Summary
The practice, one element of Muhawi and Kanaana’s definition of the Palestinian extended family, whose treatment in the folktales they read as a sustained critique: it occurs directly or by implication in Tales 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 20, 28, 30, 35, and 44, greatly out of proportion to its incidence in the society, and in none of the tales is it presented in a good light (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 313-390).
Details
- In the tales as in life, the authors state, polygyny represents the power of men over women and sets co-wives and their children against each other; the only cooperation is of wives uniting against the introduction of yet another wife, in Tale 30. A proverb they quote calls a household with one wife a source of pride, and continues: “with two is a laughingstock, and one with three—uncover yourself and defecate!” (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 313-390)
- Co-wives compete in producing male children, each forms a subunit with her children against the other, and conflict among half-brothers in the tales (Tales 3, 5, 6, 7) follows from the father’s preference for the sons of one wife over the other; the tales always vindicate the youngest son (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 313-390).
- The authors also give the practice a function within the system: where marriage’s purpose is offspring, especially sons, it lets a man keep a loved first wife while meeting his duty to produce children, marriage being understood as sutra, protection, for the woman. It is not practised by Christian Palestinians, and for Muslims šari`a limits a man to four wives and requires fair and equal treatment (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 313-390).
- In the tales where polygyny occurs, the authors state, the men love their first wives and are loath to part with them, and the first wives are always vindicated against the others (Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, lines 313-390).
Related pages
Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, Palestinian extended family, Palestinian folktale