<p>I remember the one article I read about a sect of polygamists–they hated the government, except for the welfare system which they thought had been provided by God to provide for their physical welfare.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/polygamy_widows.htm[/url]”>http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/polygamy_widows.htm</a></p>
<p>Census figures show that there was a shortage of women in Utah during the 1800s. The LDS polygyny seems to have exacerbated the situation. </p>
<p>Higher ranking men could even lay claim to the wives of lower status men (some of the leaders had numerous wives who were already married). The Church taught that “no bill of divorcement” was necessary when a higher status man claimed a woman in this manner.</p>
<p>Missionaries being sent to Europe were urged to bring back women, and not to keep all the pretty ones for themselves.</p>
<p>CGM: This is a very interesting topic, thanks for bringing it up.</p>
<p>An earlier post mentioned that men outlived women in the nineteenth century, and so men often had more than one wife. If you do the math LDS men in the nineteenth century would be dealing with a female population that was decreasing in their age group yearly. There would be a number of men who never married. If they had decided this issue purely on a mathematical basis it would have lead to polyandry like they have in Tibet where women have more than one husband.</p>
<p>LMNOP:</p>
<p>Aren’t some of the polygamous families extremely wealthy?</p>
<p>great comments, it was jsut something we as a family started wondering about…</p>
<p>say the population of babies is roughly 50/50, and one male takes 3 females, what do the other 2 males do, or what did they do?</p>
<p>imagine being a healthy young man in the 1800/s and some old coot gets all the brides…</p>
<p>was there no “hey, what about me” revolt, or did these young men just leave, or did they stay and be celebate</p>
<p>WOW. Its “Mormon” not morman. </p>
<p>During the pioneer years there was few “good men”. Polygamy was used to protect most women who had no provider. </p>
<p>The FDLS still practice polygamy despite the warning the government gave years ago. LDS abolished their polygamy to satisfy the government, which in my opinion seems unconstitutional, that is, if u really believe in the 1st amendment. </p>
<p>An interesting fact is that the offspring of this relationships tended to be significantly more intelligent than the average, because of the harmonious lifestyle practiced in their homes.</p>
<p>From what I read, all the wifes work to support the family. Unlike other cultures, where only rich men can have multiple wifes such as the Chinese for example, a rich man can have multiple concubines( like in the movie To Raise the Red Lantern).</p>
<p>The Encyclopedia of Mormonism estimates that at most 20 percent to 25 percent of LDS adults were members of polygamous households and, at the height of polygamy, one-third of women of marriageable age entered a plural relationship.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy368.html[/url]”>http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy368.html</a></p>
<p>so we still don’t know what happened to those young men…why?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not only that, It’s “celibate” not
</p>
<p>I am tupimh in the dark on a tiny keyboard, so shoot me</p>
<p>Wait, are we talking about, what happened to the young men back when LDS practiced polygamy or what happens to the young men now when FLDS practices polygamy?</p>
<p>The former is what I am curious about, there is information about the current sittuation, but not much about LDS past and what happened to those young men</p>
<p>When you have the problem with child brides and older men, why were the younger, vital young men left out in the cold, and why did they tolerate it? it could make for an interesting physcological study I would think, as mating is such a strong human drive, were these males accepting of the fact that the women weren’t available for them to wed? was there a huge bachelor population in the LDS community, did they move away, were they kicked out?</p>
<p>What I find is mostly about the current “cult” or fundemental situation, and I wonder if the same thing was going on back in the day?</p>
<p>“WOW. Its “Mormon” not morman. During the pioneer years there was few “good men”. Polygamy was used to protect most women who had no provider. The FDLS still practice polygamy despite the warning the government gave years ago. LDS abolished their polygamy to satisfy the government, which in my opinion seems unconstitutional, that is, if u really believe in the 1st amendment. An interesting fact is that the offspring of this relationships tended to be significantly more intelligent than the average, because of the harmonious lifestyle practiced in their homes.”</p>
<hr>
<p>You know what’s more annoying than the occasional typo? (which actually doesn’t bug me at all) All that ‘Prince-speak’… ‘u’ for you, ‘r’ for are…</p>
