Alternative Predictors of Polygyny

Abstract

This paper describes how the "sex-ratio" explanation of polygyny compares with some alternative, supposedly causal explanations. The results suggest that more than occasional incidence of polygyny is best predicted by two statistically independent factors—high male mortality in warfare (which would produce an actual excess of marriageable women) and delayed age of marriage for men (which would produce an artificial excess of marriageable women). The presence of one or the other of these two factors predicts an appreciable frequency of polygyny more strongly than either one factor does by itself.