Polygamous Families in Contemporary SocietyIn this intriguing book, social psychologist Irwin Altman and anthropologist Joseph Ginat examine husband-wife and wife-wife relationships in contemporary Mormon polygamous families. The authors describe how husbands and wives in plural families cope with their complex lifestyle in various facets of everyday life, including courtship, weddings, honeymoons, adjustments to a new life, living arrangements, and the husband's rotation among wives. Other topics include budget and resource management, psychological attachments to homes, and the social-emotional relationships among family members. This pioneering, comprehensive analysis of life in modern day Mormon polygamous families uses first-hand interviews and observations to describe this unusual family lifestyle. It adds to our understanding of close relationships and complements knowledge on other modern relationship forms, such as single-parent families, blended families, and cohabitating partners. This is important reading for researchers in social psychology, anthropology, and religious studies. Lay readers will also find the subject matter to be fascinating. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Historical background | 19 |
Early stages of relationships | 87 |
Deciding to add a new wife to a family | 107 |
Wedding and marriage ceremonies | 126 |
Honeymoons | 143 |
Adjusting to a new plural marriage | 173 |
Home environments of plural families | 181 |
Budget and resource management | 302 |
Socialemotional and family relationships | 337 |
Relationships between wives | 366 |
Family structure | 387 |
Parents and children | 423 |
Appendix A Methodology and procedure | 447 |
Appendix B Demographics of Mormon polygyny | 460 |
Notes | 479 |
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Common terms and phrases
19th-century Mormon adjustment Africa Alayna aspects bedroom birthday bonds boys bride Carlyn celebrations close relationships clothing conflict contemporary Mormon contemporary plural families courtship culture of Africa Cynthia dance Danielle day-to-day decorations discussion displays divorce dwelling dyadic and communal dyadic relationship Elaine Embry established wives example family members father feelings fourth wife fundamentalist groups fundamentalist Mormon gender gender roles Ginat girls groom Gusii Harry Hildale honeymoon husband-wife husbands and wives Joan joined the family Joseph Smith Lauren leader lifestyle living arrangements living room married modern plural families monogamous Mormon Church Mormon fundamentalism Mormon fundamentalists Mormon pioneer Mormon plural families mother Norma parents participants patriarchal personal identity photographs Phyllis pioneer plural marriage plural wives polygamy polygynous families practice prophet Rebecca religious role rotation systems second wife separate share social sometimes spend stresses third wife unique Utah visits wedding wife's wives live woman women