Both behavioral ecological and social anthropological analyses of polygynous marriage tend to emphasize the importance of
competition among men in acquisition of mates, whereas the strategic options to women both prior to and after the establishment
of a marriage have been neglected. Focusing on African marriage systems that are in some senses analogous to resource-defense
polygyny, I first review the evidence of reproductive costs of polygyny to women. Then I discuss why the conflict of interests
between men and women over mate number is often likely to be settled in favor of men. Using East African ethnographic data
I examine the strategic responses of women and their families to polygynous marriage, focusing on four topics: mate choice
(Kipsigis), attitudes toward incoming wives (Kipsigis), labor allocation and cooperation (comparative data, Kipsigis), and
use of parental wealth (Datoga). The results of these quantitative analyses suggest that through a combination of judicious
marriage choice and strategic responses within marriage, polygyny need not be costly to women in resource-defense polygynous
systems. The conclusion is that a hierarchy of questions need to be addressed in the analysis of any polygynous marriage system.
Key words Polygyny - Women’s reproductive strategies - East Africa - Ethnographic analysis
The National Geographic Society funded both Kipsigis and Datoga fieldwork.
Momoya Merus, Daniel Sellen, and Daniela Sieff are collaborators in the Datoga project, and Andy Kerr assisted with data analysis
and manuscript preparation.
Monique Borgerhoff Mulder is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis,
and a member of the Graduate Group in Ecology and the Animal Behavior Graduate Group. She is currently preparing a monograph
on a study of Kipsigis time allocation and conducting fieldwork with the Datoga.