Group marriage (a form of polyamory) is a marriage-like arrangement between more than two people. Usually consisting of three to six adults, all partners live together, share finances, children, and household responsibilities. Depending on the sexual orientation of the members, all adults in the family are sexual partners. For instance, if all members are heterosexual, all the women may have sexual relationships with all the men. If the women are bisexual, they may have sexual relationships with the women as well as the men. And so on. However, this is a closed system (closed relationships are good for avoiding Sexually transmitted diseases if everyone is tested and is healthy) and sex is only allowed within the group - no outside sexual relationships are allowed. Some families are open to taking on new partners, but only if all members of the family agree to accept the new person as a partner. The new person then moves into the household and becomes an equal member of the family. Currently, the most common form of group marriage is a triad of two women and one man, or two men and one woman. However, there have recently been a number of polyfidelitous families formed by two heterosexual couples who become a four-some and live together as a family.
Line marriage is a form of group marriage found in fiction in which the family unit continues to add new spouses of both sexes over time so that the marriage does not end.
Read more about Group Marriage: Legal Aspects, Non-European Cultures, In Modern U.S. Cultures, In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words group and/or marriage:
“With a group of bankers I always had the feeling that success was measured by the extent one gave nothing away.”
—Francis Aungier, Pakenham, 7th Earl Longford (b. 1905)
“The reason why women effect so little and are so shallow is because their aims are low, marriage is the prize for which they strive; if foiled in that they rarely rise above disappointment ... [ellipsis in source]”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)