Why does polyandry (one woman with multiple men) really not exist in history ?

One woman having multiple husbands is called polyandry. Not only did it exist in history, but it still exists today, especially in the Himalayas. It was more common than people realize.[1]

I was in a country where it still exists, Bhutan, which is so isolated high in the Himalayas that most people didn’t even hear about World War II until it was over. Even a few decades ago, foreigners were prohibited from visiting. But now they allow foreigners to enter (with limited conditions) and they now have television, internet and mobile phones, so things are changing and more modern.

Click Here For Full Video of 4 Man With 1 Women 

Among the Himalayan peoples, the men were often gone for months at a time herding yaks in the mountains, so it was common for a woman to have two husbands, so that she could always have one man at home to help her with the house and support her. she was content while the other was away grazing. Women in Nepal owned all the property (this is a property system called matrifocal), so the men got to do whatever they wanted.[3] They usually married brothers, and any children born were considered descendants of the elder brother. 

If she and her husband divorced, the husband had to leave and the wife kept the house and children. I spoke to a woman who divorced their husband and kicked him out of the house – it was his bad luck.

Polyandry is contrasted with polygyny, which involves one man and two or more women. They had it in Bhutan too – the king of Bhutan had four wives when I was there. They were sisters. When he fell in love with a woman and asked her father for her hand in marriage, the father told him that he must marry his other three daughters as well. This was acceptable to the king and his bride-to-be, so there they were: The king and his four wives. In Bhutan they considered it completely normal.

The former king of Bhutan with his four lucky queens and ten lucky children. Invented the concept of “gross national happiness”

Since then they have adapted more to western ways, so the old king converted the country from an absolute monarchy to a democracy, he abdicated in favor of his son, who took one wife, and there they are with a constitutional monarchy, such as Great Britain and the Scandinavian countries, which was their pattern. But it is likely that there is still much polygamy high in the Himalayas. It’s just one happy little country.

Polygyny is more common than polyandry in countries with a history of warfare because so many of their men have been killed in their wars, such as in the Middle East. There was a surplus of women, so the men who survived the carnage had to take more than one wife to balance the sex ratio. In other countries with many wars, men would instead have one wife and one or more mistresses. France springs to mind.