Research Suggests Polygamous Men Live Longer 483
Calopteryx writes "Want to live a little longer? Get a second wife. A study reported in New Scientist suggests that men from polygamous cultures outlive those from monogamous ones. After accounting for socioeconomic differences, men aged over 60 from 140 countries that practice polygamy to varying degrees lived on average 12% longer than men from 49 mostly monogamous nations."
I would have thought the opposite (Score:5, Funny)
I would have thought having multiple sets of in-laws would shorten your life expectancy through frustration alone...
Nah (Score:5, Insightful)
Men who are comfortable having multiple wives have no problems telling the in-laws to stuff it.
Re:Nah (Score:5, Funny)
Who says you have to have multiple sets of in-laws? Just marry sisters and/or brothers, or heck, marry the in-laws too!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Well, if you are feeling disgusting enough, you could marry your own sister, and end up with no in-laws at all, for extra points.
(And yes, I _can_ think of more disgusting alternatives)
Re:Nah (Score:4, Informative)
I met a gentleman who claimed to have 13 wife back home in Africa, in his version of polygamy, Number One Wife basically ruled the family with an iron fist. She decided which wife did which tasks and who got to visit the husbands quarters and when. Any wife that offended Number One was in for a world of misery. Overall Polygamy didn't sound like fun for anyone except Number One Wife; like in many cultures, what is displayed in public is different from what happens behind closed doors.
Duty Roster (Score:5, Funny)
Wife#1 - Head Wife , as in lead wife, the matriarch of the harem. For head wife, see #7
Wife#2 - Sports equipment maintenance: cleans balls, buffs club heads, wipes shafts, etc. For similar duties see wife #7
Wife#3 - Food servicing: food prep for friends, beer fetcher, pizza gofer, etc.
Wife#3 - Personal comfort: Fanning, AC/heat control, recliner inclination monitor, foot massage, etc.
Wife#4 - Communications: answering phone with excuses as to why husband can't answer, getting the door, etc.
Wife#5 - Media control: Monitoring location of all TV and video remote controls, summarizing viewing habits of husband and printing list of shows for him, etc.
Wife#6 - Cleaning: Washing, ironing, vacuuming, etc.
Wife#7 - Head Wife - oh yeah!
Wife#s8,9,10 - Bedtime playmates, multiple partners to alleviate boredom.
Wife#11 - Backup wife for positions 1-10
Wife#12 - Secondary (redundant) backup wife.
Wife#13 - I have no idea why he would need a 13th wife! What a self-centered A-hole!
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I met a gentleman who claimed to have 13 wife back home in Africa, in his version of polygamy, Number One Wife basically ruled the family with an iron fist. She decided which wife did which tasks and who got to visit the husbands quarters and when. Any wife that offended Number One was in for a world of misery. Overall Polygamy didn't sound like fun for anyone except Number One Wife; like in many cultures, what is displayed in public is different from what happens behind closed doors.
Sorry but that's not p [msn.com]
Re:Nah (Score:5, Funny)
Original fortune (Score:3, Funny)
fortune -m "get some work done"
(men-women)
A sociologist, a psychologist, and a engineer were discussing the
consequences and implications of a married man's having a mistress. The
sociologist's opinion was that it is absolutely and categorically unforgivable
for a married man to forfeit the bond of matrimony, and engage in such lowly
and lustful pursuits.
The psychologist's opinion was that although morally reprehensible,
if a man MUST have a mistress to a
Re:More wives would be a curse in the west (Score:4, Insightful)
Dude, your wife sounds mean.
Re:I would have thought the opposite (Score:5, Funny)
Not only that, how does going from ONE nagging wife to TWO nagging wives make for longevity??
Re:I would have thought the opposite (Score:5, Insightful)
They nag each other instead of nagging you?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Chop, Chop, Dig, Dig, Chop, Chop, Dig, Dig...
I hear digging, but I don't hear chopping!
Re:I would have thought the opposite (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps it's only been in more recent times that large percentages of the men haven't had lengthy stints in the military that may have left the ratio of men and women at home lopsided, leading to current societies (most especially Western) being less willing to tolerate polygamy. It's been my understanding that the average number of wives even in polygamist societies has been declining, though this may also have something to do with an increased cost of living.
