That’s all fine and well, but I never suggested that polygyny increased the birth rate. I was merely contradicting your claim that polygyny decreases the birth rate. And nothing you wrote (or cited) in your post above supports your assertion in that respect.
Am I to conclude then, that other than your assertion that polygyny decreases a woman’s sexual access to a man, there is no other reason for which births would decrease under such a system? You’ve certainly provided no evidence of the fact. And I might argue that citing any evidence deriving from studies done in impoverished, fourth-world locales in Africa or Asia is irrelevant to our discussion, which presupposes a western cultural and economic paradigm.
I assert that, under polygyny, the husband will be more sexually active (what with "variety" being the spice of life, and all), and thus compensate for the fact that each individual woman has marginally less access to him. I certainly have as much evidence for my assertion as you presented for yours.
The articles I cited stated that either the birth rate declined, or the infant mortality rate increased with polygyny, as compared to monogamy, which would have the same effect. So the question is not just reduced access to the male as a sperm provider, but reduced access to the male in terms of material, physical, and emotional support, which leaves the infants at higher risk of mortality.
Let’s look at the case of Brigham Young to test your unsupported assertion. Brigham Young had 56 wives. He was known to have conjugal relations with sixteen of those wives. Those sixteen wives bore him 57 children, 46 of whom survived to maturity.
http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapte ... young.htmlThat factors into a birth rate of 3.5 children per female. If we factor in the survival rate, that numbers lowers to 2.9. The birth rate for the general, monogamous, US population:
Family sizes were large early in the nineteenth century, being approximately seven children per woman at the beginning of the century and between seven and eight for the largely rural slave population at midcentury.
http://www.answers.com/topic/birthrate-and-mortalitySo did Brigham Young’s wives produce the average number of children, as compared to their monogamous US counterparts? No.
Why don't you provide a list of all the men you know of in Mormon history who had to give their wife "to a man with a higher degree of glory."
I'll be here waiting ...
The varying degrees of glory will take place in the next life, so how could I provide examples from LDS history?
LDS history does provide examples of either men losing their wives to men of a higher priesthood authority, or men having more difficulty finding wives in general, however. I have no idea of the numbers involved, but apparently the numbers were significant enough to warrant this statement by Brigham Young:
"The second way in which a wife can be separated from her husband while he continues to be faithful to his God and his priesthood I have not revealed except to a few persons in this church, and a few have received it from Joseph the Prophet as well as myself. If a woman can find a man holding the keys of the priesthood with higher power and authority than her husband, and he is disposed to take her, he can do so, otherwise she has got to remain where she is. In either of these ways of separation you can discover there is no need for a bill of divorcement. To recapitulate: First, a man forfeits his covenant with a wife or wives, becoming unfaithful to his God and his priesthood—that wife or wives are free from him without a bill of divorcement. Second, if a woman claims protection at the hands of a man possessing more power in the priesthood and higher keys, if he is disposed to rescue her and has obtained the consent of her husband to make her his wife, he can do so without a bill of divorcement. If after she has left her husband and is sealed to another she shall again cohabit with him, it is illicit intercourse and extremely sinful...."
http://en.fairmormon.org/Primary_source ... l_marriage
