This thesis illustrates how love, legality, money, sex(uality) and sin direct Malays’ marital strategies in the face of various social, moral, religious and structural pressures. Passionate love (cinta) is cherished and celebrated by Malays – that is, if it is indulged within marriage. Marriage serves as a license to engage in (otherwise illicit) sexual desires by rendering them “halal” or lawful in the eyes of Islam and Malay adat (traditions). A vigilant State-led Islamic Bureaucracy, which polices and punishes pre- or extramarital sexual liaisons between unmarried couples through strict moral surveillance, further ensures that access to physical intimacy remains a conjugal privilege. However, hindered by complex bureaucratic procedures for marriage and pressured by escalating passions, many of my Malay informants are compelled to seek cheaper, quicker, and discreet alternatives in neighboring Southern Thailand to “halal-ize” pre- or extramarital romances, resulting in secret – and legally contentious – monogamous or polygamous cross-border marriages. Cross-border marriages – specifically polygamous ones – are subsequently explored here as a careful (and often failed) negotiation between discretion and disclosure: their stability decreases with increased exposure, rendering them highly precarious. Contrary to the dominant male-centric scholarship on polygamy, this study privileges the perspectives and experiences of polygamous wives by considering how their position within the marriage informs their capacity to engage in – or conversely, disengage from – this multi-marital arrangement. Polygamy is embraced by some women as a female choice that secures access to marriage and motherhood – both crucial towards achieving Malay womanhood. For others, polygamy is hardly a “choice” at all, and they must cope with the discomforting reality in which the husband’s money, time, and attention are now “halved” between his wives. Love in polygamy is experienced in visible and measurable terms, and the husband’s unequal distribution of his emotional and economic resources create discontent among wives that may culminate in divorce, or covertly confronted through sorcery. In Malay polygamy, more therefore means less.

Sur la base des travaux de Simone de Beauvoir Deuxième sexe I et Deuxième sexe II, et d’autres articles importants, une analyse sur la condition et la conception des femmes dans Les Soleils des indépendances a été effectuée dans le but d’étudier l’image de la femme postcoloniale africaine en général, et ivoirienne en particulier comparativement à celle d’avant l’indépendance. En examinant les conditions de la femme dans Les Soleils des indépendances d’Ahmadou Kourouma nous nous sommes retrouvés confrontés à certaines idées telles que la soumission, la société patriarcale, la femme traditionnelle, la femme moderne, la liberté, la femme comme mère mais aussi comme objet et victime des atrocités liées aux coutumes et traditions. Malgré l’accession de la Côte d’Ivoire à l’indépendance cette condition n’a pas été améliorée, et c’est ce que l’auteur dénonce indirectement et peut-être inconsciemment. / Based on Simone de Beauvoir’s work The Second Sex, and other important articles, an analysis of the condition and conception of women was carried out in order to study the image of the postcolonial African women in general, and Ivorian in particular, in comparison with the women before the independence. Through the analyse of the condition of women in Ahmadou Kourouma’s The Suns of Independence, we came across ideas such as submission, patriarchal society, traditional woman, modern woman, freedom, women as mothers but also women as sexual objects and victims of customs and traditions related atrocities. Despite the accession of Ivory Coast to independence this condition has not improved, and this is what Kourouma is indirectly or maybe unconsciously denouncing.

This study examines the baptismal practices of the early Christian community using Tertullian’s ethical text on baptism in relation to his other writings to dialogue with the Roman Catholic understanding of baptism, original sin and grace. Tertullian referring to the sacramental form of baptism that is done with water, held that baptism is indispensable for salvation because it imparts the grace that washes away original sin and makes someone a Christian; and capable of attaining a matured Christian life. At the moment, the Roman Catholic Church does not confer baptism of water on polygamists, and subsequently fails to admit them to her sacramental life because of their polygamous relations. This raises a question regarding the salvation of these polygamous families. How do they receive baptismal grace and become part of the church? This study argues that church and baptism were inseparable right from the beginning of Christianity in the New Testament. People became members of the church by the fact of their baptism. This study does a hermeneutical retrieval of the early church’s teaching on baptism and original sin in the light of Tertullian as the pillar of western theology. The study concludes by invoking pastoral consideration to baptize polygamous families (husband and wives) who married before converting to the faith. They are not to enter into any new marriage after baptism since they have received Christ in their state. “Go and sin no more,” says Christ. / Dissertation (MA Theol)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Church History and Church Policy / unrestricted

