From ancient times to the present, we all know the existence of "polygamy" in the land of China, and with the founding of New China, these bad social customs were abolished and monogamy began to be implemented.
But as everyone knows, the real hell for women is the emergence of the "polyandry" system, and even in some countries, there is still the old evil custom of fathers and sons having the same wife and brothers having the same wife, and even some parts of China have not been spared.
So, where are these countries, and what kind of hellish life are the women living there?
Brother and wife
The existence of polygamy is known to the world because at that time, women had no labor force and had no voice in the family, and the status of men evolved from a group of wives and concubines.
But now, with the progress and openness of society, women can live by their own efforts, and they are even much stronger than some business men, so the status of women is gradually improving.
Based on this situation, the "polyandry" system came into being, but the situation of polygamy is different in different countries, for example, in Nepal, although such a system is circulated, the status of women is not high, and they still have no say in the family.
As Nepalese women, they have to go through at least two marriages in their lives, the first time they marry between the ages of seven and nine, and the marriage is not a human being, but a "bello", which will accompany them for the rest of their lives.
When they marry for the second time, they will go to real hell, because Nepal is very poor, and some poor families have several sons in a row, and the father can't marry a daughter-in-law, let alone them.
In this case, the family will spend money to marry a daughter-in-law for the eldest in name, but in fact it is shared by multiple brothers, of course, the woman knows in advance before she marries.
Then some people will ask who should call the child father, which they actually thought that the child born by the brother is of course all the people to raise, and they don't know who the child's biological father is, then the eldest will become the child's father, and the others will become the child's uncle.
However, it is worth mentioning that no matter how old they are, they all want to have their own biological children, and the task of women is to give birth to at least one child for each of them, and can marry up to five people, which is arranged from the moment of marriage.
Due to the frequent birth of children, various gynecological diseases will also appear, and they not only have to give birth to children, but also have to take care of their husbands' daily life and manual labor that is no less than that of men, which leads to the low life expectancy of women in the region.
Looking at the world, there are many "polyandry" countries like Nepal, such as Senegal, Uganda, Libya, Eswatini, Egypt, etc.
Although the times have been advancing, there will always be some countries that cannot keep up with the changes and are still in a backward state, but there is such a country where the status of women is extremely high, but the custom of "polyandry" is still circulating.
If you don't marry enough, you will go to jail
This country is Sri Lanka, where the status of women is much higher than that of men, just like the relationship between the emperor and his concubines, but here the emperor is replaced by women.
Here, a woman can have many husbands at the same time, and on the wedding day is organized by the woman, a man and a woman are married in the same way as in other countries, and when the family is officially established, one or more men will voluntarily join the family to live, but there is generally no form of marriage like "concubine".
After marriage, the power of the family is fully controlled by the woman, and the husband can only do chores at home and has no right to speak.
It is worth mentioning that the divorced men will be discriminated against in society, and most of the local women will no longer choose to "recycle", and more importantly, this polyandry system is still legal in the local area.
The reason for this is also very simple, that is, there is a serious imbalance in the number of men and women in the local area, which has led to the introduction of such a system to control.
But the most bizarre country has to be Paraguay, which shares Sri Lanka's idea of increasing the population, but with polygamy.
At that time, due to the perennial war, the population was only 30,000 men, and in order to increase the population as soon as possible, the local government forced men to marry more than one woman at the same time, and if they did not obey, they would be arrested and imprisoned.
So it's not surprising to see multiple women walking down the street with a man in their arms on Paraguayan soil, as it's a common occurrence in the area.
Originally, I thought that these bad social habits were all spread in foreign countries and had nothing to do with the mainland, but I didn't think that there were really some places where monogamy was not at all.
Mother-in-law and sister-in-law, mother-in-law
Presumably this place is known to the Tibetan people, where not only polyandry but also polygamy, including mother-daughter co-husbandry, father and son co-wife.
In fact, this system comes from the local poverty, the economy is underdeveloped, the traffic is still blocked, and the fields that can be allocated to every household are very small.
You must know that this concept of marriage is illegal and unacceptable, but for poor and remote places, in order to survive, the old evil customs are still observed.
For example, there is this kind of marriage system in Wunongting Village, Deqin, Yunnan Province, where 8 out of 20 families in the village are co-wives of brothers, and at most 4 brothers, which is also common in the local area.
In addition to brothers, wives and sisters, but also for the sake of not dividing the family property, their sisters will choose not to marry a son-in-law to form a family. Regardless of whether polygamy or polyandry, men and women have equal status in the family.
But the strange thing is that in some Tibetan areas, there are still mothers and daughters who have the same husband, and after marrying, the mother takes care of the housework, and the daughter is still in good health and manages the farmland, and the daughters born and raised are also commensurate with the relationship between the matrilineal side.
The author thinks
The biggest difference between humans and animals is that they understand ethics and morality, and the emergence of such an unrecognized marriage system is also a big disappointment, but I believe that with the deepening of modern culture and the continuous progress of science and technology, these systems will gradually disappear, and all people will be baptized to abide by monogamy.
Resources:
China.com -- March 21, 2017 -- This part of China is "polyandry", selected by the snow-capped mountains and the Grand Canyon
Baidu Encyclopedia - Sri Lankan polyandry
BEIJING YOUTH Network -- July 24, 2018 -- The only country in the world that mandates polygamy will go to jail if it doesn't meet the requirements
China Tibet Net - November 28, 2002 - The evolution and causes of polyandry and other marriage customs in the Batang area
Jingtv Live - September 5, 2019 - How is the "polyandry" system in Nepal distributed?
Baidu Encyclopedia - February 28, 2021 - "Polyandry" is prevalent in Nepal, and wives will face three problems