Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T14:52:09.043Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Polygyny in American Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Laura Betzig  and
Samantha Weber
Laura Betzig*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, USA
Samantha Weber*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan, USA
*
The Evolution and Human Behavior Program, 100 Rackham, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
The Evolution and Human Behavior Program, 100 Rackham, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Get access

Abstract

Biographical data were collected on members of the U.S. executive, legislative, and judicial branches, in George Washington's first through Ronald Reagan's last administration, from Who Was Who in America, the Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress, Vice Presidents and Cabinet Members, and Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of America. They suggest that serial polygyny in this sample has declined over the last two hundred years. Census data on average American men suggest that the number of wives per man has stayed the same or increased at the same time. These trends imply that mating equality may have increased over the last two centuries of American history. What sketchy evidence exists on extramarital opportunities tentatively suggests a similar trend.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 45 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, R.D. (1975). “The Search for a General Theory of Behavior.” Behavior Science 20:77–100.Google Scholar
Alexander, R.D. (1979). Darwinism and Human Affairs. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Alexander, R.D. (1987). The Biology of Moral Systems. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Bailey, R.C. (1991). The Behavioral Ecology of Efe Pygmy Men in the Ituri Forest, Zaire. Anthropological papers number 86. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology.Google Scholar
Barkow, J., ed. (1989). Evolved Constraints of Cultural Evolution. Special issue of Ethology and Sociobiology 10:1–219.Google Scholar
Bateman, A.J. (1948). “Intrasexual Selection in Drosophila.” Heredity 48:349–368.Google Scholar
Betzig, L.L. (1982). “Despotism and Differential Reproduction: A Cross Cultural Correlation of Conflict Asymmetry, Hierarchy, and Degree of Polygyny.” Ethology and Sociobiology 3:209–221.Google Scholar
Betzig, L.L. (1986). Despotism and Differential Reproduction: A Darwinian View of History. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine.Google Scholar
Betzig, L.L. (1988). “Mating and Parenting in Darwinian Perspective.” In Betzig, L., Borgerhoff Mulder, M., and Turke, P. (eds.), Human Reproductive Behaviour: A Darwinian Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Betzig, L.L. (1991). “History.” In Maxwell, M. (ed.), The Sociobiological Imagination. Albany: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Betzig, L.L. (1992a). “Medieval Monogamy.” In Mithen, S. and Maschner, H. (eds.), Darwinian Approaches to the Past. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Betzig, L.L. (1992b). “Roman Monogamy.” In Betzig, L. (ed.), Darwinian History. Special issue of Ethology and Sociobiology, 13:351–383.Google Scholar
Betzig, L.L. (1992c). “Roman Polygyny.” In Betzig, L. (ed.), Darwinian History. Special issue of Ethology and Sociobiology 13:309–349.Google Scholar
Betzig, L.L. (1992d). “Sex, Succession, and Stratification in the First Six Civilizations.” In Ellis, L. (ed.), Socioeconomic Inequality and Social Stratification. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress (1979). Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Blassingame, J. (1973). The Slave Community. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Boone, J. (1986). “Social Subordination and Population Processes among 16th- to 18th-Century Portuguese Elites.” American Anthropologist 88:859–78.Google Scholar
Borgerhoff Mulder, M. (1987). “On Cultural and Reproductive Success.” American Anthropologist 89:617–34.Google Scholar
Brodie, F. (1974). Jefferson: An Intimate History. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of America (1981). London: Burke's Peerage, Ltd.Google Scholar
Calhoun, A. (1918). A Social History of the American Family, Volume 2: From Independence Through the Civil War. New York: Barnes and Noble.Google Scholar
Carcopino, J. (1940). Daily Life in Ancient Rome. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Chagnon, N., Flinn, M., and Melancon, T. (1979). “Sex Ratio Variation among the Yanomamö Indians.” In Chagnon, N.A. and Irons, W. (eds.), Evolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective. North Scituate, MA: Duxbury Press.Google Scholar
Chanley, V. and Chanley, J.. (1989). “Political Leadership and Reproductive Striving.” Paper read at meetings of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Evanston, IL.Google Scholar
Cherlin, A. (1981). Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cleaves, F. (1939). Old Tippecanoe. New York: Scribner's.Google Scholar
Cresson, W. (1946). James Monroe. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Cronk, L. (1991). “Wealth, Status, and Reproductive Success among the Mukogodo of Kenya.” American Anthropologist 93:345–60.Google Scholar
Cunningham, N. (1987). In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.Google Scholar
Daly, M. and Wilson, M. (1983). Sex, Evolution, and Behavior. Second edition. Boston: Willard Grant.Google Scholar
Faux, S.F. and Miller, H. (1984). “Evolutionary Speculations on the Oligarchic Development of Mormon Polygyny.” Ethology and Sociobiology 5:15–31.Google Scholar
Flinn, M.V. (1986). “Correlates of Reproductive Success in a Caribbean Village.” Human Ecology 14:225–43.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. and Engerman, S. (1974). Time on the Cross. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Genovese, E. (1974). Roll, Jordan, Roll. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Goody, J. (1983). The Development of the Family and Marriage in Europe. London: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutman, H. (1976). The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Hamilton, H. (1951). Zachary Taylor: Soldier in the White House. New York: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Hartley, S. (1975). Illegitimacy. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hewlett, B. (1988). “Sexual Selection and Paternal Investment among Aka Pygmies.” In Betzig, L., Borgerhoff Mulder, M., and Turke, P. W. (eds.), Human Reproductive Behaviour: A Darwinian Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hughes, A. (1986). “Reproductive Success and Occupational Class in Eighteenth-Century Lancashire, England.” Social Biology 33:109–15.Google Scholar
