From: merchant@davidsys.com (Rukhsana Merchant)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: Re: Polyandry in Tibet and Islamic prohibition.
Date: 17 Aug 92 13:20:04 PST
Organization: DAVID Systems Inc, Sunnyvale CA

In article <1992Aug14.072755.6957@tamsun.tamu.edu>, gagrawal@cs.tamu.edu (Gopal Agrawal) writes:
> Since there was a debate that the Islamic injunction, that only polygamy 
> be allowed (under extreme conditions of course) and NOT polyandry, is 
> best for all societies, I am posting here a brief account of polyandry 
> in Tibet. I leave it to the readers to decide if such Islamic injunctions 
> are valid in these regions too. 
> 
> Apart from the polyandry in Africa and Pacific Islands, polyandry is also
> practised among many (not all) Tibetians and Ladhakis. I recall reading 
> an article (National Geographic) a long time back about some of the 
> plausible reasons why these cultures were forced into polyandry. 
> I'll try summarizing them here:
> 
> 
> 
> 1) Immigration to plains is hard for Tibetians:
> ----------------------------------------------
> 	The mountainous terrain makes it very difficult for the Tibetians 
> to cross more than a few ranges.  Ladhakis, having become accustomed to 
> high altitude air, are known to get bilious fever if they travel to the 
> plains. Further, a stong sense of cultural ethnicity prevents them from 
> encouraging the mingling with foreign cultures. Thus, the Tibetian society
> is a land locked society. 
> 
> 2) Resources are very scarce in Tibet: 
> --------------------------------------
> 	This pertains to both the agricultural and animal resources. While 
> the Tibetians have for centuries tried to exploit every acre of mountain 
> soil for farming, the yields are typically very low as compared to the yields
> in the plains. Mountain goats are their main source of animal products. 
> Goats, with their ravenous apetites but low meat/milk output, have resulted 
> in massive deforestation.
> 
> 3) Sex ratio is very skewed: males >> females:
> ----------------------------------------------
> 	The exact reasons for this phenomena have not been studied properly.
> Though tibetian society is patriarchal just like most other societies, the 
> males lack a sense of pride in ownership of their own women. It is normally 
> brothers who share a single wife and strangely, there is never any feeling 
> of jealousy among them. That is, the pressure on men to own their own wives 
> does not exist.  Analogical to economics, demand for an equal number 
> of females (to males) does not exist. But why the supply of females should 
> reduce (as this is not in contol of the society) is not known. Further, for 
> some strange reason, many Tibetian women choose to remain unmarried if she 
> cannot find the right set of brothers. 
> 
> 4) The pressure to reduce population is immense: 
> ----------------------------------------------
> 	Reasons (1) and (2) account for this immense pressure on Tibetian 
> society to keep birth rate as low as possible. It is evident that polyandry 
> provides a mechanism which keeps birth rate low. Had polyandry not been 
> practised, the males would be forced to search for females from the other 
> societies (with greater number of females) thereby increasing the number 
> of females and thus increasing the population in the resource scarce region;
> which can only work towards their detriment. The land locked nature and their 
> strong sense of cultural ethnicity however forces them not to seek females 
> from the female-rich societies in the foothills. 
> 
> From all the reasons above, it is pretty evident that dynamics of polyandry 
> is their means of survival. (Lately, many of the Tibetians have given up 
> polyandry (foreign influence). These Tibetians are much poorer in comparison 
> to those Tibetian socities that still practise polyandry). When interviewed
> for the reasons behind polyandry, most Tibetians give very simplistic answers
> like "It is our tradition" or "My parents arranged this marriage". While they
> are not scientifically aware of the reasons behind their polyandrous nature,
> they are intuitively aware that this is what best works for their society. 
> 
> regards,
> --   
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> E-mail - gagrawal@cs.tamu.edu       |   /   All Std. Disclaimers apply.

First of all, I would like to state that I truly value your input because
it is thought provoking and insightful.  However, I would also like to 
state that, even though a culture does what is outside the realm of
what is permissible in Islam, does not make it an acceptable allowance
in Islam.  Whether the women of Tibet have multiple husbands or the
women in some rain forest feel better able to survive in nudity, the rules
of Islam do not permit it.  I do not judge these cultures since it is
not for me to judge.  But one of the answers that we muslims are told
to ponder on is "Because we saw our fathers practising it".  

-Rukhsana Merchant
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan,soc.culture.indian,soc.culture.bangladesh