Re:I would have thought the opposite (Score:4, Informative)
No. The only thing that recent events in Texas highlight is the
fact that goverment beaurocrats will gladly ignore their own rules
and so so without any consideration of the consequences...
"Pedophilia" is just a sort of "think of the children" sort of
rallying cry to try and silence everyone concerned about due
process or the massive logistics involved.
Someone wanted to "harass the freaks" and that was just their excuse.
Fundie Mormons should at least get the level of consideration that
the mob gets from the FBI.
Re:I would have thought the opposite (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, it's not beneficial for large numbers of single men, who necessarily have no wife at all (for each man with two wives, there is one with none, since the sex ratio in humans is very close to 1:1). There is also some evidence that having large numbers of single men contributes to violence (this should come as no surprise). Hence, polygamy probably contributes to violence.
Furthermore, while from a strictly materialistic point of view, polygamy is beneficial to women (since richer men tend to have more wives and can support them better on average), I don't think there's a lot of evidence that these women are "better off" from a liberal Western point of view. They are probably not going to be well educated or in the work force, for example.
Re:I would have thought the opposite (Score:5, Insightful)
You want a source on the fact that there are roughly equal numbers of men and women? Where are you from, Alpha Centauri? (BTW, at birth, worldwide, the human sex ratio is about 105 boys to 100 girls. It's slightly lower, about 101:100, during the sexually active years. All this does is increase the number of single men, making polygamy even less attractive.)
Your point about sexual orientation is immaterial. If polygamy is widespread enough to leave large numbers of men single, the fact that some small percentage of them will be gay is not going to change this fact.
Your point about no interest in marriage is irrelevant. What matters is whether men can find a mate, not whether they can actually marry. Even without marriage, if 25% of the men have no available mate, they have no choice in the matter.
Interesting blog article about this issue. [isteve.com]
Re:I would have thought the opposite (Score:5, Interesting)
I suspect not much, and the reason why is the key bit in the article, which is "controlling for socioeconomic factors..." The problem here is that, in the modern world, there just aren't any polygamous societies that are wealthy, liberal democracies. I'm not being judgmental about it - that's just the way it is. So the "controlling" part is likely to be pretty extreme.
Are we looking at the tiny percentage in polygamous societies that do have a Western-style living standard? Because it's all those other (poorer) single men who are probably going to be killing each other off, not the rich few at the top. So no big surprise there.
Or are we looking at the society as a whole, but extrapolating life expectancy at living standard X out to what it "would be" under living standard Y? I would be extremely dubious of any such extrapolation.
Finally, just because polygamy "contributes" to violence - and I think it does - it certainly isn't the only thing that contributes. There are most likely factors that contribute significantly more. My claim is not really all that strong - I'm mostly just answering the fellow who asserted that polygamy is "beneficial for all those involved". I'm pretty convinced that it isn't.
Re:I would have thought the opposite (Score:5, Funny)
Not only that, how does going from ONE nagging wife to TWO nagging wives make for longevity??
Maybe it just *seems* like his life is longer?
"Sit on a hot stove for a minute and it feels like an hour; sit with a pretty girl for an hour and it feels like a minute. Live with two wives and it makes sitting on a hot stove look pretty good." (with apologies to Albert Einstein)
More likely, it's sampling bias. (Score:3, Insightful)
Consider the following: every culture that practices polygamy (actually polygyny, multiple wives, as opposed to polyandry, which would be multiple husbands) has to do something about the extra males. Each and every society like this, without exception, has been AMAZINGLY misogynistic - and that's continued today in the modern Muslim and Fundamentalist LDS "polygamist" cultures.
When you have a surplus of males, your option is pretty much either (a) kick them out into the world (what the FLDS do) or (b) get t
You have a big problem here. (Score:5, Informative)
Read the summary of the study's conclusion again. What the study claims to demonstrate isn't that polygamists live longer than other men in their own society; what it demonstrates is that in societies where a minority of the men have multiple wives, the mean longevity of all men is longer.
Note the following two things that follow from this:
The second point I just made is at odds with what you're telling us here:
For this to be consistent with the results of the study, the negative effect of such early deaths on average longevity must be smaller than the positive effect that the polygamists have on the same statistic. Which suggests you're totally overblowing this by reasoning on the basis of stereotypes.
