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Polygamy on the Web: an online community for an unconventional practice

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dc.contributor.authorSweet-McFarling, Kristen, author
dc.contributor.authorKwiatkowski, Lynn, advisor
dc.contributor.authorGriffin, Cindy, committee member
dc.contributor.authorHawthorne, Barbara, committee member
dc.date.accessioned2007-01-03T06:51:05Z
dc.date.available2007-01-03T06:51:05Z
dc.date.issued2014
dc.description.abstractThis thesis is a virtual ethnographic study of a polygamy website consisting of one chat room, several discussion boards, and polygamy related information and links. The findings of this research are based on the interactions and activities of women and men on the polygamy website. The research addressed the following questions: 1) what are individuals using the website for? 2) What are website members communicating about? 3) How are individuals using the website to search for polygamous relationships? 4) Are website members forming connections and meeting people offline through the use of the website? 5) Do members of the website perceive the Internet to be affecting the contemporary practice of polygamy in the U.S.? This research focused more on the desire to create a polygamous relationship rather than established polygamous marriages and kinship networks. This study found that since the naturalization of monogamous heterosexual marriage and the nuclear family has occurred in the U.S., due to a number of historical, social, cultural, political, and economic factors, the Internet can provide a means to denaturalize these concepts and provide a space for the expression and support of counter discourses of marriage, like polygamy. The findings show that individuals who support polygamy, desire to practice polygamy, or who are in a polygamous relationship may use the online space provided by the Internet to make connections and develop social networks, whether those networks result in the creation of friendship, community, polygamous relationships, activism, or political involvement. My analysis is based on the observation of four main discussion boards on the polygamy website, participant observation conducted in the website's chat room, eight formal, semi-structured interviews with website members and administrators, a self-administered, non-random survey of 37 individuals in the Western U.S., review of primary and secondary historical documents, information from the Internet and media addressing polygamy, and government reports and laws regarding polygamy and marriage. I also reviewed the relevant literature published from anthropology and other fields of study examining polygamy and Internet relationships.
dc.format.mediumborn digital
dc.format.mediummasters theses
dc.identifierSweetMcFarling_colostate_0053N_12488.pdf
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10217/84563
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherColorado State University. Libraries
dc.relation.ispartof2000-2019
dc.rightsCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.
dc.subjectonline
dc.subjectpolygamy
dc.subjectpolygyny
dc.subjectU.S.
dc.subjectInternet
dc.titlePolygamy on the Web: an online community for an unconventional practice
dc.typeText
dcterms.rights.dplaThis Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights (https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/). You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
thesis.degree.disciplineAnthropology
thesis.degree.grantorColorado State University
thesis.degree.levelMasters
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Arts (M.A.)

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