It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides in China

Re:It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides ... by gaius on Friday June 05, 2009 @05:43AM (#642955)

This should be obvious. Look what happens in a culture where the wealthy/powerful are allowed 4 wives, on top of there already being a shortage of females.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides ... by tokenadult on Friday June 05, 2009 @10:01AM (#643185)

Look what happens in a culture where the wealthy/powerful are allowed 4 wives, on top of there already being a shortage of females.

What specifically does happen? In the culture I live in, there is aspirational lifelong monogamy as an ideal, and practical serial monogamy as a commonplace lifestyle, but I don't know what happens in a society with a highly skewed ratio of males to females. Especially, I don't know what happens if some men can have four wives and others none at all.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides ... by udekaf on Friday June 05, 2009 @09:32AM (#643144)

good point, I am always curious about how the Musilm solve the problem of male/female inbalance given the fact that one man can marry 4 wives.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:It's Cold Cash, Not Cold Feet, Motivating Runaway Brides ... by barry-cotter on Friday June 05, 2009 @09:57AM (#643181)

In the late Ottoman Empire ~3% of men had more than one wife. Keep in mind that the wife's legal position was better than in most of Europe too. In cultures where the husband is expected to support wives and progeny it gets expensive fast. OTOH there are a lot of places poorer than e.g. Saudi Arabia. In places where the father is further along the continuum to useless sperm donor, like W. Africa promiscuity and the prevalence of multiple concurrent sexual selationships makes it very different.

[ Parent | on HN ]