Re:You have a big problem here. (Score:5, Insightful)
For this to be consistent with the results of the study, the negative effect of such early deaths on average longevity must be smaller than the positive effect that the polygamists have on the same statistic.
Quite the reverse: they "controlled" the study by only studying men who had exceeded 60 years of age.
That biases your study sample. Kill the poor off young, and you won't see many poor men living only to 62-63 years.
Another confounding factor. (Score:3, Interesting)
Another possible confounding factor: Polygamy is often associated with religions (Mormon offshoots, Islam, ...) whose practitioners also have less exposure to a number of biochemical health risks due to religious prohibitions or discouragements: Alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, other psychotropic drugs, pork-borne diseases, ...
Other aspects of their cultural or religious practices (such as their legal system, requirements to self-suppor and, support the family rather than depending on government charity, indiv
Excuse me, but your prejudice is showing (Score:4, Informative)
It is for these reasons, especially for reason number 2, which 'fundementalist' Muslims believe is the quickest route to hell should you screw up that polygamy is actually not that widely practised in proportion to just having one spouse. Now, compare this to the de facto polygamy that is practised in the Western world and see who is mysogynistic.
Re:More likely, it's sampling bias. (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you trying to imply that the polygamy is causing misogynistic tendencies? Because I think it's the other way around.
No, it's the other way around like you say - only a society which sees women as mere property could evolve to have polygyny without equal rights to polyandry, and NO society has ever evolved both. Every "polygamist" society has treated women as mere property.
Re: (Score:2)
It's not that they live so much longer, it's that the time passes so much slower for them.
Re:I would have thought the opposite (Score:5, Insightful)
knowing that if she naggs to much or decides to cut off the sex, you will walk down the hall to the other wife tends, to make this a non issue.
Women compete naturally against each other.. here is an example.
She is being such a b*tch today.. you should come stay with me, I would never be like that. Flip sides repeat.
Hell look at Hugh Hefner.
I think you ust hit the mail on the head (Score:5, Funny)
I suspect that people who are happy with their lives in general will live longer.
There are studies that show that married people live longer than those who are not.
There are studies that claim that happily married people live longer than those who are not happy in their marriage.
What makes men happy?
Being a guy I know I am happier when I get more opportunity for some "good" lovin' from my woman.
Do you see where I'm going with this? It's all about what makes you happy (imho).
Now then, the next question is: What makes women happy?
Figure that out and your onto something.
You've completely missed it (Score:5, Funny)
Now then, the next question is: What makes women happy?
Figure that out and your onto something.
More like "figure that out, and she'll change her mind"
Just kidding, honey! Honest.
Re:You've completely missed it (Score:4, Funny)
Women aren't happy unless they are miserable.
Women and misery: a study in redundancy. (Score:5, Funny)
Oppsie, typo. Fixed it for you
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I think you ust hit the mail on the head (Score:5, Interesting)
This is what we would call either a "major exception" or one hell of a deception.
FLDS polygamy is "iron-fist male" rule, by every honest account that's come out of it. Even the idea of a woman in such a society becoming a paralegal is ridiculous.
Of course, I can 100% believe the brainwashed women "brought in" the 4th - because in the FLDS, it's that fourth wife gets the family into heaven. Only men with 4 or more wives get into heaven, and wives can only get in if their husband brings them along. I can also certainly believe the husband wasn't so keen on bringing in a widow - after all, if he'd waited a couple more years, he'd probably have been assigned a nice cute 14-year-old by the "church elders."
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No, this is just bigotry trying to discount any evidence
that contradicts the bigotry.
The idea that women would defend any social order is not
particularly strange. How do you think these systems stay
in place to begin with? Whether or not you would personally
like it is another matter.
There are plenty of femi-nazis that will gladly demonize the
choices of mundane monogomist housewives. Why should a house-
hold with multiple housewives be any different?
The US tried to give women in Utah sufferage in the hope that
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Their are many different Mormon sects that all practice their own brand of Mormon-ism. FLDS is just the one currently in the news. Using one particular group as a stereotype for anything is just wrong.
