Polygamy is NOT Polyamoury

Polygamy or as it is sometimes called plural marriage, is one man with many wives. It is an extension of monogamy and approved of in the old testament, along with holding of slaves. It is inherent in the Judeao-Christian-Islamic patriarchical religions. It is also a key element of Mormonism, which is a psuedo-Christian sect, one that is the largest fastest growing religions in the United States. While the Mormons today renounce polygamy, it is in Utah where it is practiced the most, as it once was in Canada.

It is not the communist polygamy that Engels speaks of as existing prior to the privatization of property relations. That form of common property holding was held by women, and was the basis of matrilinear descent.

Nor is it polyamoury the movement begun in the sixties with the writings of Robert Rimmer and Robert Heinlein. The new ployamoury movement is about equality, and open marriage, a recognition that monotheism=monogamy. While real human relationships are communal, cooperative and voluntary. It is the libertarian ideal of Free Love taken to its logical communist conclusion.

See my aticles: Marx on Bygamy and What Has Love Got To Do With It.

So polygamy is back in the news again..... Whats interesting is that it is being discussed in the context of rights. Womens and childrens rights versus religious rights (of the religious right, since Mormons are strong supporters of the neo-con right). The B.C. government avoids the religious issue by dealing with it as a criminal case of abuse.

Polygamy violates rights: Ottawa

Study says Canada breaking international law by turning blind eye to polygamist communities
A Canadian report says that the country's laissez-faire attitude towards a polygamist community violates its obligation to protect women and children.

The practice of polygamy is illegal. But men in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints have been allowed to have multiple wives without prosecution, Canwest News Service said.

"Polygamy is a violation of international law," Rebecca Cook, a University of Toronto law professor who wrote the report, said. "Canada has an obligation as a matter of international law to take all appropriate steps."

Her report was commissioned by the former Liberal government.

BC attorney general says he's more worried about sex assault than polygamy

But what about the boys eraised in polygamous marriages?

Global Televsion does a documentary on the fact that patriarchical religious polygamy replicates the pack tradition of other species like male lions, where the old men chase away the younger men to keep their pride to themselves. As it is written in the Old Testament. All the patriarchs who had multiple wives were the old men of Judah.

'Lost boys' of polygamy tell their stories
It's simple arithmetic in polygamous societies such as Bountiful, B.C. Some men get many wives, others get none.

It's usually older men who get second, third and sometimes more wives -- brides who are usually teenagers.

Left behind are angry, frustrated young men. Not only can they not choose their mates, they have been told that it's against Church rules to date or even socialize with girls their age.

A few lucky young men do get wives. But it can feel like entrapment. One day they wake up and are told they're marrying a stranger for "time and all eternity" in the words of the fundamentalist Mormon faith's marriage ceremony.

There was one exception, to David and the patriarchs practice of polygamy. Solomon who was crowned by his mother and who practiced a different kind of polygamy, one that recognized the power and prestige of the priestesses of the Goddess cults that surrounded Jerusalem. Solomon was a matriaist, and followed matrilineal descent for his power base, hence Israel was finally at peace with its neighbours and Solomon could build the famous temple that would become the icon for all time for the power of Israel within Jewish and Christian mythology. See my article: Historical Revisionism

Back in February the right wing neo-cons were outraged over the initial report that found polygamy did not violate Canadian laws because of the contradiction between religious freedom, something of course they demand we practice as long as its their brand of Judeo-Christianity, and criminal civil law. Hence the Cook report.

They used the inital report to denounce Canada's liberal same sex laws as leading to the decline of Western Civilization, that is the acceptance of polygamy. Except that they avoided dealing with ther simple fact that polygamy is based on the Old Testament testament teachings, whether it is practiced by Mormons, who like them are social conservatives, or by Muslims, who like them are Abrahamic patriarchs.

In the case of Stanley Kurtz he deliberately confused polyamoury with polygamy. His purpose was clear, to attack open marriage as advocated by the polyamourists, to attack free love, just as his predecesors did a century ago when they attacked the free love movement that was about allowing women the right to choose whom they married and the right to divorce. See my Happy Birthday Mrs. Satan.

February 03, 2006, 8:05 a.m.
Dissolving Marriage
If everything is marriage, then nothing is.

Ultimate Goal

Bailey may not openly flog her ultimate goal of abolishing marriage in this report. Yet what Bailey’s up to is clear enough when she carefully describes a 1998 report by the British Columbia Law Institute in which a “significant minority” of members favored a “multiple domestic partnership” system detached from the patriarchal “baggage” of traditional polygamy. This is exactly what Bailey is hoping to establish. Yet she brackets the proposal by saying that at the moment there is “no demand” for such a system.

Not so, as this 2005 Macleans article on Canadian polyamory explains. According to Macleans, polyamory “seems increasingly common” in Canada. And as organized polyamory groups proliferate, there has already been discussion “about creating a system of legal contracts around issues such as child custody and family rights.”

Since polyamory is free of the “patriarchal baggage” attached to traditional polygamy, most of the arguments against multi-partner unions in the four just-released polygamy reports would not apply. Of course there are arguments against polyamory, it’s just that liberal law professors don’t know how to make them. In any case, Bailey is shrewd enough to see that, if she can only get Canada to set aside its laws against polygamy, the goal of supplementing (and eventually replacing) marriage with a modern domestic partnership system (allowing any combination of number or gender) would be achievable.

