Polygamy’s Rights and Wrongs

Perspectives on Harm, Family, and Law

Edited by Gillian Calder and Lori G. Beaman

Distributed for University of British Columbia Press

Polygamy’s Rights and Wrongs

Perspectives on Harm, Family, and Law

Edited by Gillian Calder and Lori G. Beaman

Assumptions about the harmful nature of polygamy have left little room for debate, with monogamy coming to represent a hallmark of advanced societies, and polygamy the immoral alternative. Yet in this volume, eleven scholars ask whether this condemnation is justified by examining, among other perspectives, the lived experiences of polygamous families. In essays that fearlessly face difficult questions of choice, dignity, and love, the authors seek to complicate a conversation that is more often simplified. Thoughtful and persuasive, Polygamy’s Rights and Wrongs is both a close consideration of polygamy and a challenging reflection on the ways in which we value family and intimacy.

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Table of Contents

Introduction: Is Polygamy Inherently Harmful? / Lori G. Beaman

1 Plus Ça Change ... ? Bountiful’s Diverse and Durable Marriage Practices / Angela Campbell

2 How Should Public Institutions Assess Religious Identity? The Case of Polygamy / Avigail Eisenberg

3 Polygamy and the Predicament of Contemporary Criminal Law / Benjamin L. Berger

4 Are They Not Us? A Personal Reflection on Polygamy / Arta Blanche Johnson

5 Reflecting on Polygamy: What’s the Harm? / Rebecca Johnson

6 Polygamy in the Parisian Banlieues: Debate and Discourse on the 2005 French Suburban Riots / Jennifer A. Selby

7 Polygamy and Race-Thinking: A Genealogy / Margaret Denike

8 Making Them Fit: The Australian National Census and Aboriginal Family Forms / Frances Morphy

9 The Raids at Short Creek and Yearning for Zion Ranch and the Law of Unintended Consequences / Martha Bradley-Evans

Conclusion: “To the Exclusion of All Others” – Polygamy, Monogamy, and the Legal Family in Canada / Gillian Calder

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