Sorry, just tired of hearing people using FLDS and LDS interchangeably.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
[Co-wife] is a terrible word-my pen almost halts in writing it-woman's mortal enemy...How many hearts has it broken, how many minds has it confused and homes destroyed, how much evil brought and innocents sacrificed...a terrible word laden with savagery and selfishness...Bear in mind that as you amuse yourself with your new bride you cause another's despair to flow in tears...
Malak Hifni Nassef, as quoted in A Very Short Introduction to Islam [amazon.co.uk], in the chapter on women, pp96.
This is by way of agreement, I thought it was one of the most harrowing descriptions of polygamy I've read, though I haven't read many.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I meant I was agreeing with parent post, and that the quote was supporting it. I have no idea what you're talking about or what it had to do with what I said.
I'm sure those young girls who are murdered by the state because they were raped are submitting to this "by agreement".
Before you start going islamophobic on my ass, I should point out that I'm an Atheist of Irish Catholic descent, so direct your bile elsewhere. I thought it was an interesting quote of commentary from inside a polygamist culture, and is hardly an endorsement of Islam's attitude to women, if you actually read it.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
With the benefit of the book right in front of me I can confirm that what it describes is referred to as polygamy in the text, but is actually polygyny.
However, polygyny is a a subset of polygamy, and polyandry is rare enough that in demotic English polygamy almost always means polygyny.
Nevertheless, your pedantry is acknowledged.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
What stuck the show in my mind was that the 3 wives were the ones who actually brought in the fourth. The husband wasn't actually keen on the idea at first. ...it almost sounds as if he didn't want to go to heaven?
More likely, accepting the "used" widow would lessen the chance of his being "assigned" a nice, pliant, nubile 14-year-old sex slave by the FLDS "elders."
Re:I think you ust hit the mail on the head (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem with polygomy isn't really a problem with women. If you are raised in that society there is nothing about a polygomous relationship that is inherently negative or abusive. The real problem is the men.
Imagine if every family held to about the same ratio of 1 husband to 4 wives. You now have 3 men who will never be able to find a wife, never be able to start a family. Beleive it or not, evolution had kind of made men extremely averse to this situation. Men get desperate, they do stupid things, and not just hooking up with ugly women. They take inordinate risks to gain prestige, they debase themselve to gain acceptence of people higher on the social ladder, they gamble their life and their money in the hopes of 'earning' a wife.
There's even been talk of this being the cause of many suicide bombings. People to low in the heirarchy know they will never have children and life looses some of it's meaning; to the point where the promise of wives in the afterlife is strong enough that it drives you to kill yourself.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
"men do stupid things" in your context they seem stupid in their context with the exception of suicide bomber its rational behavior. Killing yourself makes no sense but if the competition for females is great then as a male you have to be a great competitor even if the situation is dangerous, or carries other negative consequences. He may not get another opportunity. Now in our relatively equal parts male female society the competition is not as great. So the rational action is to wait for another oppo
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Agree.
Rape has been shown to be a viable evolutionary strategy in other primates - after all the only chance a beta male gets to mate is to kill the alpha male or to sneak behind his back and I guess in that situation it's secondary if the female agrees or not. It is thought that women's "hidden estrus" evolved as a defense against rape.
So, bottom line, if you have many desperate males around in a society it will have consequences. Everybody knows they do stupid things when they're full of testosterone.
OTOH
Re:I think you ust hit the mail on the head (Score:5, Insightful)
It could be a nice way to live, or it could be really awful. It entirely depends on the circumstances.
In fact, it's very much like prostitution (not very surprisingly.)
If a woman *wants* to be in a polygamous relationship, well, why should we stop her? The government has no business legislating morality.
If a woman doesn't want to, well, she shouldn't have to, and nobody's making her get married (we presume, maybe optimistically.) So that's fine, too.
But here's the problem: what do you, as The State, do, when a group of people are raising their children and educating them that the way they live is the Right Way -- when that Right Way may seem harmful to people who aren't in that culture?
Hence the arguments over deaf people who don't want their children who can hear, to learn speech, because it would cut them off from the deaf sign language community (I've heard people argue this.) Or cultures or groups who cut off womens' genitals, or The Family, who encouraged their (often very young) female members to go sleep with wealthy men to get them to join the church.
