We Want for Our Sisters What We Want for Ourselves - Patricia Dixon-Spear

 Dr. Patricia Dixon debunks myths about monogamy and polygyny and challenges us to rethink our approach to marriage and family. This book reveals that before European domination, polygyny was an accepted marriage and family practice in over eighty percent of the world's cultures. Even in Western societies, polygyny has always been practiced. However, because it is done so under a myth of monogamy, this creates a "peculiar" form of the practice that is demoralizing to women. This peculiar form of polygyny was practiced in early European history in Greece and Rome. It was also practiced during slavery in the United States to the detriment of African American women and their families. Even in contemporary America, because closed polygyny is practiced in various forms, under the guise of monogamy, it continues to disempower African American women and undermine their marriages and families. Through extensive interviews, Dr. Dixon offers an insider's look at polygynous marriages. 2009. 312 pgs. Paperback.