Irons, W. (1979). “Cultural and Biological Success.” In Chagnon, N. and Irons, W. (eds.), Evolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective. North Scituate, MA: Duxbury Press.Google Scholar
Jacobson, H. (1959). American Marriage and Divorce. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston.Google Scholar
James, M. (1938). The Life of Andrew Jackson. New York: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Johnson, G.R. (1989). “The Presidency and Reproductive Success: Is There an Ultimate Payoff for Wielding Presidential Power?” Paper read at meetings of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Evanston, IL.Google Scholar
Kaplan, H. and Hill, K. (1985). Hunting Ability and Reproductive Success among Male Ache Foragers. Current Anthropology 26:131–33.Google Scholar
Ketcham, R. (1971). James Madison: A Biography. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Laslett, P. (1980). “Introduction: Comparing Illegitimacy Over Time and Between Cultures.” In Laslett, P., Oosterveen, K., and Smith, R. (eds.), Bastardy and its Comparative History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Laslett, P., Oosterveen, K. and Smith, R., eds. (1980). Bastardy and its Comparative History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lipsky, G. (1950). John Quincy Adams: His Theory and Ideas. New York: Cromwell.Google Scholar
Long, J. (1930). The Life Story of Abraham Lincoln. New York: Revell.Google Scholar
Low, B.S. (1990). “Occupational Status, Landownership, and Reproductive Behavior in 19th-Century Sweden: Tuna Parish.” American Anthropologist 92:457–68.Google Scholar
MacDonald, K. (1990). “Mechanisms of Sexual Egalitarianism in Western Europe.” Ethology and Sociobiology 11:195–237.Google Scholar
McCoy, C. (1960). Polk and the Presidency. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Mazyck, W.H. (1932). George Washington and the Negro. Washington, DC: Associated Publishers.Google Scholar
Mealey, L. (1985). “The Relationship between Social Status and Biological Success: A Case Study of the Mormon Religious Hierarchy.” Ethology and Sociobiology 6:249–57.Google Scholar
Miller, H.R. (1973). Scandals in the Highest Office. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Murdock, G.P. and Wilson, S. (1973). “Settlement Patterns and Community Organization: Cross-Cultural Codes 3.” Ethnology 11:254–97.Google Scholar
Nichols, R. (1958). Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Niven, J. (1983). Martin van Buren: The Romantic Age of American Politics. New York: Oxford.Google Scholar
Peabody, J. (1973). John Adams: A Biography in his Own Words. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Perusse, D. (1993). “Cultural and Reproductive Success in Industrial Societies.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 16:in press.Google Scholar
Rogers, A. (1990). “Evolutionary Economics of Human Reproduction.” Ethology and Sociobiology 11:479–95.Google Scholar
Røskaft, E., Wara, A., and Viken, Å. (1992). “Human Reproductive Success in Relation to Resource-Access and Parental Age in a Small Norwegian Farming Parish during the Period 1700-1900.” In Betzig, L. (ed.), Darwinian History. Special issue of Ethology and Sociobiology 13:In press.Google Scholar
Ross, S. (1988). Fall From Grace. New York: Ballantine Books.Google Scholar
Scriptores Historiae Augustae (1922). Translated by Magie, David. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann.Google Scholar
Seager, R. (1963). And Tyler Too. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Smith, E. (1975). The Presidency of James Buchanan. Wichita: University of Kansas Press.Google Scholar
Snyder, C. (1975). The Lady and the President. Louisville: University of Kentucky Press.Google Scholar
Stampp, K. (1967). The Peculiar Institution. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Syme, R. (1960). “Bastards in the Roman Aristocracy.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 104:123–27.Google Scholar
Turke, P. (1990). “Which Humans Behave Adaptively, and Why Does it Matter?” Ethology and Sociobiology 11:305–39.Google Scholar
Turke, P. and Betzig, L. (1985). “Those Who Can Do: Wealth, Status, and Reproductive Success on Ifaluk.” Ethology and Sociobiology 6:79–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United States Bureau of the Census (1975). Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
United States Bureau of the Census (1987). Statistical Abstracts of the United States: 1988. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Veyne, P. (1987). “The Roman Empire.” In Veyne, P. (ed.), From Pagan Rome to Byzantium. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. Volume 1 in Ariés, P. and Duby, G. (eds.), A History of Private Life.Cambridge: Belknap.Google Scholar
Vice Presidents and Cabinet Members (1979). Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana.Google Scholar
Vinovskis, M. (1972). “Mortality Rates and Trends in Massachusetts Before 1860.” Journal of Economic History 32:184–213.Google Scholar
Wade, M. (1979). “Sexual Selection and Variation in Reproductive Success.” American Naturalist 114:742–47.Google Scholar
Wells, R. (1980). “Illegitimacy and Bridal Pregnancy in Colonial America.” In Laslett, P., Oosterveen, K., and Smith, R. (eds.), Bastardy and its Comparative History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
White, D. (1985). Ar'n't I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
White, D. (1988). “Rethinking Polygyny: Co-wives, Codes, and Cultural Systems.” Current Anthropology 29:529–72.Google Scholar
Who Was Who in America (1967-1985). Chicago: Marquis' Who's Who.Google Scholar
Wrightson, K. (1980). “The Nadir of English Illegitimacy in the Seventeenth Century.” In Laslett, P., Oosterveen, K., and Smith, R. (eds.), Bastardy and its Comparative History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar