A poignant account of everyday polygamy and what its regulation
reveals about who is viewed as an "Other" In the past thirty years,
polygamy has become a flashpoint of conflict as Western governments
attempt to regulate certain cultural and religious practices that
challenge seemingly central principles of family and justice. In
Forbidden Intimacies, Melanie Heath comparatively investigates the
regulation of polygamy in the United States, Canada, France, and
Mayotte. Drawing on a wealth of ethnographic and archival sources,
Heath uncovers the ways in which intimacies framed as "other" and
"offensive" serve to define the very limits of Western tolerance.
These regulation efforts, counterintuitively, allow the flourishing
of polygamies on the ground. The case studies illustrate a
continuum of justice, in which some groups, like white
fundamentalist Mormons in the U.S., organize to fight against the
prohibition of their families' existence, whereas African migrants
in France face racialized discrimination in addition to rigid
migration policies. The matrix of legal and social contexts,
informed by gender, race, sexuality, and class, shapes the everyday
experiences of these relationships. Heath uses the term
"labyrinthine love" to conceptualize the complex ways individuals
negotiate different kinds of relationships, ranging from romantic
to coercive. What unites these families is the secrecy in which
they must operate. As government intervention erodes their
abilities to secure housing, welfare, work, and even protection
from abuse, Heath exposes the huge variety of intimacies, and the
power they hold to challenge heteronormative, Western ideals of
love.
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