Enduring Polygamy

Plural Marriage and Social Change in an African Metropolis

Bruce Whitehouse

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781978831131
  9781978831148
• eBook ISBN:
  9781978831155
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Why hasn't polygamous marriage died out in African cities, as experts once expected it would? Enduring Polygamy considers this question in one of Africa's fastest-growing cities: Bamako, the capital of Mali, where one in four wives is in a polygamous marriage. Using polygamy as a lens through which to survey sweeping changes in urban life, it offers ethnographic and demographic insights into the customs, gender norms and hierarchies, kinship structures, and laws affecting marriage, and situates polygamy within structures of inequality that shape marital options, especially for young Malian women. Through an approach of cultural relativism, the book offers an open-minded but unflinching perspective on a contested form of marriage. Without shying away from questions of patriarchy and women's oppression, it presents polygamy from the everyday vantage points of Bamako residents themselves, allowing readers to make informed judgments about it and to appreciate the full spectrum of human cultural diversity.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Series Foreword by Péter Berta
• Introduction: It’s Complicated: Polygamy and the Marriage System in Bamako, Mali
• Interlude One: The Midnight Callers
• Interlude Two: Virtual Monogamy in Practice
• Interlude Three: Family Law, Identity, and Political Islam
• Conclusion: The Polygamy of the Future
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• References
• Index
• About the Author
• Series List