The African Slave Trade and the Curious Case of General Polygyny

Edlund, Lena and Ku, Hyejin (2011): The African Slave Trade and the Curious Case of General Polygyny.

Abstract

General polygyny -- near universal marriage and polygyny -- is common in Africa. But why would men marry n wives for 1/n:th of the time instead of monogamously? Downsides include prolonged bachelorhood and a high degree of step-parenting. We point to the African slave trade which disproportionately removed young men, thus allowing old men to take young wives. Modeling endogenous social stigma, we argue that this temporary perturbation permanently changed the equilibrium to one where all men marry late and polygynously. Data are supportive: polygyny in Africa delays first marriage for men, raises under-five mortality, but does not predict life-long bachelorhood.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: General polygyny; African slave trade; social norms; multiple equilibria; child mortality
• Subjects: J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J12 - Marriage ; Marital Dissolution ; Family Structure ; Domestic Abuse; N - Economic History > N3 - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy > N37 - Africa ; Oceania; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O10 - General

References

Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson. Reversal of fortune: Geography and institutions in the making of the modern world income distribution. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(4):pp. 1231–1294, 2002.

Victor Agadjanian and Alex Chika Ezeh. Polygyny, gender relations, and reproduction in Ghana. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 31(4):427–441, 2000.

Alberto Alesina and David Dollar. Who gives foreign aid to whom and why? Working Paper 6612, National Bureau of Economic Research, June 1998.

Alberto Alesina and Eliana La Ferrara. Participation in heterogeneous communities. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(3):pp. 847–904, 2000.

Alberto Alesina, Reza Baqir, and William Easterly. Public goods and ethnic divisions. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(4):pp. 1243–1284, 1999.

Kaushik Basu. Teacher truancy in India: The role of culture, norms and economic incentives. CAE Working Paper #06-03, Cornell University, 2006.

Gary Becker. A Treatise on the Family. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1991.

Gary S. Becker. A theory of marriage: Part ii. Journal of Political Economy, 82(2): S11–S26, Part II 1974.

Roland Benabou and Jean Tirole. Laws and norms. Technical report, National Bureau of Economic Research, 2011.

Theodore Bergstrom. On the economics of polygyny. University of Michigan Working Paper, 1994.

Kathryn Bernhardt. Women and Property in China, 960-1949. Stanford University Press, 1999.

Timothy Besley and Stephen Coate. Understanding welfare stigma: Taxpayer resentment and statistical discrimination. Journal of Public Economics, 48:165–184, 1992.

Monique Borgerhoff Mulder. Marital status and reproductive performance in kipsigis women: Re-evaluating the polygyny-fertility hypothesis. Population Studies, 43(2):pp. 285–304, 1989.

Ester Boserup. Woman's Role in Economic Development. George Allen and Unwin Ltd., London, 1970.

Riley Bove and Claudia Valeggia. Polygyny and women’s health in sub-Saharan Africa. Social Science & medicine, 68:21–29, 2009.

Pierre-Andre Chiappori and Yoram Weiss. Divorce, remarriage, and welfare: A general equilibrium approach. Journal of the European Economic Association, 4(2-3):415–426, 2006.

Ernestina Coast. Maasai marriage: A comparative study of Kenya and Tanzania. Journal of Compartive Family Studies, 37(3):399–420, 2006.

John T Dalton and Tin Cheuk Leung. Why is polygyny more prevalent in western Africa?: An African slave trade perspective. Economic Development and Cultural Change, forthcoming, 2011.

N.B. Davies. Sexual conflict and the polygamy threshold. Animal Behaviour, 38: 226–234, 1989.

David De la Croix and Fabio Mariani. From polygyny to serial monogamy: a unified theory of marriage institutions. 2012.

Vernon R. Dorjahn. Fertility, polygyny and their interrelations in Temne society. American Anthropologist, 60(5):838–860, October 1958.

W. Easterly and R. Levine. Africa’s growth tragedy: Policies and ethnic divisions. Quarterly journal of Economics, 112(4):1203–1250, 1997.

Lena Edlund and Evelyn Korn. A theory of prostitution. Journal of Political Economy, 110(1):181–214, February 2002.

Lena Edlund and Nils-Petter Lagerl¨of. The problem with polygyny: Paternal age and human capital accumulation. Columbia University, 2010.

