About 80\% of all societies recorded by anthropologists are polygynous (men have many wives). Even our own society is less monogamous than claimed. This paper attempts to explain such mysteries as why bride prices and dowries are not ``opposites'', why polygamous societies are usually characterized by positive bride prices and dowry is mainly confined to monogamous societies, why polyandry (women having multiple husbands) is rare, but not extinct, and why the more you have to pay for a wife the better you will treat her.
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Paper provided by University of Michigan, Department of Economics in its series Papers with number
_032.
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)
Gould, Eric D. & Moav, Omer & Simhon, Avi, 2003.
"The Mystery Of Monogamy,"
Discussion Papers
14992, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Agricultural Economics and Management.
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