I’ve focused on Bailey, while touching only lightly on the three other polygamy reports. Yet taken together, these four extraordinary documents launch a serious public debate about polygamy. (I’ll have more to say about the other reports in time.) The four Canadian polygamy studies are a time-capsule from the future, a preview of the argument we’ll be having should same-sex marriage be fully established here in the United States. Once we’re there, we’ll be well on our way toward “removing conjugality as a marker for determining legal rights and obligations.” Translation? By now I think you get it.

A marriage of many?
Is gay marriage a slippery slope toward legal polygamy, or are conservative warnings a red herring?

By RYAN LEE
Friday, February 24, 2006

Each time Dani Eyer attends a forum to advocate marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples, she knows the first question to expect at the end of her speech.


A 'Conservative' Shows Her Liberalism, Opposing Polygamy Rights
Date: Feb 16, 2006
Word Count: 3000 words
Cross-Reference: Debra Saunders, "same sex marriage", polygamy rights


Three's a crowd, four's a marriage
*HBO's "Big Love" probes the polygamists next door. It's family values of the provocative kind.

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
polyamoury, free-love, polygamy, Mormons, Bountiful, B.C., Utah, mormonism, old-testament, Katz, Cook, Government, Canada, parliament, Liberals, Conservatives, child-abuse, women, open-marriage, saame-sex-marriage, gay-marriage, gay, Rimmer, Heinlein, Solomon, Abrahamic, patriarch, patriarchical, Engels, Marx, communism,

Polygamy: Muslim women in India fight 'abhorrent' practice

Geeta Pandey - BBC News, Delhi
Tue, May 10, 2022,

A Muslim bride in India

A 28-year-old Muslim woman's petition to a court, seeking to prevent her husband from taking another wife without her written consent, has put the spotlight on the practice of polygamy among Indian Muslims.

Reshma, who uses only one name, also wants the Delhi High Court to order the government to frame laws to regulate the "regressive practice" of bigamy or polygamy.

According to court documents, she married Md Shoeb Khan in January 2019 and in November the following year, they had a baby.

Reshma accuses her husband of domestic violence, cruelty, harassment and dowry demands. He has levelled similar allegations against her.

She also says that he's abandoned her and their baby and he plans to take another wife.

Describing his action as "unconstitutional, anti-sharia, illegal, arbitrary, harsh, inhuman and barbaric", she says "this practice needs to be regulated to curb the plight of Muslim women".

While the court dwells on their acrimonious relationship and the legality of polygamy, the case has stirred a debate on the practice which is illegal in India except among Muslims and some tribal communities.

About 2% of the global population lives in polygamous households, according to Pew Research Centre's 2019 report. The practice is banned in much of the world, including in Muslim-majority countries such as Turkey and Tunisia, and is extensively regulated in most countries where it is allowed. The UN has described it as "an inadmissible discrimination against women" and called for it to "be definitely abolished".

But in India, the issue is a political hot potato. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised to enact a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) - a contentious piece of legislation that will mean marriages, divorces and inheritance will no longer be governed by their religious law but will come under a common law applicable to all citizens.

And at a time when the country is highly polarised along religious lines, any reform suggested by the government is bound to be considered an onslaught on Islam by a majority of Muslims.

SY Qureshi, former chief election commissioner and scholar of Islam, says in India, "the general perception is that every other Muslim has four wives" and that they have numerous children which will eventually lead to Muslims outnumbering Hindus, but that is not true. (Only 14% of India's 1.3 billion people are Muslims while Hindus make up 80% of the population.)

Muslim men in India are allowed to marry up to four women and the sanction for polygamy, he says, comes from the Quran, but it's permitted only under "strict conditions and restrictions" which are almost impossible to fulfil.

"The Quran says that a man can take a second or a third or a fourth wife but only from among orphans and widows and that he must treat them all equally. Anything else is a violation. But loving equally is almost impossible in practice. It's not just about buying them same clothes, it is much more than that," he adds.

A Muslim marriage

The guidance on polygamy, Mr Qureshi says, was included in the Quran in the 7th Century amid tribal warfare in Arabia when a lot of men died young and polygamy was meant to help widows and orphans. "Otherwise, Quran actually discourages the practice and looks down upon it."

Critics such as women's rights activist Zakia Soman say that today there's no war in India and polygamy - a "misogynistic and patriarchal" practice - must be banned.

Founder of the Mumbai-based Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (BMMA - Indian Muslim Women's Movement), Ms Soman says polygamy is "abhorrent - morally, socially and legally" and the fact that "it's legally allowed makes it problematic".

"How can you say that one man can have more than one wife? The community has to move ahead with the times. In today's day and age, it's a gross violation of a woman's dignity and human rights."

In 2017, the BMMA surveyed 289 women who were in polygamous relationships and queried them about their physical, mental, emotional and financial status. They have released a report chronicling 50 cases.

Muslim women fight against instant divorce

The women who sleep with a stranger to save their marriage

"We found that they were trapped in situations that were hugely unjust and for all of them, it had been a traumatic experience and many had developed mental health issues," Ms Soman says.

The BMMA, which had earlier campaigned extensively against the controversial practice of instant divorce in Islam until it was banned a few years back, petitioned the Supreme Court in 2019, calling for a ban on polygamy.

There are other legal challenges too, including one by Ashwini Kumar Dubey, a lawyer and leader of India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

This has led to accusations from conservative Muslims that it's an interference in their religion.