<p>And btw…what does ‘harmony’ have to do with intelligence? I can tell you this…genetic in-breeding isn’t exactly conducive to creating a ‘sharper’ mind.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2005-12-29/news/forbidden-fruit/full[/url]”>http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2005-12-29/news/forbidden-fruit/full</a></p>
<p>wow, that article was scary…see that is the kind of thing that I wonder about that may have been 'ignored" in the history books to white wash our past</p>
<p>Well, most of my father’s family is Mormon, so I’ve been to their services before and they actually covered this topic in one of the classes I attended.</p>
<p>Polygamy began in the religion early on, in about 1831. At that point, the ratio of male:female was very small and they needed more kids in order to allow the religion to thrive. Joseph Smith asked God if it was alright, and He allowed it for certain men.</p>
<p>But why was this ratio small? Well, Mormons weren’t always living in Utah, away from the rest of the country. When the church started, they lived mostly in New York, where the men participated in the militias. Many of the men died in wars (such as the War of 1812) or minor battles that popped up. Then, once the religion started, even more men got killed because the other Christian denominations greatly opposed the Mormons. They were often mass murdered while at church or at home. But usually, the women were never touched.</p>
<p>So, because of the religious battles in New York, the Mormons decided to move to Utah in the late 1850s. For about two years the ratio steadily increased, but then the US Civil War began, and many of the men went off to battle. It was still important to have as many kids as possible in order to make more soldiers for the union (in case the war lasted a lot longer than it did).</p>
<p>So then in the late 1800s they discontinued polygamy because it became illegal and there was no need for it anymore.</p>
<p>Well kinda. It’s hard to say whether or not Joseph Smith and his cohorts had more sinister motivations. There is the school of thought that the more powerful members of the Church just became enamored with women other than their wives and were looking for a convenient way to legitimize their extracurricular activities. Also, part of the reason for the Mormon’s inability to get along with their neighbors pre-Utah was their tendency to move into an area en masse and immediately take control of the government and economic structure and to form their own heavily armed militias</p>
<p>Regarding massacres…that was definitely not a one-sided thing either. Look at the events surrounding the Mountain Meadow Massacre where non-Mormon settlers from Arkansas passing through Utah on their way to California were killed by Mormons dressed as American Indians for the express purpose of stealing their property. It took several years for the relatives of these murdered pioneers to extricate the Arkansian children from the hands of the Mormons who had killed their parents.</p>
<p>It’s an interesting history to say the least.</p>
<p>Here’s a theory as to what may have happened to some of the boys:</p>
<p>I once read about a culture (not Mormons) in which the old men held all the social power. And they used this power to claim all the best and prettiest young women for themselves as wives, leaving none for the young men to marry. But being much older than their wives, the old men died leaving widows who were mature women that, while not old, were no longer the pretty young things prized by the old men. But they still had long lives left ahead of them. </p>
<p>The solution? The young men married the mature widows of the old men for their starter wives. Then by time the young men grew old, their first wives had aged and died off leaving them free to marry the young women they were now in a position to claim.</p>
<p>Thus, every woman had two husbands: an old man when she was young and a young man when she was old. And every man had two wives: an old woman when he was young and a young woman when he was old.</p>
<p>Maybe some version of this operated among the Mormons in the 1800s to some extent too: some of the Mormon young men took for their first wives the widows of the old codgers who had married all the teenage girls and then died.</p>
<p>^^ Yeah, I agree with ldmom06. Like I said though, I learned that at a Mormon church. I don’t believe much of it either (or I believe it is just a convenient truth). I, myself, am not Mormon; I’m just relating some of the things I heard. I haven’t even done much research on the topic.</p>
<p>Just a guess on my part but suspect the surplus males in the 19th century did a lot of recruiting making it a kind of ponzi scheme. Recruit, move up the ladder, take the female recruits for wives, send the male recruits out on mission. That is the way polygamy usually works though in other cultures that practice it the surplus male population is usually used for conquest and warfare.</p>
<p>BTW most polygamy practiced in the US (and worldwide for that matter) is among Muslims but it is quite unPC to mention it. Ossama Bin Laden himself has a couple score of siblings.</p>