Polygyny

Polygyny appears in historical, anthropological, religious, and legal contexts far more than in contemporary polyamorous community discussions, but the term is worth knowing clearly because it comes up when people are contextualizing plural relationships historically or comparing different forms of non-monogamy.

The distinction from polyamory is significant and worth being explicit about. Polygyny in its traditional forms has often not been organized around the consent and agency of all parties, particularly the wives. The wives in a polygynous marriage may have had varying degrees of voice in that arrangement depending on culture, period, and individual circumstance. Polyamory's central organizing principle is the knowledge and willing consent of all partners, which makes it structurally different from polygyny even when both involve a man in relationship with multiple women.

Contemporary people who practice polyamory sometimes find themselves in configurations that superficially resemble polygyny, such as a man with multiple female partners. What distinguishes this from polygyny is not the gender configuration but the relational structure: whether all parties have full knowledge, equal standing, and genuine agency in the arrangement.

Polygyny is also sometimes confused with polygamy, which is the broader term for any form of plural marriage regardless of gender configuration. Polygyny is one subset of polygamy; polyandry (one woman with multiple husbands) is another.