"In Islam, laws are divine, we look up to the Quran and Hadith for directions. No man has the right to change what was made lawful by Allah," says Dr Asma Zohra, head of the women's wing of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) which is opposing Mr Dubey's petition in court.

Polygamy among Muslims, she says, is "rare and a non-issue" and accuses the BJP of pursuing a "majoritarian agenda to dictate to the minority community".

"Have you ever come across a Muslim man who has four wives? In the year 2022, most men say it's hard to support one wife, leave alone supporting four. And the rate of polygamous marriages is the least in the Muslim community."

Her assertion is based on the data that found polygamy prevalent amongst all religions - a survey based on the sample size of 100,000 marriages by the Census of India in 1961 showed polygamy among Muslims to be 5.7%, the lowest among all communities.

Percentage of population by religion that is polygamous

The subsequent Census have been silent on the issue and most recent data on polygamy comes from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) of 2005-06 which shows a steep decline in the numbers for all religions:

Polygamy has declined among all religions

"Since this data is quite outdated, we have to look at the trends. So if we analyse the Census data from 1930 to 1960, there was a consistent decline in polygamy among all communities and in each decade, it was lowest among the Muslims," says Mr Qureshi, adding that the NFHS study is the only exception.

In his 2021 book The Population Myth: Islam, Family Planning and Politics in India, Mr Qureshi calls on the Muslim community to demand a ban on polygamy. "If it's not practised widely, then what do you have to lose by a ban?" he asks.

The reason for that, Dr Zohra says, are religious - and political.

How Muslim women fought, and won, divorce battle

What a breakfast murder says about wife beating in India

"It's people saying Muslims are so rigid, but the provision is in the holy book and no-one can change that. Many tribal communities in the north-east have multiple wives and no-one targets them, then why do you target us? It's part of Islamophobia."

All this talk of a ban on polygamy, she says, is an attack on the community, an "interference in their personal religious laws".

Ms Soman agrees that at a time when the country is polarised along religious lines, Muslims are suspicious of the BJP government's intentions.

But, she says, that "if we don't set our house in order, others will come and do it - and they may have an agenda".

"But polygamy is a practice which, in the end, is violative of women's rights and it must go."

Data interpretation and graphics by BBC's Shadab Nazmi

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2006/10/polygamy-is-not-polyamoury.html

POLYGAMY IS NOT POLYAMOURY

Polygamy down sharply, in line with incomes in post-pandemic Malaysia

The decline was attributed largely to the syariah court’s concerns that the husbands would not be able to support multiple wives financially. 

ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

Zunaira Saieed
Malaysia Correspondent
APR 21, 2024,


KUALA LUMPUR – The number of Malaysian Muslims practising polygamy legally fell by almost half in the past five years, with more than one-third of such applications to marry another woman rejected by the Syariah Court.

The rejections during this period were mainly on the grounds that the men were financially incapable of supporting additional wives.

Muslim men in Malaysia who wish to enter into a polygamous union – having more than one wife at the same time – must meet the requirements set by syariah law and obtain special permission from the courts.


Polygamous marriages fell by about 47 per cent in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah to 1,609 in 2023 from 3,064 in 2019, according to data from the Syariah Judiciary Department, provided by the Religious Affairs Ministry. Data for Sarawak is compiled separately by that state and could not be immediately obtained.

The fall in polygamous unions was attributed largely to the Syariah Court’s concerns that the husbands would not be able to support multiple wives financially, or be able to treat all wives equally, Religious Affairs Minister Mohd Na’im Mokhtar said.

“The falling income of men that was led by the slowdown in Malaysia’s economy from the pandemic was also one of the factors that possibly resulted in the decline of polygamous marriages,” he told The Straits Times.

In fact, the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic (2020 to 2022) had led to about 20 per cent of the country’s middle-income group slipping into the lower-income category, then Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a written parliamentary reply in 2021.

Still, there are those who can afford to pursue polygamy.

One standout case is that of Malaysian singer Azline Ariffin, 42, also known as Ezlynn, who publicly disclosed in March 2024 that she had tried searching for a second wife for her husband, so she could focus on her career. Her husband, Mr Wan Mohd Hafizam, 47, married his second wife, a 26-year-old doctor, on March 2023.

“I am a busy person, and going on long trips makes me feel uneasy and restless. At the very least, there is someone else to take care of things and I can focus on my work,” said Ms Azline, who sparked an online debate over polygamy.

While Ms Azline’s desire for a second spouse for Mr Wan was unusual, the law does not need her nod for him to marry a second time.

But it has been reported that there have been numerous cases of Malaysian Muslim men who do not register their additional marriages in Malaysia but instead marry abroad, as they are fearful of informing their existing wives.

Women’s rights activists say legal loopholes have enabled husbands to get married abroad, letting them skip the negotiation process with the first wife and register the marriage in Malaysia legally after that.

In Malaysia, the Syariah Court’s decision to approve polygamous unions hinges on factors such as the husband’s income, financial commitments like alimony payments and debts, as well as the first wife’s wishes on the matter, Dr Na’im said.

Malaysian MP slammed for saying polygamy could resolve late marriage issue

Malaysian women’s advocacy group Sisters in Islam’s (SIS) legal officer Syafiqah Fikri told ST that its female clients were primarily concerned about their husbands entering into polygamous marriages without their consent, and ceasing to provide maintenance for them and their children after that.

The unwillingness of Malaysian women in their 30s to accept polygamy could have contributed to the drop in polygamous marriages; the women’s attitudes are a result of more education and economic self-sufficiency, which have also led to the growing number of divorces among Muslims, she said.

