In Utah (it's always Utah) a judge was recently charged with having three wives.
Normally I'd go after the guy for being a Republican hypocrite, but in this case, I won't.
Now that we have stepped into the modern era by making gay marriages in Canada legal, Polygamy strikes me as the next obvious evolution of marriage (along with contractual limits i.e. 'This marriage is effective for ___ years, with the option for renewal given all parties agree to be set for ____", but I digress).
I don't mean to minimize the damage done by the polygamy practiced in Utah where the 'wives' are usually related to one another (ewww!), and where the brides face incredible pressure at far too young an age to be reasonably said to have given adult consent.
Both of those situations strike me is grounds to oppose the kind of polygamy as it is actually practiced in Utah.
Philosophically though, I'm not sure what the panic is over. If three (or more?) adult people (any arrangement of the sexes works for me) want to live, procreate, keep house together and refer to each other as married - I'm not sure I see what the problem is.
Perhaps Rich at the Lost Boys Survey has some thoughts....
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re: marriage contracts
It's been a property arrangement for thousands of years. Might as well make it official.
Mmm... I see the wedge is getting a little bit thicker. Next thing we know you'll be insisting God be taken out of the science curriculum altogether due to a lack of 'evidence.'
Okay, but what about the question: should we allow polygamy as an equivalent marriage? Simple answer: I don't know; it depends what marriage the institution is supposed to be protecting, since that's the purpose of institutions.
I think polygamous marriages would have to prove their value to society, and equivalence to monogamous marriages from the ground up--much like the gay marriage movement had to.
There also seems to be the more general issue of, I can't think of a happy triangle of people in a healthy relationship. I'm not too inquisitive, so it may well be that I do know one, and just haven't done the math on it... but can you think of a triangled relationship where you would feel confident saying: "This relationship should go on forever."
My experience usually there's someone being used, or lied to. I don't think that's healthy.
And why isn't an incestuous marriage the next 'obvious' step of where marriage is going? After all, you can already marry your cousin... what's wrong with marrying your sibling?
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