This phenomenological study was designed to understand the lived experiences of a purposive sample of 9 participants from local villages in Nairobi, Kenya, who had sexual behaviors that contributed to higher HIV risk exposure. Past studies have provided information about the increased rates of HIV infection; however, little has been done to identify the solutions for minimizing the negative impact of HIV among concurrent partnerships. The study investigated the role of high risk cultural practices among participants in married and cohabitating unions. The conceptual framework of the study was gender and power theory, which addresses the complex sexual relationships between men and women. Semi-structured, open-ended questions were used to obtain data from 4 males and 5 females between the ages of 28 and 46 who had been sexually active for more than 12 months. Data was collected on participants' cultural perspectives on condom use, HIV risk behaviors, and sexual morality. The interviews were transcribed and reviewed for consistent patterns of high risk sexual behaviors prior to coding. Through the use of NVivo, seven emergent themes were common among the participants. Findings from the small scale sexual risk behavioral data showed that among these participants, condom use and partner fidelity in unequal partnerships were low. The study also indicated the importance of developing an HIV intervention that focuses on gender and power in long-term sexual partnerships. The implications for positive social change included awareness that gender inequality exists among concurrent unions and formulating an effective cultural HIV prevention strategy for couples.

The present study is comprised of two parts: 1) an exploratory ethnography of a contemporary polygynous community governed by a strong patriarchal ideology in Pinesdale Montana with emphasis on social relationships, and 2) an analysis of the factors which have allowed women's groups to develop in Mormon fundamentalism. The ethnographic account of the community contextualizes the occurrence of female groups in Pinesdale. A model of the formation of female groups designed by Nancy Leis (1974) in her study of the West African Ijaw is used to provide a better understanding of how female groups are formed, and is applied to the Pinesdale community. This model suggests that the combination of features relevant to the occurrence of female groups are virilocality, patrilineality, polygyny, and economic independence. In spite of the kin-based nature of her African study, which limits its applicability to Western society, Leis suggests that her model "would predict the presence or absence of women's groups elsewhere," and encourages a cross-cultural study to prove her hypothesis. My thesis investigates the strengths and limitations of Leis' model within an ethnographic framework.

The colorful history of Mormon polygamy has many interesting stories to tell, and one of the most interesting is that of Rev. Dr. J. P. Newman's debate with the Mormon Apostle Orson Pratt on "Does the Bible Sanction Polygamy?" This debate was held at the New Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah, on August 12, 13, and 14, 1870. Newman was the Chaplain of the United States Senate and one of the foremost preachers of Washington, D.C. His appearance in Salt Lake City to debate the question of polygamy was a national topic. Probably never before, nor since, has so much been said in such a short time by non-Mormon presses on a question respecting Mormonism. And never before, as far as the author has been able to discover, has a chaplain of the Senate engaged in a public debate of such wide-spread interest.

