African Americans and Need for Polygamy

Place of polygamy in the contemporary society
Preamble
According to Merriam Webster Dictionary (2018), polygamy is the practice in marriage where one of the partners, of either sex, has more than one mate at the same. In the more contextually known setting is that a man gets to have more than one wife at the same time and commits to each of them as a husband. This is the definition that is more widely known, maybe because it is the arrangement that is socially experienced and acceptable in some societies spread across the globe. In the American concept, legally and socially and to some extent morally, polygamy has not been accepted as a normal way of life. There is that tendency to insist and emphasize on one partner at one time, such that if the partner would like to get into another relationship, then she or he has to obtain a legal separation and divorce before officially committing to the next relationship. This has however not worked well with most relationships within the USA and this can be seen in the 2015 statistics which pegged the rate at 16.9% divorces for every 1,000 married women of ages 15 years. Though this is still a high rate, it is considered as having dropped from the higher rate of 17.6% in 2014 (Abrams A., 2016).
Thesis
The legalization and socially acceptance of polygamy particularly among the African Americans will significantly reduce the social menace of single parenthood, high rates of divorces and effectively manage the sex population disparity of more women than men.
Theory
The main theory employed in this particular research is the social relations approach which gives the conceptualization of the social roles and the gender relations and how these roles, attributes, power, capabilities and privileges determine the access to resources that men and women have respectively, within the household sphere and beyond (Newbury E., 2017). It is upon this theory that the conceptual foundation of this research will be based to focus on the practice and experiences of polygamy especially in African societies, and how these models can be replicated into the African American society for the good of the society without destabilizing the existing community structure. This theory establishes that with the social gender roles correctly distributed, it is possible to have polygamy well established in any society and work well like I any other.
This theory is further supported by the feminist anthropological framework which takes on the perspective that gender, sex and sexuality are mere constructs and categorizations rather than biological or natural. This theory proposes the use of historical perspectives as well as localized analysis to addressing inequalities within the particular specific cultural contexts. This theory rejects the use of biology and religion or god to justify the rejection of polygamy (Dominguez J., Franks M. & Boschman J., 2009). This theory emphasizes that social institutions like marriage are culturally constructed and only shows the connotation of being natural. Hence, the practices and ideas that come from such institutions and ideologies appear to be natural and have a deep influence on shaping ideologies.
Opposing view
There those perspectives that oppose the continued practice of polygamy or the proposal to reintroduce and encourage it in any society. Their argument is that polygamy is detrimental to the women in the marriage who do not get sufficient space and chance to obtain and express their full value, being there are other alternatives. Grossbard S., (2013) further indicates that the age gape between the man and the women who come into the relationship later on is wide hence high chances of early widowhood. In such arrangements, the opposing team argues that the men can easily obtain divorce unlike the women and the custody of the child is the autonomous right of the father. Women are often isolated. There are several other similar arguments ranging from the legal aspect to the moral grounds, but none has been able to offer an efficient alternative that would sort out the high numbers of children without parents, women raining families as single mothers and the increasing imbalance in the sex population with more women than men being an ever present phenomenon.
Methodology
In order to obtain the data herein, the research was based on extensive use of literature on the subject, content analysis and case analyses. The literature review was guided through topical approach to the subject. Online books and peer reviewed articles and reliable educational websites formed an important part of the literature review. In the process of literature review, the religious and social as well anthropological content guided the choice of the material to use. This was a strong inclusion criteria that was seen as instrumental in formulating relevant material for the research topic. In as much as there are opinions both supporting and opposing the topic, the mainstay of the paper is to find those that had strong support for the topic in content and perspective.
Discussion
The issue of polygamy cannot be wished away in a society that is in realistic touch with itself. There are various reasons why the challenges that the contemporary society can be solved by allowing and not stigmatizing polygamy. This discussion will be based primarily on the African American society due to the fact that it is herein that high numbers of single mothers exist and there is a high sex population disparity. It is estimated that majority of the African American youth (67%) live in single parent households (Parent J., 2013). This means that there are many women who are not married yet they have children or long to be in a marriage setup, a fact that cannot be allowed by the law. There is need to legalize polygamy as a measure towards reducing the number of single parents particularly single mothers. With the legalization of polygamy in the US, the African American population will highly since the single mothers will have a good number of them established in stable marriages and significantly reduce the number of single mothers. Through the adoption of the polygamous system, there will be several domestic issues that will be solved since the second woman will become part of the legal marriage hence get catered for within that social setting.
The acceptance of polygamy will also go a long way in lowering the high rates of divorce among African Americans s it stands now. The American populace shows a striking disparity in marriage patterns on racial lines. In this aspect, there is viable statistics and observation that as compared to the white and Hispanic women, the African American women marry quite late in their life (average 30 years as compared to 26 years for the former group), have higher likelihood of not marrying at all and have higher rates of marital instability. Across all the ages, it is observed that the divorce rates of backs are much higher than for whites, the Asian and foreign-born Hispanic women (Raley R.K., Sweeney M. and Wondra D., 2015). These trends end up in higher cases of non-marital births among the African Americans which is a simple formula of perpetuation of poverty among a section of the African American population.
This assertion brings in the second positive aspect of embracing polygamy. The distribution of resources will be done at a higher scale and with more equity of polygamy is allowed and embraced. There are instances of individuals taking up responsibility of the child after impregnating a woman yet not being allowed to bring her into the marriage setting as a second wife. If polygamy is embraced, there are several men who will agree to involve their women outside marriage and in effect have a collective budgeting process that will allow for equitable sharing of the resources the man has with both wives.