“Two-thirds of the female respondents in our findings in 2019 felt that it is fine for a wife to demand divorce if her husband decides to marry another wife,” Ms Syafiqah said. The findings were reported in the SIS survey, Perception And Realities: The Public And Personal Rights Of Muslim Women In Malaysia.

The SIS-commissioned survey by global market research firm Ipsos in 2019 involved interviewing 675 Malaysian Muslim women aged between 18 and 55.

Ms Shehnaz Sulaiman, 37, said she will allow her husband to marry another wife only for a “humanitarian cause”, for example if the woman is a widow who cannot support her children and that is only if he is financially able to cope.

“If it is not for a humanitarian cause, I would file for divorce (though) it is not black and white for me,” said the management consultant.

The divorce rate among Malaysian Muslims jumped by more than 45 per cent to 46,138 in 2022 from 31,650 in 2021, according to the Department of Statistics Malaysia.

Data from the National Population and Family Development Board Malaysia in November indicated that lack of understanding, infidelity and irresponsibility on the part of the husband were the three main causes for divorces in the country.

Although polygamy is legal in Malaysia, its practice remains a hot-button issue among Muslims, who make up about two-thirds of the country’s 33.9 million population.

Opposition Islamist party Parti Se-Islam leader Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said in Parliament in November that polygamous marriages help to address the issue of late-age marriages among women, claiming that there are more than 8.4 million single women in the country.

But there was a public backlash against his comments from the women MPs in the Anwar Ibrahim-led government and social media users.

Utah lawmakers get tough on porn, ease up on polygamy


FILE - In this Jan. 30, 2020, file photo, Republican Rep. Brady Brammer, poses for a portrait at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City. A proposal to require warning labels on pornography in Utah passed the state House on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020, a move an adult-entertainment industry group called a dark day for freedom of expression. Brammer, the lawmaker behind the plan to mandate the labels about potential harm to minors, says it’s aimed at catching the “worst of the worst.”(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah lawmakers voted Tuesday to put new regulations on pornography and remove some on polygamy in separate proposals moving quickly through the Legislature in the deeply conservative state.

Senators voted unanimously to change state law to remove the threat of jail time for consenting adult polygamists, a step that supporters argue will free people in communities that practice plural marriage to report abuses, like children being taken as wives, without fear of prosecution.

A majority of people in Utah belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which had an early history of polygamy but has forbidden it for more than a century.


An hour later, House lawmakers approved a proposal to require pornography to carry warning labels about harm to minors. An adult entertainment industry group called the vote a dark day for freedom of expression.

The faith widely known as the Mormon church declared pornography a public health crisis in 2016, and since then, more than a dozen states have advanced similar proposals.

The labeling proposal from Republican state Rep. Brady Brammer would carry a potential penalty of $2,500 per violation.

“I think it will make a difference,” Brammer said. “It won’t stop every problem related to obscenity, it will not stop all obscenity, but it will move the ball further down the field.”

Republican lawmakers called it a creative solution. The measure would apply to material that appears in Utah in print or online and allow the state and residents to sue producers.

The new measure is narrowly aimed at hardcore obscene material, but the way the law is written could still allow for thousands of lawsuits, said Mike Stabile, a spokesman for the Free Speech Coalition, a pornography and adult entertainment trade group.

“Really it just sort of opens up the floodgates for lawsuits over all sorts of content,” he said.

He also argues the dire harms outlined in the proposed warning label haven’t been proven.

The porn warning labels need to be approved by the Senate, while the reduction in punishments for polygamy must pass the House.

Utah’s restrictive bigamy law is an outgrowth of the church’s history with polygamy. While mainstream members abandoned the practice in 1890, an estimated 30,000 people living in polygamous communities follow teachings that taking multiple wives brings exaltation in heaven.

Utah goes further than other states by prohibiting cohabitation with more than one purported spouse. The measure from Republican Utah Sen. Deidre Henderson would make that an infraction rather than a felony.


Some former members of polygamous groups have spoken against the change, saying it would do little to help victims like those in underage marriages.

Polygamists with Utah ties range from Warren Jeffs, who was convicted of sexually assaulting girls he considered wives, to Kody Brown, whose four wives chose the relationship as adults. The Browns have opened their lives to reality TV cameras in the TLC show “Sister Wives.”

Utah has publicly declined to prosecute otherwise law-abiding polygamists for years. Still, Henderson argues that fears remain, left over from raids where children were separated from their parents.

The new proposal would keep harsher penalties for other crimes sometimes linked to polygamy, including coerced marriage.

“Bad people really can, and have, weaponized the law in order to keep their victims silent and isolated in their control,” she said.


In this Jan. 30, 2020 photo, Republican Rep. Travis Seegmiller poses for a portrait at the Utah State Capitol. A proposal to require warning labels on pornography in Utah passed the state House on Tuesday Feb. 18, 2020, a move an adult-entertainment industry group called a dark day for freedom of expression. "I've had constituents, including some dear friends, bring to me their personal stories of the truly horrific and nightmarish costs their families have suffered because their child has been exposed to these sorts of things," said Seegmiller. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Republican Sen. Deidre Henderson looks on during a hearing Monday, Feb. 10, 2020, in Salt Lake City. Polygamists have lived in Utah since before it became a state, and 85 years after the practice was declared a felony they still number in the thousands. Now, a state lawmaker says it's time to remove the threat of jail time for otherwise law-abiding polygamists. "The law is a failure. It hasn't stopped polygamy at all and it's actually enabled abuse to occur and remain unchecked," said Henderson. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

PATRIARCHICAL CHATTEL OWNERSHIP* NOT POLYAMORY

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Polygamy is illegal in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yet, it is still practised by two percent of the population, like in the church of self-styled pastor Zagabe Chiruza, in the eastern city of Bukavu.

