Adewuyi A A
Soc Sci Med. 1987;24(7):573-80. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(87)90061-x.
Polygyny has routinely been claimed to facilitate rules and taboos relating to postpartum sexual abstinence. However, in Nigeria polygyny cannot wholly explain length of postpartum taboo following child birth on the ground that competition among cowives to out do one another in child-bearing results in a tendency of higher fertility and hence shorter postpartum taboo in polygynous households than that in monogamous families. Economic factors have been adduced as reasons explaining the recent tendency for mothers in polygynous families to have longer postpartum abstinence than their counterparts in monogamous households. Specifically, for young mothers aged 15-34, bearing children in quick succession is no longer attractive as in essentially traditional cultures where husband's commitment to caring for children is taken for granted. Hence, the tendency for women in polygynous households to adhere more strictly to rules and taboos relating to postpartum abstinence could be associated to the changing roles of women as they affect their responsibility with respect to the maintenance and training of their children rather than to the institution of polygyny per se.
人们通常认为一夫多妻制有助于制定与产后性禁欲相关的规则和禁忌。然而，在尼日利亚，一夫多妻制并不能完全解释产后禁忌的时长，因为妻妾之间在生育方面相互竞争，导致生育率较高，因此一夫多妻制家庭的产后禁忌比一夫一妻制家庭更短。经济因素被认为是解释一夫多妻制家庭中的母亲比一夫一妻制家庭中的母亲产后禁欲时间更长这一近期趋势的原因。具体而言，对于15至34岁的年轻母亲来说，像在基本的传统文化中那样接连快速生育已不再具有吸引力，在传统文化中，丈夫照顾孩子的责任被视为理所当然。因此，一夫多妻制家庭中的女性更严格遵守产后禁欲规则和禁忌的趋势，可能与女性角色的变化有关，因为这影响了她们在抚养和教育孩子方面的责任，而不是与一夫多妻制本身有关。