There's a line to be drawn. Obviously, we all draw a line at voluntary vs. coercive behavior. But the much trickier problem is where we draw the line when it comes to educating children so they'll grow up making choices that seem, to them, to be voluntary, but seem to outsiders to be coerced.
I think a main reason homeschooling is so attractive to many people is because this gives them the ability to do exactly this: raise their kids with a restricted information set so the kids will be much less likely to make choices the parents don't like. I also think that's precisely why the FLDS got raided: because The State decided they were raising their children in an environment designed to make the children accept what The State viewed as systematic abuse.
Re:I think you ust hit the mail on the head (Score:5, Interesting)
I think a main reason homeschooling is so attractive to many people is because this gives them the ability to do exactly this: raise their kids with a restricted information set so the kids will be much less likely to make choices the parents don't like.
Aren't ALL children raised this way? I mean - I haven't seen many books called "Johnny goes to Dahlmer's for dinner."
The fact is that many - if not most parents try to put off exposure to violence, sexualization, and dirty language as long as possible. With the sludge-pool of modern communication (internet, TV, radio, press) and the spineless education system we have built - I have a great admiration for those who choose homeschooling.
I worry about homeschoolers that never introduce these things to their kids, though. It's one thing to decide when and where to expose them to the world - it's an entirely different (and wrong) approach to hide them from the world. At some point they need to be able to deal with these issues - they're part of human nature and have been for millennia.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
What about Synchronized Menstruation? (Score:3, Interesting)
McClintock effect [wikipedia.org]
The McClintock effect, also known as menstrual synchrony or the dormitory effect, is a theory that proposes that the menstrual cycles of women who live together (such as in prisons, convents, bordellos, or dormitories) tend to become synchronized over time.
It is thought to be analogous to the Whitten effect, which is the synchronization of the estrou
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
how does going from ONE nagging wife to TWO nagging wives make for longevity??
What I can't figure. Some of the ancient kings who had a hundred, two hundred wives all living in the same palace. With the dorm effect, could you imagine that? No wonder they fought so many wars back then. 200 wives all on the rag at the same time, I'd be ready to go to war. Who's with me?
Re: (Score:3)
You don't really live longer. It just seems longer.
IT IS the opposite (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm polyamorous and have a long-term girlfriend in addition to a wife of over a decade. It's been my experience that in the short term, there's a huge amount of stress and a substantial load of emotional processing involved (as my gf is fond of saying to people, "imagine what happens when both women have PMS at the same time"). But in the long term I expect there's probably more benefits than costs, both because of the added emotional support, and because adapting to multiple people forces one to be subst
Re:I would have thought the opposite (Score:5, Funny)
Why do women live longer than men?
They refuse to die until they have the last word.
Why do men die sooner than women?
For the peace and quiet.
(ducks for cover
Related to an old joke (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
You do realize that means married men would rather die earlier than live without their wives, don't you.
I know that's the case with me - I can hardly imagine living without her.
Re: (Score:2)
Your head.
------ Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 2.4).
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
No, but she knows how to read his Slashdot comments.
Re:Related to an old joke (Score:5, Funny)
(except Hans Reiser)
Serial vs. Simultaneous (Score:4, Insightful)
I will live forever! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Not sure how many people you'll find to agree with you, but I too found it easier, and less stressful in many ways. The article goes through some convolutions about children but I think it has much more to do with general contentment.
Re:I will live forever! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I will live forever! (Score:5, Insightful)
Being faithful to one partner could be a sign of respect for that person. It could be a sacrifice willingly made to get the benefits of a partner's full attention and devotion. It could be a practical way to insure that a stable and pleasant home life stays stable and pleasant. It could be a demonstration to your kids that in order to have somebody sacrifice for you, you must first sacrifice for them. It might be a way to prevent getting cuckolded or raising another man's child (what's good for the goose...). Or you might just love the person so much that hurting them isn't worth a few hours of pleasure.
There are a lot of reasons to be faithful to one person. You need to stop letting the Christian church define everything for you.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
If people expect longevity in marriage because of Romeo and Juliet, then they aren't familiar with the play.
Forwarding this to my wife... (Score:5, Funny)
...and I'll even share! I'm all for watching girl-on-girl action!
