polyandry

Meaning: Polyandry (poly = many, andr = man) is the marriage of one woman to multiple men simultaneously. It falls under polygamy, the umbrella term for any marriage with more than two spouses. The counterpart, polygyny (gyn = woman), is one man with multiple wives and is the more common form of polygamy. Monogamy is marriage between two people. Where polyandry occurs, it is often explained by scarce resources. In fraternal polyandry, for example, brothers share one wife so family land stays undivided. In a second sense, biology uses polyandry for a mating system in which one female mates with several males.

On the MCAT: Expect it as vocabulary in passages on family, marriage, kinship, and cultural variation in social institutions. A typical question describes an arrangement and asks you to classify it (one woman, two husbands = polyandry), or asks which form is more widespread across societies. It also supports the point that definitions of family differ across cultures.

Common confusion: Students swap polyandry and polygyny, and treat polygamy as a synonym for polygyny. The root names the multiplied spouse: andr- means men, gyn- means women. Polygamy is the whole category. Serial monogamy (divorce and remarriage) is also not polyandry, because the partners are sequential rather than simultaneous.