During the nineteenth century, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons, encouraged the development of polygamous marriages. The primary rationale for the practice was to bring in as many pre-existing spirits into the present world and to allow all females the chance to be married. The practice of polygamy was the ideal marriage form and each church member was to behave in a manner with polygamy as a goal. It is found that among males, only the wealthy and higher level Church leaders were the members that such a practice benefitted. There is evidence that the additional plural wives, though themselves having a reduced reproductive success rate, had offspring with higher reproductive success than children of monogamous parents did. This may indicate that the choice for females to enter plural marriages was a decision based upon the potential reproductive success of her offspring. From this analysis, it is clear that it was those in the Mormon Church hierarchy who were the most ardent supporters of the principle who were also the primary benefactors of the practice of polygamy. Further, for females who entered into polygamous marriages, there ~vas a profound belief in the church doctrine that such marriages were proper in the eyes of the Lord. The uniqueness of the development and patterns of Mormon polygamy in the nineteenth century are an important contribution to the study of marriage patterns ill relation to the effects of status, wealth, and ideology.

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Level of Participation

The number of partIcIpants in Mormon polygamy during the nineteenth century was quite low considering it was the church's "ideal" marriage form. Smith and Kunz (1976) found that 28 percent of the males in their sample of nineteenth century Utah Mormons had more than one wife. Of these polygamous males, 68 percent had only two wives, 20 percent had three wives and the remaining 12 percent had four or more wIves. Other studies show a somewhat smaller level of participation in polygyny. Ivins (1956) found that among the 6,000 Mormon families in his study, only 15 to 20 percent of the families were ever involved in polygamy (cited in Altman and Ginat 1996). Further, there were geographical variations in level of involvement in polygyny, Embry (1987, cited in Altman and Ginat 1996) found incidences of polygamy among nineteenth century Mormons to vary between 5 and 67 percent across different communities. It is not clear whether this reflects total involvement, male and female popUlations, or simply male involvement. Though in a review of such studies, Altman and Ginat (1996) indicate that the likely number of Mormon polygamous families in the nineteenth century was probably between 15 and 25 percent, discounting the variations geographically and temporally.

The modem practice of polygamy is difficult to ascertain due to its illegality in the United States. Altman and Ginat (1996) estimate that there are between 20,000 to 50,000 Americans belonging to Mormon fundamentalist groups still espousing the nineteenth century Mormon principle of polygamy. However, in interviewing leaders of two of the groups (Church of Latter-day Apostles and the United Fundamentalist Church) the leaders of the groups estimate between 20 and 30 percent of the families practice polygamy. Among the Church of Latter-day Apostles, seventyeight percent of the polygamous families have only two wives. If these figures for overall involvement in polygamy are accurate, the percentage of present-day families partIcIpating in polygamy is roughly similar to that found among nineteenth century families that practiced polygamy when it was the doctrine of the greater Mormon Church. No information was provided as to why the rates of the modem practitioners of the principle were so low considering they belong to a splinter group whose presumed major difference with the "official" Mormon church is the practice of polygamy.

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Age of Marriage

The age of marriage for females is quite similar across the board regardless of "wife number". In general, females, regardless of wife number, married during their late teens or early twenties. Mealey (1985) found that kinship ties have a great effect on the age of when females get married. She found that females related to members of the General Assembly of the Mormon Church were married four and a half years earlier that those who are not related (18.44 vs. 22.83 years). Further, these women married men with higher church status than those with no relation in the church hierarchy.

The result of this pattern of similar marriage age between wives is a growing variation in age between husband and incremental wife number, with later wives being much younger than their husbands. The redundant marriage of females in their early twenties is in effect increasing the ability of males, to increase their reproductive success by mating with younger females. Thus, they are producing more children than they would be able to in monogamous marriages, thereby enhancing their reproductive success and their stature in the eyes of the church.

As Mealey (1985) has already shown, wealth is the most important factor in determining the age when males get married. However, there is virtually no difference in the age of marriage for monogamous males and first marriage of future polygamous males. Embry (1987, cited in Altman and Ginat 1996) found that the majority of first marriages for males, both monogamous and future polygamists, occurred during their early 20s (28% between ages 15 to 20, 59% between ages 20 and 25). Males who entered plural marriages typically waited between five and 10 years before gaining another wife (57% between ages 26 and 35). The addition of third and additional wives results in a greater age disparity (22% between ages 31 and 35, 28% between ages 36 and 40, 16% between ages 41 and 45, and 12% between ages 46 and 50).