Final answer:
Polyandry is a form of marriage where one woman is married to more than one man at the same time, and it serves various social functions such as resource management, population control, and maintenance of family unity in places where it's practiced, like certain areas of Nepal.
Step-by-step explanation:
What is a Polyandry Marriage?
Polyandry is a form of marriage in which one woman is married to more than one man at the same time. This type of marriage is a less common form of polygamy, which is the broader term for marrying multiple partners. While polygyny, the marriage of one man to multiple women, is more widespread, polyandry is rare and practiced under specific social circumstances.
In societies where polyandry is found, such as in certain regions of Nepal, it serves as a social strategy to address issues like scarcity of resources, population control, and land inheritance. An example of this is fraternal polyandry, where brothers share a single wife, allowing them to maintain family resources and control family size. Such a marital structure can be beneficial in areas with limited arable land and resources, reducing inequality among siblings and ensuring family unity.
Polyandry also occurs in contexts with imbalances in sex ratios, where there are more adult men than women, or in cultures with specific ideological or religious beliefs that support such marriages. Despite its rarity, polyandry exists as a contrast to the more commonly discussed polygyny and illustrates the diversity of marital forms around the world.