Article-When Brothers Share a Wife by Melvyn C. Goldstein
Article 17
“When Brothers Share A Wife”
Author: Melvyn C. Goldstein Melvyn Goldstein is an American Anthropologist and Tibet scholar whose main focus is on the Tibetan society. In this article, it speaks about these three brothers who are Tibetans living in Limi, Nepal. They are all to marry one wife who leaves her home to live with them. All of the brothers share working and having sex with their wife. Unlike our own society, Tibetan society allows a variety of marriage types: monogamy, fraternal polyandry and polygyny. They have these family plans for each type of marriages. Monogamy is when the three brothers take three wives and each have three sons and so on. Polyandry is when the three brothers take one wife and have three sons. In my opinion both these types are wrong. I’m not sure of anyone being in their right mind, would think its okay for brothers to marry one wife together. It’s odd to think the wife doesn’t seem to care, she thinks of it more as a way that three husbands are better and more helpful than one. This article reminds me of the video we watched in class only a little different. The video had to do with men who had more than one wife; each woman would watch their own area near their hut. The one message to receive and get out of this article is the culture relativity. It goes to show that each culture is valid in its own way. The Tibetan society were grown up to learn that their relationships are okay just as how we’ve grown up in our own society to think it isn’t normal and that are way is the right
“When Brothers Share A Wife”
Author: Melvyn C. Goldstein Melvyn Goldstein is an American Anthropologist and Tibet scholar whose main focus is on the Tibetan society. In this article, it speaks about these three brothers who are Tibetans living in Limi, Nepal. They are all to marry one wife who leaves her home to live with them. All of the brothers share working and having sex with their wife. Unlike our own society, Tibetan society allows a variety of marriage types: monogamy, fraternal polyandry and polygyny. They have these family plans for each type of marriages. Monogamy is when the three brothers take three wives and each have three sons and so on. Polyandry is when the three brothers take one wife and have three sons. In my opinion both these types are wrong. I’m not sure of anyone being in their right mind, would think its okay for brothers to marry one wife together. It’s odd to think the wife doesn’t seem to care, she thinks of it more as a way that three husbands are better and more helpful than one. This article reminds me of the video we watched in class only a little different. The video had to do with men who had more than one wife; each woman would watch their own area near their hut. The one message to receive and get out of this article is the culture relativity. It goes to show that each culture is valid in its own way. The Tibetan society were grown up to learn that their relationships are okay just as how we’ve grown up in our own society to think it isn’t normal and that are way is the right