In the year of 1903, the right of Reed Smoot to take his seat in the United States Senate was challenged in a protest signed by nineteen prominent citizens from Utah. The protest was submitted to the Senate Committee of Privileges and Elections, a member of which was Fred T. Dubois, Senator from Idaho. The protest charged that the Mormon Church was still practicing polygamy and exercising political domination of its members and that therefore Reed Smoot, an Apostle and leader of this church, was unfit for senatorial obligations. Dubois, believing the worst concerning these charges, took it upon himself to head the movement against Smoot. He surreptitiously organized national sentiment and caused an investigation of the charges contained in the protest by bringing public pressure to bear on the United States Senate.The Mormon Church turned out to be more the object of the investigation than Smoot. It looked for awhile as though Dubois would be successful in unseating Smoot, but as the case wore on the opposition of the Republican Party, the press, and President Theodore Roosevelt proved to be too much for him. From the time he took up this anti-Mormon fight his lack of success in politics seems to parallel his unsuccessful efforts to get Smoot kicked out of the Senate. In 1906, just prior to the time that the Senate voted to retain Smoot, Dubois himself, was defeated in his bid to be returned to the Senate.Dubois' anti-Mormon fight was a popular issue everywhere but in the west and particularly Idaho. He had plenty of warning that such was the case but he couldn't be reconciled to the fact that the people of Idaho wouldn't accept his anti-Mormonism. His self-deception relative to the iniquities of the Mormon Church were absolute and sincere but fatal to his political asperations.President Roosevelt undoubtedly contributed most to Dubois' defeat. But, it wasn't just his defeat. To the very end he had the sentiment of the women's organizations throughout the country behind him. This probably contributed much to his reluctance to accept the "handwriting on the wall."Dubois used this Smoot controversy for political purposes, but more important than this was the fact that he sincerely thought he was on the side of right and that in the end it would be victorious.

As indicated by the title, this study presents a history of Federal Legislation against Mormon polygamy prior to 1890 and of certain United States Supreme Court decisions supporting such legislation. Of necessity, the subject had to be limited, emphasis being placed upon three legislative acts and upon a few leading court decisions.

On August 2, 1875, James Yorgason, soon to be the Bishop of the Fountain Green Utah Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, took his first plural wife. In doing so he joined a rather elite group of Mormon men who were known as polygamists. Over the next thirteen years, as he built a financial empire to support them, he took five more plural wives, making him exceptional even among the elite. But then in 1887 the Edmunds-Tucker law was passed and "The Raid" against Mormon polygamists began, the United States entered a time of monetary crisis in 1888, and by 1889 most of the western United States, including Sanpete County, Utah, was experiencing a severe drought. Together these situations destroyed James Yorgason's financial base, and shortly thereafter each of his plural wives filed for divorce, effectively destroying his polygamous family.

This thesis provides a critique of Nawal El Saadawi’s writings regarding the issue of women’s rights in Islam. The study’s goal is twofold: 1) to examine how Muslim women’s rights are viewed by Nawal El Saadawi, who is a prominent feminist scholar in the Middle East and is widely known for her fierce campaigns demanding equal gender rights in what she calls a male-dominated society, and 2) to discuss her arguments within an Islamic framework that includes two strands of interpretations of gender-specific verses of the Qur’an: traditional and modern. To this end, I use a content analysis approach to explore how the Arab feminist, Nawal El Saadawi, perceives five controversial issues -i.e., marriage, polygamy, and divorce, inheritance rights, and veiling- as opposed to the Islamic faith as presented by classical scholars (i.e., Muhammad ibn Jarir Al Tabari (839-923 CE) and Ismail ibn Umar Ibn Kathir (C 1300-1373) as well as contemporary Muslim feminists including Amina Wadud and Azizah Al Hibri. Findings display that Nawal El Saadawi's arguments contradict the classical readings of the Qur'an as demonstrated by Al Tabari and Ibn Kathir on the one hand, and the views of contemporary Muslim feminists on the other hand. While El Saadawi considers marriage in Islam, for example, as an oppressive institution that denies a woman's right to choose her partner and turns her life into a servant, traditional and modern scholars' interpretations of the Qur'an disagree with her and assert the opposite. Findings also show that El-Saadawi's claims not only contradict the views of classical and contemporary scholars, but also contradict each other. For instance, El Saadawi (2002) criticizes Islam for several issues such as marriage and divorce and accuses it of being behind the backwardness of Muslim women. However, she praises the era of the Prophet Muhammad and his early successors, which she described as the best era in which Muslim women were treated fairly.