David Eltis, Stephen D. Behrendt, and David Richardson. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: A Database on CD-Rom. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1999.

Melvin Ember. Warfare, sex ratio, and polygyny. Ethnology, 13(2):197–206, April 1974.

Friedrich Engels. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Penguine Classics, London, 1972, first published in 1884.

Stanley L Engerman and Kenneth L. Sokoloff. Factor endowments, institutions, and differential paths of growth among new world economies: A view from economic historians of the United States. In Stephen Harber, editor, How Latin America Fell Behind. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA, 1997.

Stanley L Engerman and Kenneth L. Sokoloff. Factor endowments, inequality, and paths of development among new world economics. Working Paper 9259, National Bureau of Economic Research, October 2002. URL http://www.nber. org/papers/w9259.

J. D. Fage. Slaves and society in Western Africa, c. 1445-c. 1700. The Journal of African History, 21(3):pp. 289–310, 1980.

James Fenske. African polygamy: Past and present. Economics Series Working Papers WPS/2012-20, University of Oxford, Department of Economics, November 2012.

Harald Fuess. Divorce in Japan: Family, gender, and the state, 1600-2000. Stanford University Press, Stanford, 2004.

Michel Garenne and Etiennen Van De Walle. Polygyny and fertility among the Sereer of Senegal. Population Studies, 43:267–283, 1989.

M.A. Gibson and R. Mace. Polygyny, reproductive success and child health in rural Ethiopia: Why marry a married man? Journal of Biosocial Science, 39(2): 287–300, March 2007.

William Josiah Goode. World Revolution and Family Patterns. Free Press, New York, 1970.

Jack Goody. Bridewealth and dowry in Africa and Eurasia. In Jack R. Goody and Stanley J. Tambiah, editors, Bridewealth and Dowry, number 7 in Cambridge Papers in Social Anthropology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1973.

Jack Goody. Inheritance, property and women: Some comparative considerations. In Jack R. Goody, Joan Thirsk, and E. P. Thompson, editors, Family and Inheritance: Rural Society in Western Europe, 1200-1800. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1976.

Eric D. Gould, Omer Moav, and Avraham Simhon. The mystery of monogamy. The American Economic Review, 98(1):333–357, March 2008.

Amyra Grossbard. An economic analysis of polygyny: The case of Maiduguri. Current Anthropology, 17(4):701–707, December 1976.

Stephen Obeng Gyimah. Polygynous marital structure and child survivorship in sub-Saharan Africa. Social Science & Medicine, 68:334–342, 2009.

Craig Hadley. Is polygyny a risk factor for poor growth performance among Tanzanian agropastoralists? American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 126:471–480, 2005.

Thomas Hakansson. Family structure, bridewealth, and environment in eastern africa: A comparative study of house-property systems. Ethnology, 28(2):pp.117–134, 1989. ISSN 00141828. URL http://www.jstor.org/stable/3773670.

John Hartung. Polygyny and inheritance of wealth. Current Anthropology, 23(1):1–7, February 1982.

Yasuko Hayase and Kao-Lee Liaw. Factors on polygamy in sub-Saharan Africa: Findings based on the Demographic and Health Surveys. The Developing Economies, pages 293–327, September 1997.

Hanan Jacoby. The economics of polygyny in Sub-Saharan Africa: female productivity and the demand for wives in Cote d’Ivoire. Journal of Political Economy, 103(5):938–971, October 1995.

William Jankowiak, Monika Sudakova, and Benjamin C. Wilreker. Co-wife conflict and co-operation. Ethnology, 44(1):81–98, Winter 2005.

Harounan Kazianga and Stefan Klonner. The intra-household economics of polygyny: Fertility and child mortality in rural Mali. MPRA Paper, 2009.

Michio Kitahara. Living quarter arrangements in polygyny and circumcision and segregation of males at puberty. Ethnology, 13(4):401–413, October 1974.

Evelyn Korn. On the formation of family structure. Public Choice, 105:357–372, 2000.

Nils-Petter Lagerlof. Pacifying monogamy. Journal of Economic Growth, 15(3): 235–262, September 2010.

Assar Lindbeck, Sten Nyberg, and Jorgen W. Weibull. Social norms and economic incentives in the welfare state. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(1):1–35, February 1999.

Bobbi Low. Measures of polygyny in humans. Current Anthropology, 29(1):189–194, 1988.

