THE INTEGRATION OF THE SEXES— MARRIAGE 269 



the situation with respect to the sex and number of the 

 persons concerned. If, on the other hand, we consider the 

 whole marriage complex, all its ramifications in society, 

 then varieties may be discovered that fall outside the 

 range of this definition, but at that it is a good working 

 definition of marriage as a social institution. Yet, before we 

 go far afield, it may be advantageous to consider the number 

 of possible ways in which it is conceived the sexes be paired 

 in marriage; these possibifities of union are as follows: 



1. One man to one woman at a time — monogamy. 



2. One man and two or more women simultaneously — 

 polygyny. 



3. One woman and two or more men simultaneously — 

 polyandry. 



4. Two or more men and two or more women simul- 

 taneously — group marriage. 



So, taking marriage to mean matings of appreciable 

 duration, formally sanctioned by the community, this 

 list exhausts the possibifities. That is, if the group maintains 

 a definite marriage system, that system must, in general 

 outfine, conform to one of these four types of matings. 

 Now, as everyone knows, these four forms of marriage 

 do occur in the world of today; an important fact to bear 

 in mind, for those who contend that marriage is something 

 invented by man, will give great weight to this exhaustion 

 of the possibifities. They will say that here is proof that 

 the form of marriage adopted is a choice on the part of the 

 community. There are, however, certain relations between 

 these four forms of marriage that discourage so simple an 

 explanation. 



It is sometimes assumed that these four marriage systems 

 are mutually exclusive, which in practice would mean that 

 when a community adopts one, it frowns upon the other. 

 To some extent this is the case. Highly organized govern- 

 ments legislate the national form of marriage, which, in 

 case of Christian nations, is monogamy. The other three 

 forms of marriage are thus made illegal and punishments 

 are provided for those who attempt such unions. On the 

 other hand, certain non-Christian nations legafize polygyny 

 and so outlaw polyandry and group marriage, but curiously 



