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Group marriage is judged by some experts to be rare in traditional societies. Others find this judgement to be unwarranted, since the modern understanding of such societies is less than perfect. Many traditional societies have been nearly or totally destroyed by colonization and other forces. Among the cultures listed in George Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas , only the Caingang people of Brazil practice group marriage as a socially accepted form of marriage, and even among them, it is not the predominant form of marriage.
Group marriage occasionally occurred in communal societies founded in the 19th and 20th centuries. An exceptionally long-lived example was the Oneida Community founded by the Congregationalist minister John Humphrey Noyes in 1848. Noyes taught that he and his followers had undergone sanctification; that is, it was impossible for them to sin, and that for the sanctified, marriage (along with private property) was abolished as an expression of jealousy and exclusiveness. The Oneida commune practiced sexual communalism and shared parental responsibilities, and in effect functioned as a large group marriage until sometime in the period 1879-1881.
According to Todd Compton's work, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (BooksEnthsiast.com), Joseph Smith, Jr.—founder of MormonismMormonism (also called Latter Day Saint theology or Mormon theology and Latter Day Saint culture or Mormon culture is a religion, ideology, movement, and subculture originating in the early 1800s as a product of the Latter Day Saint movement. The term Mor and the Latter Day Saint movementThe Latter Day Saint movement (also called the Mormonism movement or the Mormon movement is a religious movement beginning in the early 19th century that led to the set of doctrines, practices, and cultures called Mormonism and to the existence of numerou—practiced polygynandry in addition to polygyny.
Group marriage has been a theme in some works of science fictionScience fiction generally speaking, is a form of speculative fiction which deals principally with the impact of imagined science and/or technology upon society or individuals. There are, perhaps, exceptions to (or at least, some very unusual examples of), such as Robert Heinlein's novelA novel is a long or extended work of fiction written in prose, usually in the form of a story. It is longer and more complex than a short story or novella (ie. 40,000+ words), and it is not bound by the restrictions of plays and poetry. The word "novel" Stranger in a Strange LandStranger in a Strange Land is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, which was first published in 1961. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human raised by Martians on Mars, as he returns to Earth in early adulthood; the novel explore. It is difficult to estimate the number of people who actually practice group marriage in modern societies, as this form of marriage is not officially recognized in any jurisdiction, and illegal in many; however, it seems likely that its practice is limited to relatively small numbers of people. Interest in, and practice of, polyamoryPolyamory is a neologism which denotes the concept of "multiple loves. It has been independently coined by several people; one of these people was Morning Glory Zell Ravenheart, who used the term 'polyamorous relationship' in her article entitled A Bouque is well-known in some corners of science fiction fandom.