VIDEO https://www.africanews.com/embed/1889604

In 2012, he married three women at the same time in his church. Pastor Zagabe Chiruza, leader of the "Primitive Church of the Lord" is convinced that Polygamy is a divine institution.

"This is the message of the end time. The others who hunt us down, that's their business, but we must go to the end and show the people of God the truth, which is the teaching of polygamy. Meaning a man can marry more than one woman although society is against it, others don't care" he said.

Three live with him under the same roof in Bukavu, the fourth in Bujumbura, Burundi, where some of his children are studying. Yaëlle, one of the wives says she lives in harmony with her co-wives but the situation is different with her neighbours.

"When I was still alone at home, I had a good relationship with all the neighbours. But when my husband got married to other women, all the neighbours cut contact with me, they all ran away. Nowadays, we only greet each other on the way, but they don't visit us anymore, that's how it is."

In an interview with Catholic priest Raymond Kongolo, he explained "Polygamy is a human institution that goes back a long way in our African and traditional Congolese culture". Adding however: "it is not a divine institution".

According to the American research centre Pew Research Center, about 2% of the world's population lives in polygamous households and it is in Africa that the practice is most widespread (11%).

*LIKE SOME MORMONS AND MUSLIMS

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2006/10/polygamy-is-not-polyamoury.html

Polyamory is not Polygamy

More on the polygamy slippery slope

A surprisingly good debate between two Blogging Tories and a gay libertarian on the issue of polygamy, plural marriage/polyamory, and gay marriage.

See my posts:

Polygamy is NOT Polyamoury

Marx on Bigamy

The Sexual Revolution Continues

The Sanctity of Marriage Debate

Polyamory Is Good For The Genes

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
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 POLYAMOURY IS NATURAL & PRODUCTIVE

Sharing the love helps male acorn woodpeckers father more chicks

Males in polygamous breeding groups with one or two other male woodpeckers sire significantly more chicks over their lifetimes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SMITHSONIAN

 

IMAGE: ACORN WOODPECKERS DOING THE SPREAD-WING DISPLAY. RESEARCHERS HAD LONG ASSUMED THAT ACORN WOODPECKERS OPTING FOR A RARE FORM OF POLYGAMY, IN WHICH CO-BREEDING SIBLINGS ARE FORCED TO COMPETE TO MATE, WERE MAKING AN EVOLUTIONARY COMPROMISE. TO RESEARCHERS, THIS SIBLING RIVALRY SEEMED LIKELY TO RESULT IN INDIVIDUAL WOODPECKERS LEAVING BEHIND FEWER OFFSPRING EACH YEAR THAN IF THEY HAD OPTED FOR A MORE TRADITIONAL COUPLED PAIRING WITH A GUARANTEED OPPORTUNITY TO MATE. TO BALANCE OUT THIS SHORT-TERM LOSS OF EVOLUTIONARY FITNESS, RESEARCHERS HYPOTHESIZED THAT THE WOODPECKERS’ POLYGAMY MUST CONFER SOME INDIRECT OR LONG-TERM ADVANTAGES BUT QUANTIFYING THOSE BENEFITS IN WILD POPULATIONS BEFORE THIS STUDY HAD PROVEN EXTREMELY CHALLENGING. BUT NOW, A NEW STUDY PUBLISHED TODAY IN THE JOURNAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B SUGGESTS THAT EVEN COMPLEX COOPERATIVE BREEDING STRATEGIES MAY OFFER DIRECT EVOLUTIONARY BENEFITS OVER AN ANIMAL’S LIFETIME, AND PERHAPS OFFERS CLUES INTO HOW SOCIAL BEHAVIOR FIRST EVOLVED IN HUMANS AND OTHER ANIMALS. THE STUDY FINDS THAT MALE ACORN WOODPECKERS BREEDING POLYGAMOUSLY IN DUOS OR TRIOS OF MALES ACTUALLY FATHERED MORE OFFSPRING THAN MALES BREEDING ALONE WITH A SINGLE FEMALE, CONTRARY TO CONVENTIONAL THINKING AMONG BIOLOGISTS THAT MONOGAMOUS MALES NECESSARILY PRODUCE MORE OFFSPRING THAN THOSE IN POLYGAMOUS GROUPS. view more 

CREDIT: COPYRIGHT STEVE ZAMEK

A new long-term study led by Sahas Barve, a Peter Buck Fellow at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, finds that male acorn woodpeckers breeding polygamously in duos or trios of males actually fathered more offspring than males breeding alone with a single female, contrary to conventional thinking among biologists that monogamous males necessarily produce more offspring than those in polygamous groups. For females, polygamy is less of a slam dunk but co-breeding duos left behind the same number of offspring as the birds that coupled up, while female trios left behind fewer offspring than either group.

The study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, suggests that even complex cooperative breeding strategies may offer direct evolutionary benefits over an animal’s lifetime, and perhaps offers clues into how social behavior first evolved in humans and other animals.

