Coast, E; Randall, S; Golaz, V; Gnoumou, B; (2011) Problematic polygamy: implications of changing typologies and definitions of polygamy. Presented at: Sixth African Population Conference: African Population: Past, Present and Future, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

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Abstract

The persistence or decline of polygamy is often used as an indicator of social change in Africa and elsewhere (Hern 1992) . However, most data and researchers use the term “polygamy” without reflecting on what is being measured. Thus, international comparative research often ignores temporal and spatial differences in the conceptualisation of polygamy, and the implications for subsequent analyses. We use three different approaches in order to uncover the implications of these different understandings of “polygamy”: 1) analysis of definitions used in Anglophone and Francophone surveys and censuses post-1950. 2) interviews with key informants involved in the production and consumption of survey and census data. 3) secondary analyses of large-scale datasets, including: DHS for Senegal, Uganda, Tanzania and Burkina Faso and the census for Mali.

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