Illicit Monogamy: Inside a Fundamentalist Mormon Community

In this fine new book, anthropologist William R. Jankowiak has produced one of the first in-depth ethnological studies of a polygamous community in the modern United States. Based on years of anthropological field work and surveys conducted mainly in the 1990s, Jankowiak's goal is to shed light on a lesser-known group practicing plural marriage, in this case Angel Park (not its real name), in part to counter prevailing media images of polygamy, especially as practiced by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS). (Angel Park is not an FLDS community.) By focusing upon the more progressive polygamous culture of Angel Park, he presents a complex view of men, women, and children inhabiting a unique system of plural marriage, revealing that while living in plural families engenders problems and struggles, many residents have created deeply satisfying lives in this nontraditional marriage system that is finding increasing public acceptance.The book starts with a superb synthesis of social science theory and literature regarding polygamy across the globe. Most of the following sections explore the actual functioning of plural families and the various roles people play in the fundamentalist Mormon community of Angel Park. The group's religious ideal is the creation of large, harmonious, and loving families with one husband and multiple cowives and children living under one roof, yet as the author reveals, this is rarely achieved in Angel Park except among a group of elites whose resources enable them to come close to the ideal. Despite community and religious principles, Jankowiak finds that the common drive for exclusive (dyadic) love is pervasive in the community. Creating and maintaining the religiously sanctioned plural family is extremely difficult, even within elite families. At Angel Park the family system is prone to breaking down into subunits with one male head and separate female-centered households.Eye-opening chapters provide data and analyses of men's experiences at Angel Park, with the author concluding that, contrary to popular beliefs about male privilege in polygamous societies, most husbands report continual feelings of stress, inadequacy, and angst in trying to live up to religious, economic, and community expectations. Jankowiak identifies several “management styles” within families in Angel Park. He finds that about 40 percent of plural households follow an “authoritarian” model where the husband makes all major decisions, controls finances, and provides spiritual guidance. This patriarchal style closely matches the classic fundamentalist Mormon model, yet only elites and solidly middle-class families have the resources to practice it. About 40 percent of men employ a “diffuse” or consensus model, where husbands try to seek unanimity in family decisions and wives have much authority, including controlling their own earnings and only contributing a certain percent to the larger family pool. About 20 percent of husbands fail to live up to religious and community ideals, with husbands having an “indifferent” management style. In this case, husbands have little influence on what become essentially female-centered subunits, with various wives living alone with their children, controlling their own finances, and receiving little or no financial support from their husband.Jankowiak's research reveals that women in Angel Park are highly active in most aspects of social and family life. Almost half have jobs that contribute to the family finances, a fact that engenders much respect and some power. Many wives partake in subtle and sometimes overt acts of resistance to the strict mandates of what in theory is a strictly patriarchal society. In most families, wives make decisions on how to allocate their money, often spending it on their own biological children in what become in effect separate matrilocal units. Cowives are seldom friends and rarely share resources. Despite Angel Park's religious ideals about plural marriage, resource competition within the family is the norm. In fascinating detail, the author identifies three common cowife personae in Angel Park: the favorite wife, power wife, and low-profile wife. These statuses are not set by theology or community norms (in fact they run counter to them) but result from the preference for a dyadic love bond and internal struggles within almost all households. With few exceptions, one cowife will become the “favorite wife,” most often because of her deeper emotional bonds with her shared husband. Through force of will, one will become the “power wife,” while the others accept their subordinate position.Those wanting to learn about lesser-known aspects of plural marriage, particularly the various actors’ experiences with it, will especially enjoy Jankowiak's book. Chapters delve into the views of and relations between children, sons and fathers, and mothers and children (biological and those of cowives). The work also explores Angel Park's unique placement marriage system, attitudes about sex, wives’ attitudes toward their shared husband, and relations with the outside society. Far from the harmonious family ideal, Jankowiak finds that competition reigns supreme in Angel Park—between cowives, between siblings, and between economic status groups.The author concludes that in Angel Park, there is a strong preference for “emotionally monogamous” bonds that stymies the religious and community goals of creating one big harmonious plural family. Overall, Jankowiak's book provides a timely and nuanced study of the inner workings of one polygamous community whose practices are more progressive and vary considerably from those of the well-known FLDS.