Final answer:
Men and women may prefer polyandry for practical reasons, including maintaining familial land, resource management, and controlling population growth in environments with limited resources. It also offers equitable labor division among males in a family and minimizes intrafamily inequality.
Step-by-step explanation:
Both men and women might prefer polyandry for several practical and economic reasons. In societies practicing fraternal polyandry, such as the Nyinba of Nepal, this form of marriage helps keep family estates intact by preventing the division of land among brothers, which is a crucial advantage in areas with scarce agricultural land. Furthermore, it allows for an equitable division of labor, where brothers can alternate responsibilities for economic activities such as agriculture and animal husbandry. Polyandry also helps to control population growth in resource-limited environments, ensuring that the family can sustain itself on the land available to them.
In other contexts, like the one described where females are establishing territories, polyandrous mating allows them to attract multiple males to the resources they control, which can lead to a concentration of effort in resource-rich areas. This can be advantageous in terms of resource allocation and reproductive success. Additionally, while polygyny is more common and can increase the social status and economic alliances of those families, it also often places women in hierarchical structures and reduces their economic independence and recognition within the family unit.