The love life of the typical acorn woodpecker is a complex, polygamous affair. A common arrangement for a male of this species, which inhabits oak savannas from Oregon to Colombia, might be ruling over a patch of woodland alongside two of his brothers and a pair of sisters from another family that the brothers all mate and raise chicks with. Some of the group’s offspring may even hang around their childhood territory for years, not to breed with their parents or aunts and uncles, but to help raise the next generation before striking out to become breeders in other groups.

Researchers had long assumed that the woodpeckers opting for this rare form of polygamy, in which co-breeding siblings are forced to compete to mate, were making an evolutionary compromise. To researchers, this sibling rivalry seemed likely to result in individual woodpeckers leaving behind fewer offspring each year than if they had opted for a more traditional coupled pairing with a guaranteed opportunity to mate. To balance out this short-term loss of evolutionary fitness, researchers hypothesized that the woodpeckers’ polygamy must confer some indirect or long-term advantages, but quantifying those benefits in wild populations before this study had proven extremely challenging.

“For the longest time we have thought polygamous breeding was a compromise, and breeding as couples was considered the gold standard for leaving behind the highest number of chicks,” Barve said. “But you can’t really test that without super-detailed, long-term data. Fortunately, that’s exactly what we had for this study.”

The data underpinning this research spans more than 40 years and tracks 499 individual birds over their entire lifetimes at the 2,500-acre Hastings Natural History Reservation in the Carmel Valley along California’s central coast, where a rotating cast of some 150 scientists and interns has been observing acorn woodpeckers since 1968. Researchers working at the Hastings Reserve recorded each bird’s reproductive output from their first attempt to their last along with information including territory quality, group composition, social standing and genetic data linking parents to their offspring for birds hatched between 1984 and 2006.

CAPTION

Female (left) and male (right) acorn woodpeckers. A new study published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests that even complex cooperative breeding strategies may offer direct evolutionary benefits over an animal’s lifetime, and perhaps offers clues into how social behavior first evolved in humans and other animals. The data underpinning this research spans more than 40 years and tracks 499 individual birds over their entire lifetimes at the 2,500-acre Hastings Natural History Reservation in the Carmel Valley along California’s central coast, where a rotating cast of some 150 scientists and interns has been observing acorn woodpeckers since 1968. Researchers working at the Hastings Reserve recorded each bird’s reproductive output from their first attempt to their last along with information including territory quality, group composition, social standing and genetic data linking parents to their offspring for birds hatched between 1984 and 2006.

CREDIT

Copyright Steve Zamek

Researchers had traditionally explained the evolution of the woodpeckers’ polygamous co-breeding with a concept known as kin selection. In this view, cooperative breeding could have arisen and perpetuated itself among the woodpeckers despite reducing the number of offspring an individual bird parented because even if a male loses out on a breeding opportunity to one of his brothers, the resulting chicks will still carry a portion of that lonely male’s shared DNA. Also, if the unmated male helps raise and support his nieces and nephews, he also increases the chances that they survive and reproduce, passing on a portion of his DNA to the next generation.

Another idea was that the polygamous birds were trading the relative certainty of parenting offspring in a couple for the increased odds of controlling a territory chock-full of acorns afforded to them by teaming up with their brothers or sisters. Strength in numbers is important for these woodpeckers because of the vicious, bloody battles they must fight to win territories with the best granaries. These granaries are trees, usually dead, that have been plugged full of thousands of acorns over many years by the woodpeckers living in their vicinity. Presiding over a granary that is well-stocked can make or break a group’s ability to reproduce during lean years when acorns are less abundant. 

The multi-decade data set from the Hastings Reserve allowed Barve and his collaborators to finally assess whether breeding cooperatively was as costly as researchers had long assumed. To do this, the team compared the number of lifetime offspring produced by woodpeckers that did their breeding in pairs with the number produced by birds engaged in some form of cooperative polygamy.

The research team’s analysis revealed that individual males that bred as co-breeding duos and trios left behind 1.5-times more direct offspring than single-breeding males. The study also finds that these co-breeding males tend to spend two to three extra years as breeders compared to their paired-up counterparts, which may be responsible for the increased reproductive success over the co-breeding birds’ lifetimes.

Female woodpecker duos and single-breeders each left behind roughly the same number of young over their lifetimes, but those that bred as trios produced 2.5 fewer chicks. Barve said that while these figures for female birds might not seem as convincing, the co-breeding duos may still be leaving behind a more substantial genetic legacy than their single-breeding counterparts by helping their closely related co-breeders’ chicks survive. The same could be said of the males, which would endow cooperative breeding with even more substantial advantages.

CAPTION

Male (left) and female (right) acorn woodpeckers. Researchers had traditionally explained the evolution of acorn woodpeckers’ polygamous co-breeding with a concept known as kin selection. In this view, cooperative breeding could have arisen and perpetuated itself among the woodpeckers despite reducing the number of offspring an individual bird parented because even if a male loses out on a breeding opportunity to one of his brothers, the resulting chicks will still carry a portion of that lonely male’s shared DNA. Also, if the unmated male helps raise and support his nieces and nephews, he also increases the chances that they survive and reproduce, passing on a portion of his DNA to the next generation. But now, a new study published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests that even complex cooperative breeding strategies may offer direct evolutionary benefits over an animal’s lifetime, and perhaps offers clues into how social behavior first evolved in humans and other animals. The study finds that male acorn woodpeckers breeding polygamously in duos or trios of males actually fathered more offspring than males breeding alone with a single female, contrary to conventional thinking among biologists that monogamous males necessarily produce more offspring than those in polygamous groups.

