The word monogamy comes from the Greek , monos which means alone, and , gamos which

means marriage.
Monogamy (/mnmi/ m-NOG--mee) is a form of relationship in which an individual has only one
partner during their lifetime or at any one time.

It is important to have a clear understanding of the nomenclature of monogamy because scientists use
the term monogamy for different relationships. Biologists, biological anthropologists, and behavioral
ecologists often use the term monogamy in the sense of sexual, if not genetic, monogamy.[2] Modern
biological researchers, using the theory of evolution, approach human monogamy as the same in human
and non-human animal species. They postulate the following four aspects of monogamy:

- Marital monogamy refers to marriages of only two people.

- Social monogamy refers to two partners living together, having sex with each other, and
cooperating in acquiring basic resources such as shelter, food and money.
- Sexual monogamy refers to two partners remaining sexually exclusive with each other and
having no outside sex partners.
- Genetic monogamy refers to sexually monogamous relationships with genetic evidence of
paternity.
When cultural or social anthropologists and other social scientists use the term monogamy, the meaning
is social or marital monogamy.
Marital monogamy may be further distinguished between:
- marriage once in a lifetime;
- marriage with only one person at a time (serial monogamy), in contrast to bigamy or polygamy
Serial monogamy is a mating practice in which individuals may engage in sequential monogamous
pairings, or in terms of humans, when men or women can marry another partner but only after ceasing
to be married to the previous partner.

Serial monogamy may also refer to sequential sexual relationships, irrespective of marital status. A pair
of humans may remain sexually exclusive, or monogamous, until the relationship has ended and then
each may go on to form a new exclusive pairing with a different partner. This pattern of serial
monogamy is common among people in Western cultures. Serial monogamy has always been closely
linked to divorce practices.

Polygamy (from Late Greek , polygama, "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice
of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at a time, sociologists call
this polygyny. When a woman is married to more than one husband at a time, it is called polyandry. If a
marriage includes multiple husbands and wives, it can be called a group marriage.
Worldwide, different societies variously encourage, accept or outlaw polygamy. Of societies which allow
or tolerate polygamy, in the vast majority of cases the form accepted in polygyny. According to the
Ethnographic Atlas (1998), of 1,231 societies noted, 588 had frequent polygyny, 453 had occasional
polygyny, 186 were monogamous and 4 had polyandry; although more recent research suggests
polyandry may be more common than previously thought. From a religious point of view, in
contemporary society polygyny is associated with the Muslim religion, although not all Muslim cultures
practice it, and neither is it restricted to this religion. In cultures which practice polygamy, its prevalence
among that population is often connected to class and socioeconomic status.
From a legal point of view, in many countries, although marriage is legally monogamous (a person can
only have one spouse, and bigamy is illegal), adultery is not illegal, leading to a situation of de facto
polygamy being allowed, although without legal recognition for non-official "spouses".
Fraternal polyandry was traditionally practiced among nomadic Tibetans in Nepal, parts of China and
part of northern India, in which two or more brothers are married to the same wife. It is most common
in societies marked by high male mortality. It is associated with partible paternity, the cultural belief
that a child can have more than one father.[27]

Non-fraternal polyandry occurs when the wives' husbands are unrelated, as among the Nayar tribe of
India. It happens sparsely among tribes in separate worldwide locations. In this case, a woman
undergoes a ritual marriage before puberty, and he is acknowledged as the father of all her children.
She, however, may never cohabit with him, taking multiple lovers instead; these men must acknowledge
the paternity of their children (and hence demonstrate that no caste prohibitions have been breached)
by paying the midwife. The women remain in their maternal home, living with their brothers, and
property is passed matrilineally.[28] A similar form of matrilineal, de facto polyandry can be found in the
institution of walking marriage among the Mosuo tribe of China.

in polygyny (marriage) marriage in which two or more women share a husband. Sororal polygyny, in
which the cowives are sisters, is often the preferred form because sisters are thought to be more
mutually supportive and less argumentative than nonsiblings.