlight the factors which gave rise to polygamous family unit, to offer suggestion that will bring about lasting solution to this menace. In line with these objectives, two research hypotheses were formulated and two null hypotheses were posited. The total population for the study is 200 selected polygamous residents in Oredo local government of Edo state. The researcher used questionnaires as the instrument for the data collection. Descriptive Survey research design was adopted for this study. A total of 133 respondents made of husbands, wives, male children and female children were used for the study. The data collected were presented in tables and analyzed using simple percentages and frequencies
Conclusion
We began this study by the statement of the polygamy issue which includes the definition of the term, polygamy, as well as the historical background of the issue. lt has been demonstration that although polygamy has been practiced in many societies for centuries, it has been, nevertheless, an African issue. Throughout history, scholars have not agreed on a uniform manner of dealing with polygamy in the church.
Recommendation
That polygamy must be ridden off is beyond argumentation. However, this practice is still heavily embedded in the psyche of many Africans as an acceptable practice. To dislodge it in the minds of its practitioners and secure a shift of conviction would require the subjection of its supporters to extensive sensitization coupled women empowerment efforts. As Fanon (2004: 230) explains, ‘sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize it, ignore and even deny anything that does not fit in with the core belief. Despite defenses to be put up by its practitioners, the denials and rationalizations that Fanon talks about, the movement against polygamy must not relent until polygamy falls.
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