Final answer:
Fraternal polyandry is a marriage system where brothers share a wife, commonly practiced in resource-scarce regions of Nepal to maintain land integrity and minimize population growth, ensuring familial economic stability, equality, and labor optimization.
Step-by-step explanation:
Fraternal polyandry functions as a form of marriage where biological brothers share one wife. This type of marital arrangement is noted for its occurrence in certain rural areas of Nepal and is particularly suited for societies with scarce resources and land. The function of fraternal polyandry is to minimize population growth and maintain economic stability within a family unit by preventing the division of land among siblings. Additionally, this arrangement facilitates the collective subsistence of a family on limited land, ensures reduced inequality within the household, and optimizes labor distribution for agricultural and herding tasks by allowing brothers to take turns in their domestic responsibilities.
From a broader perspective, fraternal polyandry serves as a strategic adaptation to environmental and economic constraints, as it ensures that a family's land remains intact and undivided across generations. This marriage system also creates strong family bonds and collective responsibility among the brothers, their wife, and any offspring that result from this union. Moreover, it functions to keep the family's lineage and property within the same kinship group, reinforcing generational kinship ties and avoiding fragmentation of property and resources.