The ratio of the African American women to that of the African American men also justifies polygamous marriage which will help in balancing the numbers among the African Americans. The African American women are estimated at 23.5 million which makes up 52% of the African American population leaving only 48% for the males. This is a big disparity and an obvious indication that a significant number of African American women will remain unmarried. The polygamous system will increase the chances of absorbing the surplus number into willing and able families to make a second wife hence balancing the numbers. This will not be a simple act of balancing the numbers, but also of trying to find an economic stability or equilibrium for the African American women. The average earning of all women is estimated at $38,097 for those who work full time all year, yet among the African American women, it is estimated that 36% for all African American women who work fulltime throughout the year earn an average of $33,780, a much lower figure (Black Demographics, 2018). This is an indicator of the higher poverty levels that exist among the African American Women and allowing for polygamous marriages will go a long way to rationalize and increase the circulation of money among more African American women and in effect lift them economically. It is worth noting that the money that will circulate will most likely not end up being dormant money but will be invested into business that will expand, effectively putting more businesses in the hands of African American women.
The polygamy legalization and ultimate embracing of the culture is a measure towards returning dignity, respect and normal life to the children who are now suffering in single parent situations. It has been researched and found as a social reality that children who grow up in single parent families are not emotionally and psychologically as stable as those with both parents in the family. There has been a strong link between single parent families and crime, indeed, as found out by Wright K.N, (1993) single parent families, and in particular mother only families, produce more delinquent children than two parent families. Research has it those parenting practices accounts for most, but not all, of the differences displayed by the children from these two above families. It is important hence to encourage African Americans to embrace polygamy for the sake of the children and the future generation who should not be allowed or left to predispose themselves to delinquent trends and possible decimation. It is noteworthy that the social isolation and economic differences also contribute to the effect.
In the African concept, among many reasons as to why polygamy is still practiced is the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. Among the conservative polygamous societies of Africa, there is strict adherence to the married partners and faithfulness to them alone. This eliminates or significantly minimizes the chances of foreign infections getting into the marriage. This is a sharp contrast to the single partner marriages with several extramarital relationships. There is high possibility of the married partner contracting sexually transmitted disease and introducing the same to the wife and hence help spreading the disease. Indeed, in the African context, polygamy was not for sex but for status. Traditionally, the individual who had many wives and would take good care of them would attract greater respect from the society as opposed to one who stuck to one wife. The polygamous individual would be considered blessed and wiser than the rest since he was able to take care of all the women within the same homestead, all living in harmony and coordinating the economic wellbeing of all of them as well as the social aspect off the women and children (Msafropolitan, 2013). It was on these bases that such polygamous people were elected on a popular vote by the villagers to be an elder and king over the villages or tribes. Polygamy was then misconstrued with the onset of the colonialists. The colonialists arrived alongside the Christian faith and rubbished the African ways of polygamous lifestyle that was the order of the day. It is time for African Americans to backtrack and find out their polygamous way of life, embrace and live by it faithfully for a long lasting solution to the social challenges facing the African Americans.
There are various Biblical incidences where the people whom God used and loved the most were polygamous and had many wives. Some of the well known personalities are Abraham, Jacob, Solomon, David among others who has many wives. They were counted as righteous and God used them in a significant manner to change the lives of generations. In as much as in the New testament Paul indicated that each man should be committed to one woman, the traditions upon which the Bible was founded supported polygamy and there no serious heinous issues that happened to totally rubbish polygamy.
These above forces have exemplified how the social relations theory plays a part in encouraging polygamy. There are various forces that encourage polygamy. The feminist anthropological framework also beseeches us not to allow foreign non contextualized principles determine the marriage arrangements that we have. There are several advantages of embracing polygamy particularly among the African Americans and it is time they determined and defined their social construction. Polygamy for the African Americans is very relevant in solving the various social challenges they face.

References
Abrams A., (2016). Divorce Rate in U.S. Drops to Nearly 40-Year Low. Retrieved April 20, 2018 from
http://time.com/4575495/divorce-rate-nearly-40-year-low/
Black Demographics, (2018). Interesting Facts About the African American Population. Retrieved April 20, 2018 from http://blackdemographics.com/
Dominguez J., Franks M. & Boschman J., (2009). Feminist Anthropology. Retrieved April 23, 2018 from http://anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/cultures.php?culture=Feminist%20Anthropology
Grossbard S., (2013). Polygamy is Bad for Women. The New York Times. Retrieved April 23, 2018 from https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/12/17/should-plural-marriage-be-legal/polygamy-is-bad-for-women
Merriam Webster Dictionary (2018). Definition: Polygamy. Retrieved April 19, 2018 from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polygamy
Msafropolitan, (2013). Polygamy in Africa has little to do with sex. Retrieved April 22, 2018 from https://www.msafropolitan.com/2013/09/polygamy-in-africa-sex.html
Newbury E., (2017). Understanding Women’s Lives in Polygamous Marriages: Exploring Community perspectives in Sierra Leone. Retrieved April 20, 2018 from https://www.trocaire.org/sites/default/files/resources/policy/2-sierra-leone-polygamy-report_0.pdf
Parent J., (2013). The Role of Coparents in African American Single-Mother Families: The Indirect Effect of Coparent identity On Youth Psychosocial Adjustment. Retrieved April 20, 2018 from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4245275/
Raley R.K, Sweeney M. and Wondra D., 2015). The Growing Racial and Ethnic Divide in U.S. Marriage Patterns. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4850739/#!po=11.6667
Wright K.N, (1993). Family Life and Delinquency and Crime. US. Department of Justice. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Retrieved April 22, 2018 from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/140517NCJRS.pdf