That being said, as much as my wife and I both love naked chicks, I can't imagine being married to more than one woman, let alone surviving longer from it. One woman is enough to kill me.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
The catch here is that polygamy implies marriage. Now if they just changed it to "hot group action" or "friends with benefits" then I'd be demanding that this longevity effect be covered under health insurance.
There's a LOT to control for (Score:5, Interesting)
The most obvious explanation is that only the "fittest" men get to have multiple wives in the first place. They'll tend to be richer, and rich men live longer. They said they accounted for socioeconomic differences, but might it also be that physically fit men lived longer and attracted more wives?
I'm sure they tried to control for that and a host of other factors, but I'd really need to see the original paper to understand their work.
Re:There's a LOT to control for (Score:4, Interesting)
I realize polyandry is much rarer, but did they try to contrast this with it? I suspect the cultural expecations that make polygamy possible make the stress-free living that really generates the longevity possible. Up to the point where the opposite would be true for polyandry.
Ernest Borgnine says different (Score:3, Interesting)
Uh-oh (Score:2)
Hugh Hefner (Score:5, Insightful)
A quick check shows Hugh Hefner at 82, that's proof enough for me.
Now if I could just convince my wife...
Attempts to convince your wife... (Score:5, Funny)
May shorten your life expectancy.
Polygamous cultures (Score:5, Insightful)
often practice warfare to an unusual degree. High numbers of young male deaths leads to a surplus of marriageable women -- including widows. Polygamy allows the fertility rate to compensate, among other things.
It follows that while the cost of war is borne most by the dead, any potential benefits must be shared disproportionately more by the survivors.
By a similar logic, I'd bet that the countries in question have a much higher mortality rate for young men from all causes, and that survivors into old age posses, disproportionately, social fitness. In other words the poor die young and the rich live longer. This may also be exacerbated when you look at certain small and exceptional countries, such as Brunei.
In any case, there is only so far clever juxtaposition of gross numbers can get you. To really understand data, you have to disaggregate it, which is probably not possible in the datasets they have. Overall male life expectancy is a better measure of male health, not the survival rates of those who have already reached advanced age. That's practically asking to have your data confounded.
Ridiculous (Score:3, Insightful)
Correlation is not causation. There may just be something in common with longer lifespans and polygamy, like hormones, lifestyle, attitude... hundreds of things.
Re: (Score:2)
Correlation is not causation. There may just be something in common with longer lifespans and polygamy, like hormones, lifestyle, attitude... hundreds of things.
"After accounting for socioeconomic differences..."
These studies always make me wonder what life would be like if I could publish such flimsy things in my field.
Re: (Score:2)
What is your field?
Irony... (Score:2, Funny)
Another reply here had a link to a study about how humans almost died out 70k years ago. Boring, but linked to THAT was a theory that the reason men generally live *shorter* lives than women was polygamy. According to the theory, having multiple reproductive partners (a harem) tends to produce larger, stronger, but more short lived males: since it takes a lot of strength to fend off the other males from taking your harem, but it happens eventually anyway, so why live a long life?
Combined with this study,
Wrong forum (Score:5, Funny)
Since no one here has a even a girlfriend, I would say this is neither news for nerds or stuff that matters. :(
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I do too have a girlfriend, you insensitive clod!
She lives in Canada. You wouldn't know her.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
OK, on behalf of those of us who live in Canada and actually have girlfriends .... *phbtbtbbtbt*. :-P
Cheers
Science News of the Day (Score:3, Funny)
"But honey, it's for my health!"
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Make sure you have an ambulance stand by.
Question (Score:5, Funny)
I have only one question: what is the list of polygamous nations?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Question (Score:5, Funny)
I have only one question: what is the list of polygamous nations?
And the follow up, are they looking for more engineers?
Observer bias (Score:2)
Maybe it just feels like much, much longer when you have more than one wife?
Confucius say (Score:4, Funny)
Confucius say "Man who hosts two women under one roof sleep in doghouse."
widowhood shortens life expectancy (Score:3, Interesting)
The selection bias of polygamous men (mentioned already here) for richer and healthier persons over those who die younger likely explains the differences enough, but, in addition, it's long been known that widowers have a reduced lifespan. It's likely that the survival of the second wife protects against that reduction somewhat.
correlation is not causation. (Score:3, Interesting)
They live longer because they work hard, eat well, and don't watch much TV.