Alan MacFarlane. The Making of the Modern World: Visions from the West and East. Palgrave, 2002.

Angus Maddison. The World Economy: Historical Statistics. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, 2003.

Sangeetha Madhavan. Best of friends and worst of enemies: competition and collaboration in polygyny. Ethnology, 41(1):69–84, Winter 2002.

Patrick Manning. Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Trades. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1990.

John Maynard Smith. Parental investment: A prospective analysis. Animal Behaviour, 25:1–9, 1977.

Dominique Meekers and Nadra Franklin. Women’s perceptions of polygyny among the Kaguru of Tanzania. Ethnology, 34(4):315–629, Autumn 1995.

E. Miguel and M.K. Gugerty. Ethnic diversity, social sanctions, and public goods in Kenya. Journal of Public Economics, 89(11-12):2325–2368, 2005.

Grant Miller. Women’s suffrage, political responsiveness, and child survival in American history. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123(3):1287–1327, August 2008.

Joseph Calder Miller. Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism and the angolan Slave Trade, 1730-1830. University of Wisconsin Press, 1988.

George P. Murdock and Douglas R. White. Standard cross-cultural sample. Ethnography, 8(4):329–369, October 1969.

Nathan Nunn. The long-term effects of Africa’s slave trades. Quarterly Journal of Economics, (1):139–176, February 2008.

Nathan Nunn and Leonard Wantchekon. The slave trade and the origins of mistrust in Africa. American Economic Review, 101(7):3221–52, 2011.

D. Walter Rasugo Omariba and Michael H. Boyle. Family structure and child mortality in sub-Saharan Africa: Cross-national effects of polygyny. Journal of Marriage and The Family, 69(2):528–543, May 2007.

G.H. Orians. On the evolution of mating systems in birds and mammals. American Naturalist, 103:589–603, 1969.

G Pison. La demographie de la polygamie. Population (French Edition), 41(1): 93–122, 1986.

Richard Posner. Sex and Reason. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992.

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Andrew D. Mellinger, and John L. Gallup. The geography of poverty and wealth. Scienti c American, pages 70–75, 2001.

Daniel W. Sellen. Polygyny and child growth in a traditional pastoral society: the case of the Datoga of Tanzania. Human Nature, 10(4):329–371, 1999.

Herbert Spencer. Principles of Sociology, volume 1. London, 1876.

Beverly I. Strassmann. Polygyny as a risk factor for child mortality among the Dogon. Current Anthropology, 38(4):688–695, 38.

Michele Tertilt. Polygyny, fertility, and savings. Journal of Political Economy, 113(6):1341–1371, December 2005.

John K. Thornton. Sexual demography: The impact of the slave trade on family structure. In Patrick Manning, editor, Slave Trades, 1500-1800: Globalization of Forced Labour, volume 15 of An Expanding World, pages 133–143. Variorum, 1997.

Ian M. Timaeus and Angela Reynar. Polygynists and their wives in sub-Saharan Africa: An analysis of five Demographic and Health Surveys. Population Studies, 52:145–162, 1998.

Robert L. Trivers. Parental investment and sexual selection. In Bernard Campbell, editor, Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man, pages 136–179. Aldine de Gruyter, Chicago, 1972.

Robert L. Trivers and Dan E. Willard. Natural selection of parental ability to vary the sex-ratio of offspring. Science, 179:90–92, January 5 1973 . Christopher Udry. Gender, agricultural production, and the theory of the household. Journal of Political Economy, 104(5):1010–1046, October 1996.

Jared Verner. Evolution of polygamy in the Long-Billed Marsh Wren. Evolution, 18(2):pp. 252–261, 1964.

Jared Verner and Mary F. Wilson. The influence of habitats on mating systems of North American passerine birds. Ecology, 47(1):pp. 143–147, 1966.

Douglas R. White. Rethinking polygyny: Co-wives, codes, and cultural systems. Current Anthropology, 29(4):pp. 529–558, 1988.

Douglas R. White and Michael L. Burton. Causes of polygyny: Ecology, economy, kinship, and warfare. American Anthropologist, 90(4):871–887, December 1988.

J. W. M. Whiting. Effects of climate on certain cultural practices. In W. H. Goodenough, editor, Explorations in Cultural Anthropology, pages 511–544. New York, 1964.

Christopher G. Wilson. Male genital mutilation: an adaptation to sexual conflict. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29(149-164), 2008.