Ethics- Is Polygamy Ethical?

Is Polygamy Morally Ethical?

Group 1:
Brittney Brown, Kasandra Foster, Kelsay Helm, and Alicia Grant
PHI 105 Online
Professor Pitre
April 22, 2012

Introduction Polygamy is a highly debated topic among many people across the world and largely misunderstood. Polygamy is commonly defined as a marital system in which one man is married concurrently to more than one woman. The word “polygamy” actually translates from the Greek language to mean, “often married.” The correct term for a man with multiple wives is called, “polygyny.” Over the years, the terms have been intertwined, and now polygamy is synonymously known for a man married to multiple wives.[1] This lifestyle is a multicultural phenomenon, which has been occurring since the days of Adam and Eve. There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding this lifestyle including; you must be a Mormon, incest, rape, and forced, under-age marriages take place, and many other issues that we will address throughout this paper. Although for many people polygamy is misunderstood and viewed as immoral, this lifestyle has proven to be beneficial to certain cultures throughout the world and the preferred family style. However, we cannot come to the agreement that polygamy is morally ethical.

Brief Background History Regardless of what anyone may think or say, we are now fairly certain that human beings, going back as far as five million years, started out as monogamists. Some where in between, certain cultures seem to have diverged into polygamy. Anthropologists now believe that monogamy was the first step in the development of mankind.

There are some clues that lead us to believe that mankind started out as monogamists. First, fossil records show us that early humans traveled in small bands with an approximately equal number of men and women. Also, the earliest male ancestors lacked the enlarged canine incisors that are characteristic of polygamous

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