Polyandry, this word indicates the condition of a woman with multiple husbands.

History, more so ancient than modern, provides us with examples of societies in which women were permitted to take multiple spouses. Some authors who wrote on natural law believed that polyandry was not at all contrary to the laws of nature, but if one pays the slightest bit of attention one can see that nothing is more opposed to conceptions of marriage. In effect, since she usually brings only one child into the world at a time, a woman only needs one husband to ensure the propagation of the species. Besides, the multiplicity of husbands would destroy or diminish men’s love for children whose paternity would always be uncertain. In conclusion, polyandry is a custom still more unpardonable than polygamy and can have no other motive than an indecent lechery on the woman’s part that is unworthy of legislators’ consideration. Nothing is more conducive to breaking, or at least slackening the bonds that should unite spouses. Finally, this custom contributes to destroying the mutual love between parents and children.

Among the Malabars, the law permits women to take as many husbands as they wish without any limitations. However, some visitors to the region claim that the number of husbands a woman can take is limited to twelve. The husbands decide amongst themselves the times during which each of them will live with the common partner, ensuring that these arrangements do not give occasion for disagreements between the spouses. Besides, in this country marriages are not eternal commitments; they last as long as they please the contracting parties. These marriages are not particularly ruinous; the husband simply gives a piece of cotton cloth to the woman he wants to marry, and the woman fulfills her duties by preparing her husband’s food and by keeping his clothes clean and his weapons well-maintained. As soon as she becomes pregnant, she declares who the father is and the man she names becomes the head of the household. In light of customs so strange and so opposed to our own, one sees the necessity of having laws to protect children’s welfare, laws that always favor the certainty of the matrilineal line. Women’s nephews are the ones allowed to inherit because they are the closest relatives whose lineage is least doubtful.