1. The Kibbutz community is a group of people in Isreal that has the idea of collective
values. It was origionalyy based on agricultural communities but today farming has
beeb replaced by industry. The Kibbutz bases its ideas on socialism where everyone is
equal and share responsibilities . The kibuttz people all lived together ina commune,
where they shared facilities such as bathrooms and places of leisure.
In the early days of the kibbutz movement, kibbutzim tended to be male-dominated
with more male members. Nevertheless, women performed many of the same tasks as
men. They worked in the fields and performed guard duty, but also filled traditional
female roles, such as cooking, sewing, and cleaning. However, men never did any of
the traditional female duties such as child care or cleaning. The desire to liberate
women from traditional maternal duties was another big difference to traditional
societies. Women were released from child-rearing so they could have as much time
for work and leisure as men. This means that men and women both get time to spend
together. Young children went to specials children's houses where they looked after by
specialist nurses and teachers. Children were only allowed to see their parents for a
few hours a day. At night, children slept in the children's houses and not with their
parents. Although in more modern day Kibbutz’s children now spend the night with
their parents and women are also involved more with feminine roles such as working in
the communal kitchen or laundry.

2. The Nyinba people of Nepal practice fraternal polyandry which means two or more
brothers are married to one wife. They inherited this custom from their Tibetan ancestors
who migrated to Nepal centuries ago. They also inherited a love fro trading and herding
cows. Polyandry suits the economy’. With one or more husbands always on herding or
trading trips, one husband will always be at home to care for the wife’, explained Maila
Dai, a trader from the village of Bragaau. ‘We think polyandry is just like insurance for the
wife. If one husband is no good or leaves his wife, there’s always another brother’.
Polyandry has been explained as a way of preventing land from being divided up into
less profitable units when a family of sons inherits from the pervious generation. It also
keeps the wealth of each household together by keeping adult males under one roof.
To the Nyinba’s its advantages are obvious. ‘All our brothers work together’, explained
one member. ‘We can become wealthy people, if we all go our own way how can we
survive? We have to study, do agricultural work, take care of animals and trade, so we
have to work together’. ‘For me’, said Tsering Zangmo, who is 21 and the wife of three
brothers (the youngest of whom is seven), ‘polyandry is fine, if I only had one husband I
would be very poor’.
When asked about jealousy between husbands, Tsering Zangmo replied, ‘But they are
brothers. They are never jealous’. However, when asked for more information she giggles
and blushed slightly and said, ‘well, they only have a very little jealousy. If you like one
husband very much, you have to be secret so the others don’t know. We make love in
the middle of the night, lying naked between sheep skins so the others don’t hear us’.

3. Adama is a wealthy man. He lives in a village called Sobtenga in Burkina Faso, a country
in north west Africa. Ten years ago he had two wives.
Zenabou, his first wife, thought that polgyny was a good idea. It provided her with a sister
to share the burdens of domestic work and childcare. Now she is not so sure. Adama has
taken two more wives, the youngest is Bintu who is 16. He is besotted with Bintu and she
clearly enjoys the attention. Despite grumbling, his other wives accept the situation, for
marriage is seen primarily as an economic affair. Adama’s 12 oxen are proof that he can
provide security for his wives and children.
Polygny is common in many small scale traditional societies, particularly in Africa. As the
example of Adama suggests, polygyny is a privilege of the wealthy. Not every man can
afford two or more wives and in any case there aren’t enough women for this. Census
figures from 1911 for South Africa show that only 10% of men had two wives and only 2%
had more than two.