"To run our families we have to do this, overcome the hurdles as well and then we have to control our hearts from feeling too much."
October 24, 2008
"We make shifts, change shifts and sleep on alternate days. We have to make shifts otherwise it won't work."
Polyandry -- in India, a tradition and an economic strategy.
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Interesting. Seems to work because the males are always brothers so beyond the closeness of the fraternal bond which lessens the normal testosterone tension, you have the fact that both are fostering their collective genome into the next generation.
However, the unspoken ugly side comes when you think about the excess females. Are they killed at birth, do they move to towns and become second wives, or whores?
It does beg the question of where the extra women go... still it does make economic and biological sense. The issue with polyandry is always the uncertainty over paternity, but if the husbands are brothers they are at least an uncle, and their children share their genes.
it'll be interesting to see whether polyandry as "economic strategy" fades out as India becomes a more wealthy society. Conversely, if it's such a great economic strategy, perhaps it'll catch on here.
Interesting Synova,
nearly identical posts at the same time.
same two thoughts, though in different order.
Now I'm really curious.
Where DO the extra girls go?
It would not be at all amazing if the long tradition of marrying this way includes the infanticide of female babies. Though sending the extras off to be servants (of one sort or another) is as likely. You'd think if there was a local nunnery it would have been mentioned... maybe.
Another more interesting, but not unheard of possibility... some of the "brothers" are actually sisters living legally as men. I doubt anyone would actually admit it, because the whole point of that is keeping up the consensus fiction that so-and-so doing a man's job and having a male role in the community is actually male.
Himachal Pradesh is a harsh mistress.
extra females:
1st, they can marry up.
2nd, some medical studies link Hepatitis B with lack of female children. Specifically, more prevalent Hep B, less female babies. Other causes of Infanticide
"However, the unspoken ugly side comes when you think about the excess females. Are they killed at birth..."
Please. They are detected in utero via ultrasound and aborted post haste. Which the Indian government has outlawed, but hasn't been able to enforce.
"NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's sex ratio is even more skewed than in 2001 as some people from almost all backgrounds continue to abort female foetuses or let infant girls die because they prefer to raise boys, according to a new study."
http://news.boloji.com/2008/03/18562.htm
http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-30972320071213
International Feminism triumphs again!
Just thinking about India makes me itchy.
Jeff with one "f"...
Abortion is the new infanticide.
But totally different.
Who are you to criticize a woman's right to choose?
Stuff like this is why I don't worry Indian and Chinese supremacy.
A recent report (go to page 4) from a major charitable organization working in India said that in addition to aborting female children, as we already mentioned, infanticide of female babies *is* quite common. One accepted practice is feeding the baby rice with the husks still on. Apparently it slits the baby's throat? According to this report, one big driver in this is the practice of paying dowries. The sums are quite large, and families don't want to have to pay more than one.
"as *was* already mentioned"
Should have previewed!
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