Another attempt to cast stones at Western civilization.
They bring up Genghis Khan (a man compared by John Kerry to American war criminals in Vietnam) to defend the practice. Did they bring up Mohammed and his 6 year old bride as well?
The ancient foundations of monogamy go back to the Roman peoples prior to their development of civilization. They were generally pirates and raided other tribes for women. When fights took place between rivals over women the system of monogamy was adopted to keep social order. Eventually it evolved to a Roman man being able to have one official wife (whose children inherited his welath and title) but he was expected to be able to have mistresses and slave women for sex as well. The Catholic Church adopted the idea of monogamy but also seems to have taken a light stand on adultery (mistresses) even though the Bible strongly condemns it. This may be one reason men having a wife but at least one other lover is common in southern Europe and Latin America even today.