Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-07-31
Polyanfrous Women.

In a recent letter from member of
the expedition that is surveying the
boundary line between Alaska and
Canada the writer says he has met
tribes on the upper Yukon river where
il is not uncommon for the women to
have two or more husbands. He speaks
of the people as mserably poor, and it
is an interesting fact, says the n. Y.
SIN that this is the condition of people
in all parts of the world among whom
the practice of polyandry prevails. Mr.
Rockhill found an opportunity year
AGO to observe this custom, which
exists to considerable extent along
his route ia eastern Tibet and among
the Monrols oil the Tsaidam. His ex-
PLANTATION is that, the soil capable of
culture being very limited, the tribes
who live chiefly by tillage and herding
fnd it impossible to have one or more
wives for each man. 1t is therefore
the Gust, m for the brothers in family
to hay. only one wife among them,
and while one brother goes on trading
journeys and another looks after the
live stock the wife manages the house
hold and is the general manager and
counsellor
1t is not from choice then but from
necessity that some savage people in
ali parts of the world practice poly
andrv. Richer and more comfortable
savages have one or more wives apiece,
or even support harems. One would
expect that in far northern regions,
where the conditions of life are more
severe and food is most difficult to OBJ
tain polyandry would chiefly be found,
and, in fact, nowhere is the custom
more widely prevalent than in the
thinly peopled northern part of this
continent, and chiefly among the tribes
of Alaska. As far east as Hudson's
bay, if polyandry does not exist as an
institution, there is at least promiscu-
ity in the married relation, and ESqui-
maux there, starting on long hunting
expeditions, are often accompanied by
the wives of other members OF the tribe.
who are loaned for the occasion.
Among the Alaskan Esquimau every
man is entitled to as many wives as he
can get; but, as women are not in
frequent'y.n the minority, the men
the situation and two or more of them
live in hut with one woman. In the
rugged wilderness inhabited by the
Koniagas farther south, Mr.. Bancroft
says two husbands are allowed to one
woman. One of the husbands, how
eNer, occupies an inferior position in
the household and is lord and master
there only when the other man is not
around the premises.
The many remnants of tribes which
practice polyandry in the region of the
central African lakes seem to owe the
custom to their misfortunes They
were preyed upon by Arab slaye-deal-
ers or stronger tribes until they lost
the larger number of their women, the
most highly priced spoils of war, and,
beng unable to restore the numerical
equality of the sexes, each woman be-
came the wife of several men, and the
Children, calling all the villagers
father or mother belonging not to the
family but to the community. The
custom of plural husbands, originating
IN violence, finally became sort of
social law, and is regarded as praise
worthy.
None of the warlike and powerful
tIl0es practice polyandry and it may
De accepted as "a general rule that
savage polygamists are comparatively
WNell-to-do and successful in war, while
tne polyandrists form the more miser-
aOle and helpless communities.