Enduring Polygamy : : Plural Marriage and Social Change in an African Metropolis / / Bruce Whitehouse.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2023 English
• VerfasserIn: Whitehouse, Bruce,
• MitwirkendeR: Berta, Péter,
• Place / Publishing House: New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: Politics of Marriage and Gender: Global Issues in Local Contexts
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (240 p.) :; 7 bw, 5 color images; 6 tables

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

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS -- SERIES FOREWORD -- Introduction: It’s Complicated: Polygamy and the Marriage System in Bamako, Mali -- INTERLUDE ONE The Midnight Callers -- Introduction -- 1 “Marriage Is an Obligation”: The Marital Life Course -- 2 Polygamous Marriage Formation -- INTERLUDE TWO Virtual Monogamy in Practice -- Introduction -- 3 Polygamous Household Dynamics -- 4 What’s Culture Got to Do with It? Religion, Gender, and Power -- 5 Marriage Markets and Marriage Squeezes: The Demographic Underpinnings of Polygamous Marriage -- INTERLUDE THREE Family Law, Identity, and Political Islam -- Introduction -- 6 Marriage Law, Polygamy, and the Malian State -- Conclusion: The Polygamy of the Future -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- INDEX -- ABOUT THE AUTHOR