Is monogamy natural ? Probably not !

"Yet in all Western nations, the law insists
that a many (sic) may have only one wife at a time,
and a woman, only one husband."
It depends on how you define "insists":
"An Iraqi-Canadian was acquitted of bigamy Tuesday by a Windsor, Ontario judge who said that while he had no doubt the man has two wives, it could not be proven the man left the country "with intent" to take a second partner."
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/02/canada-windsor-man-with-two-wives-dodges-bigamy-charge.html
"It was announced last year that the British Government had already accepted that Muslim husbands with more than one wife in this country qualified for extra benefits even though they technically were breaking the anti-bigamy law."
http://www.shariahfinancewatch.org/blog/category/polygamy/
Polygamy is a growing reality in all Western countries with Islamic immigration.
If "the law insists that a man may have only one wife at a time", where are all the successful prosecutions?
All "Western nations" are effectively capitulating to polygamous Islamic marriages, even though the "law insists" otherwise.
This is largely because of the dilemma faced by "local authorities (who) are in a bind, faced with issues of freedom of religion".
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2005/07/europe-adapts-to-allow-for-islamic-polygamy.html
Hands up anyone naïve enough to imagine that the same process isn't happening in Australia with the tacit approval of the law.
Polygamous marriage will increase in all "Western nations" despite the law's "insistence" and whether or not it is considered natural.
Silence from feminists on this issue indicates that multiculturalism trumps women's rights in their ideological hierarchy.

StG and Individual don't think monogamy is natural.
I would be interested in why you think this?

I think Peter is probably right here. Serial manogamy seems to be practiced as much as manogamy in our cluture.

In some of the cultures I have visited circumstances tend to cause different responses.

Where there is no economy as such, there is no "cost" in having children. In many of these the kids, after there first couple of years, are raised more or less by the whole village.

In most of these places sexual activity starts very young, & a girl is more likely to find a husband if she is all ready a mother, with thus proven fertility.

We are all products of our experience, & history, so what we think of as "right" can be very different.

Dear Suze,

I can fully understand your feelings.
I think many people will agree with you.

Each society views its own pattern of marriage,
family, and kinship as self-evidently right
and proper, and usually as God-given as well.

However, if we assume that there is only one
"right" marriage/partnership form, then naturally any change
will be interpreted as heralding the doom of the
whole institution.

However, today, there is an immense range in
marriage, family, and kinship patterns, what I'm
curious to learn is that will the family, and monogamy,
like any other social institution change through time,
in our society? Do we accept what we have only because
that's the way it's always been? Or is there more to it?

Dear runner,

Thanks for your response. It's always appreciated.

Dear Examinator,

If I understand you correctly - you only approve
of monogamy because anything else is too much
trouble and responsiblity?
At least you're honest.

Dear Peter Hume,

Thanks for your well reasoned response.
It makes sense.

Dear StG,

You don't think so? But you don't elaborate as to
why?

Dear Individual,

I second Suze's question - why don't you think
monogamy is natural?

Dear Proxy,

You may well be right when you state that,
" polygamous marriages will increase in all Western Nations..."
Personally, I can't envisage it happening any time
soon - because our laws don't allow it. However in a
survey of evidence from 238 mostly preindustrial societies,
it was found that only 43 insisted on restriction to one
mate at a time. In 4 of the remaining societies a woman
was permitted to have more than one husband, and in all
the rest a man was allowed to have more than one wife,
a ratio that reflects the superior power and privileges
of the male partner in the family institution.

Another traditional Western assumption has been that
people should not have premarital or extramarital
sexual experience, a value still very strongly held
by many people in industrialized societies. In cross-
cultural terms, however, this belief is something of
an exotic curiousity, and the idea of virgin marriage
is considered ludicrous.

Dear Hasbeen,

I totally agree. What each of us thinks is "right"
can be very different. In our modern industrialized
societies, we generally assume that married partners
should be adults of much the same age, and yet certain
exceptions are made for an older man and a younger woman.
It's frowned upon when the reverse happens, an older
woman and a young man.