CREDIT

Copyright Vivek Khanzode

“We thought acorn woodpeckers lost out on fitness by breeding cooperatively, but we show that breeding in these larger cooperative groups is actually better than breeding in pairs,” Barve said. “This is something that hasn’t been shown before because it’s so hard to get strong enough long-term data to really study it. In that sense, our findings also highlight the value of long-term research in animal behavior.”

Barve added that researchers may no longer need to invoke kin selection as a mechanism for how this cooperative trait evolved and persisted in acorn woodpeckers.

“Acorn woodpeckers have some of the most complicated social systems of any organism,” Barve said. “And these findings help us understand how this social system might have evolved, while opening up the possibility that cooperative breeding behaviors may be more beneficial than previously thought in other species as well. It could even help explain why sociality evolves so commonly throughout the tree of life.”

Funding and support for this research were provided by the Smithsonian and the National Science Foundation.

# # #

---

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

DOI

10.1098/rspb.2021.0579

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Lifetime reproductive benefits of cooperative polygamy vary for males and females in the acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus)

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Aug-2021

Liberals Endorse Polygamy

Aha now we know the real reason Paul Martin wants to get rid of the Not Withstanding Clause....Study says Canada should legalize polygamy

"The first act of a new Liberal government is going to be to strengthen the Charter, and we will do that by removing, by constitutional means, the possibility for the federal government to use the notwithstanding clause, because quite simply, I think governance says that the courts shouldn't be overturned by politicians," Liberal Leader Paul Martin said during Monday night's English-language debate.
The message: Unlike the Conservatives, the Liberals would quickly pass a law to protect minority rights and remove Parliament's ability to override Supreme Court rulings that favour people like gays and lesbians, immigrants and minority linguistic groups.

The Liberals attacked Harper about his right wing friends, cause they know he will use the Not Withstanding Clause.....

Liberals battling to remain in power accused Conservative leader Stephen Harper on Thursday of supporting an extremist group that equates gays with pedophiles and assails same-sex marriage. In a press release Thursday the Liberal Party attacks Harper for speaking at a large fundraising dinner in Richmond, British Columbia last March for the Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values Association.

The Canadian Alliance for Social Justice and Family Values Association, made up mainly of Chinese Canadians, has a long history of extremist views.

In 2003 it lobbied against the inclusion of sexual orientation under hate crimes laws by hosting a booth at the Pacific National Exhibition that featured a banner reading (in Chinese): “Protect freedom of speech. You must not support C-250 or you cannot publicly criticize child molestation, necrophilia, self-mutilation or torture, polygamy or unnatural sexual behavior.”

The Liberals also note that Conservative Justice Critic Vic Toews, who has led the attack for Harper in calling for the same-sex marriage law to be reopened, received an achievement award from the group. Toews also praised the group's efforts in the House of Commons, saying “Canadians across the country are grateful for its efforts.”

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Republicans refuse to strike down marriage amendment for the most offensive reason possible

Virginia's constitutional ban on same-sex marriages was deemed unconstitutional years ago, but the state GOP isn't finished spewing out disgusting stereotypes.

By Bil Browning 

Wednesday, February 9, 2022



While legislation passed in both chambers of the Virginia legislature last year that would repeal the state’s constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages, with Republicans in control of the House, the effort appears to have come to a sputtering halt. A House subcommittee voted down the measure on Tuesday that would have advanced the repeal to the ballot box for voters to decide.

Republican delegates say they don’t like the language that would replace the ban in the amendment, saying that marriage is “inherent in the liberty of persons,” will lead to polygamy and child marriages. The stereotypes of LGBTQ people as promiscuous and dangerous to children live on in the GOP.

While marriage equality was legalized nationwide in 2015, Republicans in several states have either slow-walked or refused to repeal constitutional amendments prohibiting same-sex marriages.

To repeal a constitutional amendment in Virginia, legislation must pass through both chambers twice and be approved by voters.

Virginia’s repeal language passed both chambers in the last General Assembly when controlled by Democrats, but Republicans took the House and governor’s office in the last election after running on a platform that demonized transgender and Black Americans.

“Our Marshall-Newman Amendment was no longer enforceable,” Del. Mark D. Sickles (D), the sponsor of the legislation to repeal the amendment, said. “Yet it sits in its utter ugliness in our constitution.”

Sickles bill would replace the ban with language that reads, “The right to marry is a fundamental right, inherent in the liberty of persons, and marriage is one of the vital personal rights essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness.”

But Republicans are throwing up faux concerns about polygamy and child marriage as a red herring to appeal to the religious right and conservative extremists. Democrats pushed a ban on child marriage through the legislature in 2016; until then children as young as 13 could get married in the state. Only Republicans opposed the ban on forced marriages and child trafficking.

Republican legislators nationwide have refused to ban child marriages, often using anti-LGBTQ reasoning to do so.

“Polygamy is against the law in Virginia,” Sickles said. Republicans “admitted to me afterward that they wouldn’t support this … regardless of that language. They make this stuff up to make what they’re doing seem more reasonable.”

Gov. Glenn Youngkin ( R) won the last election by constantly decrying “critical race theory” and teaching children about America’s history of racism. He also joined forces with the religious right to demonize transgender people by accusing them of trying to enter restrooms that align with their gender identity for nefarious reasons and attempting to ban transgender children from playing school sports.

The GOP has also played a large role in recent attacks on school board members, teachers, administrators, and school librarians; they’ve burned books, banned curriculum topics, and passed laws that would make it illegal for teachers to mention gay people in the classroom.