TV is the source of gov't manipulation, and by extension, satan. And while polyg's don't mind defrauding the welfare system and getting money FROM the gov't, they distance themselves thoroughly from gov't control.
They also have the most well-behaved kids you will EVER see in a Walmart. Make Hamish kids look like the Courtney Love.
I just asked my wife about this (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd rather have an uppity American woman in my bed than some sexually repressed semi-slave from one of these psychotically misogynistic cultures. I want a companion, not a slave.
"Girls with guns! Crucial realm!" --The Dirty Pair
i'm outraged! (Score:5, Funny)
Why was I not invited to participate in this study? No matter which test group you are assigned to, you end up getting tail. I happen to be a strong proponent of getting tail.
All I can say is... (Score:4, Interesting)
And what about the women? (Score:5, Insightful)
Wives need wives (Score:5, Interesting)
Any reliable wife will tell you that what she needs most on any given day is a wife. We compensate for monogamy by hiring wives for our wives; house cleaners, babysitters, daycare, diaper service, food delivery. Also, by living (well in the US) in a throw-away technical society we have striped away the need to make or repair clothes (sewing), prepare complex meals (eating out), corresponding (email, phone) and many other things that women "had" to do or felt needed to be done in a proper society.
My wife and I, married almost 14 years and with two kids, have discussed "getting" (not sure how to put it) a second wife. She's not opposed to it, understands it completely, but we haven't had a chance to try it yet. Since we live sustainably and don't take advantage of the many means to rent a wife, we don't really have much choice except to look for help. If you are going to use a woman that way, then you should support her, I feel. Renting is just a way to use something and throw it away, in the end. And paying for services that a woman could do herself is expensive the realm of the rich.
I don't know how having two wives would make me live longer as such, never gave it any thought, but it would reduce how much I worry about our family economy if I had two wives working as sisters to hold everything together, get back to simpler ways of doing things by hand and without technology. Homeschooling, food preparation and gardening are suddenly easier. My wife works so hard... she needs a wife.
[PS: Some will chorus "then help her do her work you smuck!" To which I reply "Ah, but I'm the one building the house." You see, when you really adopt the idea of do-it-yerself you bite off this enormous load of work that nobody even thinks about any more.]
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I really believe this type of arrangement will become more common in the future. I've probabaly missed the boat, as I'm already in my mid 30s. But I'll bet by the time my kids (now 2) and their friends are of dating age, polyamorous relationships of varying degrees will be quite common.
Every generation has found new ways to push the limits of sex and relationships - the 60/70s had "free love", swinger parties etc. The 80/90s were somewhat of a slow period (maybe AIDS had something to do with it). And now it
What's missing from the study.... (Score:4, Interesting)
Obviously... (Score:3, Funny)
The lives of men with many wives only SEEM longer...
bad 'monogamy scale' (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem seems to be the 'monogamy scale' mentioned in the article. Perhaps they considered every country where polygamy in some form is legal as ones that 'practice polygamy'. For example in India, polygamy is legal (only) for Muslims, but there are so few Muslims that practice it that it cannot possibly have any effect on the average male. So this correlation observed among countries that 'practice polygamy' (which in reality just have a tiny causally insignificant number of polygamists) is probably just noise.
Why 60+ year olds, survival of the fittest? (Score:3, Interesting)
This seems extremely flawed. If you are comparing longevity among those who already reached 60, the first question I would ask is what are the numbers for everyone? I am betting they are reversed when you include all those who didn't make it to 60.
First many of these countries identified are probably harsher environments, then you create additional pressures by having polygamy, which means much higher mate competition pressures. If one guy has 4 wives, 3 guys get no wives.
So you have a survival of the fittest regime, that is likely killing off a lot of the weaker samples early. Then you compare the 60+ year old survivors to average 60 year olds in non polygamous societies (likely the west) where most of those weaker individuals make it to 60.
Can we have a: "Well Duh!"
Someone got paid for this?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
On the other hand, I have heard the following saying:
"Most women would rather have one-tenth of a first-rate man than all of a second rate one."
Females tend to be very attuned to the capabilities of their mates, and let's be clear that while women may have been effectively chattel, you cannot have that situation without at least some (perhaps unconscious) c