Virginia rejects proposals for voting rights, gay marriage

A Virginia House of Delegates subcommittee voted along party lines Tuesday not to let voters decide whether to remove language prohibiting same-sex marriage from the state’s constitution or giving voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences.  File Photo by Leigh Vogel/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Virginia lawmakers decided Tuesday against letting voters decide whether to remove language barring same-sex marriage from the state's constitution or giving voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences.

A House of Delegates subcommittee voted 5-4 against the constitutional amendment, which would have given the right to vote to convicted felons who have completed their sentences.

The panel also voted 6-4 to reject a proposed amendment that would remove language baring same-sex marriage from the state constitution.

The measure proposed removing language in the constitution referring to marriage as only a union between a man and woman, instead calling it a fundamental right for all

Had they passed, the measures would have gone to voter referendums in the fall.

The votes fell along partisan lines in the Republican-controlled subcommittee.

Both measures passed through the state's General Assembly last year under a Democrat-controlled legislature. They needed to pass a second time in order to get to the voter referendum stage. Republicans now hold a slim margin in the House.

Spokespeople from more than 12 advocacy groups spoke in favor of the voting measure. No one spoke in opposition.

There was also little debate in the subcommittee.

The state's former Democratic governor called the outcome "shameful

"Virginians who have paid their debt to society deserve to have their voices heard at the ballot box. We won't stop fighting until we fully reverse this Jim Crow era law and make restoration of voting rights automatic," tweeted former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

WHAT LIFE INSIDE PRISON IS REALLY LIKE FOR WARREN JEFFS

 FROM PEACOCK'S PREACHING EVIL


BY WILLIAM KENNEDY/APRIL 22, 2022 

In 2011, polygamist religious leader Warren Jeffs was arrested and charged with child abuse, rape, and assault against a number of underage girls he considered to be his brides. Jeffs' group — The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS) — was a splinter sect based on the border of Utah and Arizona, unaffiliated with the mainstream Church of Latter-day Saints, sometimes called Mormon. Jeffs was convicted of multiple felonies and sentenced to life in prison, where he remains to this day. If there was any doubt that Jeffs has troubling mental health issues, those doubts should be put to rest by what Jeffs' life is like behind bars, according to CBS News.

A characteristic of the FLDS is their embrace of polygamy or plural marriage. The official LDS church distanced itself from polygamy in the 1890s, and now prohibits it. Jeffs grew up in the FLDS, though, and polygamy was in his family for generations. His father, Rulon, allegedly had 50 wives. By 1986, Rulon was made prophet of the FLDS. As Rulon aged and became unwell, Jeffs positioned himself as his heir apparent. By 2002, Jeffs' father had died and Warren was in charge of the sect, moving his branch into West Texas. Around that same time, accusations of sexual molestation emerged, first from two of Jeffs' own daughters on journalist Lisa Ling's CNN show "This is Life" (via IMDb).

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

JEFFS KEPT DETAILED RECORDS ON EVERYTHING

Shortly after Ling's episode, allegations against Jeffs began to compound, as Biography notes. Over time, more emerged in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and Texas, as his FLDS sect moved around to evade the authorities. Some came from young men Jeffs had excommunicated from his compound, while many more came from underage girls whom he took for "brides." Some were biologically related to Jeffs. He was otherwise known to keep strict control over everything, taking girls from their families and kicking out men who might challenge him. It's believed that Jeffs "wed" at least 80 women and girls, whom he called his "spiritual" or "celestial" wives, per The Guardian. None of these marriages were legal.

Jeffs was known cut off his wives, some of them as young as 12, and other members of his FLDS sect from all contact with the outside world, according to Biography. Some abuse is alleged to have started with girls as young as 8. When authorities caught up with Jeffs he was in Las Vegas, using burner cell phones, and with a disguise. He had many thousands of dollars in his possession. Helping prosecutors build their case against the polygamist FLDS leader were his own detailed records, in which he spoke of his guilt on several occasions.

JEFFS' MENTAL HEALTH HAS DECLINED

Once put on trial, Jeffs was convicted in Utah, but that ruling was overturned. Following that, charges were brought against Jeffs in Texas where he acted as his own defense, with an ineffective and incoherent performance, underscoring his instability. Jeffs was convicted in Texas to life in prison, where he remains. During his time in prison, Jeffs' behavior underscores his mental health issues. As more and more charges are levied, including a suit brought against the FLDS multi-million dollar trust and further rape, molestation, and sex abuse accusations, court rulings have deemed Jeffs unfit to stand trial (via CBS News).

While in jail in Utah, Jeffs tried to commit suicide by hanging himself, and in Arizona he went on a hunger strike during his time spent in prison. Because of this he was force-fed. Once convicted in Texas, Jeffs again tried to starve himself, and as a result, he had to be placed in a medically-induced coma. In 2019, a lawyer involved in the Warren Jeffs case said, via CBS News, "The trust has received reports that Warren Jeffs has suffered a mental breakdown."

To this day, members of FLDS consider Jeffs to be their prophet and leader. The complete Warren Jeffs story is told in "Preaching Evil: A Wife on the Run with Warren Jeffs," which begins streaming April 26 on Peacock+. The trailer is available on YouTube.


Read More: https://www.grunge.com/840419/what-life-inside-prison-is-really-like-for-warren-jeffs-from-peacocks-preaching-evil/?utm_campaign=clip