THESIS POLYGAMY ON THE WEB: AN ONLINE COMMUNITY FOR AN UNCONVENTIONAL PRACTICE Submitted by Kristen Sweet-McFarling Department of Anthropology In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Summer 2014 Master’s Committee: Advisor: Lynn Kwiatkowski Cindy Griffin Barbara Hawthorne Copyright by Kristen Sweet-McFarling 2014 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT POLYGAMY ON THE WEB: AN ONLINE COMMUNITY FOR AN UNCONVENTIONAL PRACTICE This 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 ii 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a self-administered, non-random survey of 37 individuals in the Western U.S., review of primary and secondary historical documents, information from the Internet and media addressing polygamy, and government reports and laws regarding polygamy and marriage.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. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to thank the members of the polygamy website that I conducted research with. I am deeply grateful to those members and administrators of the polygamy website who welcomed me warmly to their community and allowed me to enter and conduct my research in their private, online space. I appreciate the openness and honesty of those, which I had the pleasure of interviewing and chatting with, who shared their invaluable perspectives and knowledge with me. Thank you to my advisor Lynn Kwiatkowski who has guided me through this entire process. I have enjoyed working closely with you over the past three years, and I greatly value your expertise, encouragement, advice, and kind words. I am also thankful for the dedication and insight of my additional committee members, Cindy Griffin and Barbara Hawthorne. I appreciate your comments and questions, which greatly improved the quality of my thesis. I want to extend a special thank you to Barbara Hawthorne. Without your guidance and the influence of your passion and enthusiasm for feminism and anthropology I received as an undergraduate, I imagine I would have followed a very different path. Finally, I am so thankful for the unwavering support, encouragement, and understanding of my husband Bobby during this demanding process. I could not have accomplished this work without you by my side. I love you. I also thank my parents, Kevin and Karen Sweet, who have taught me the meaning of hard work and have always supported my educational endeavors. I appreciate my sister Kelsey for the much needed distractions and comic relief she provided me, which helped to endure long nights of research and writing. I appreciate the love and support of all of my dear friends and family members, who, fortunately for me, are too many to list here. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................................v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1 Polygamy in the Media ........................................................................................................6 The Research Site ................................................................................................................7 Thesis Outline ....................................................................................................................10 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................12 Polygamy in Anthropology and Other Fields of Study .....................................................12 Internet Research in Anthropology and Other Scholarly Disciplines ................................25 CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS .......................................................................33 Feminist Anthropological Theoretical Framework ............................................................33 Theoretical Approaches .....................................................................................................36 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................41 Methods..............................................................................................................................41 Entry into the Research Site ...............................................................................................43 Data Collection and Analysis.............................................................................................44 Challenges and Benefits of Internet Research ...................................................................48 Challenges of Researching Polygamy in the U.S. .............................................................51 CHAPTER 5: PROHIBITION OF POLYGAMY: A HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF POLYGAMY IN THE U.S...........................................................53 v Polygamy in European History ..........................................................................................53 Polygamy in American History .........................................................................................57 Mormon Polygamy and Other Alternative Marriage Structures in the U.S. .....................61 Polygamy in 21st Century America ....................................................................................71 CHAPTER 6: PERCEPTIONS OF POLYGAMY IN THE U.S. AND THE PURPOSE AND FUNCTION OF THE POLYGAMY WEBSITE ..........................................................................76 Perceptions of Marriage in the Western U.S. ....................................................................76 Perceptions of Polygamy in the Western U.S. ...................................................................79 Table 1: Community Survey Respondents’ Beliefs about Polygamy ....................81 Perceptions of Polygamy among Friends and Families of Polygamy Website Members .84 Meanings of Polygamy Online ..........................................................................................85 Purpose and Function of the Polygamy Website ...............................................................90 CHAPTER 7: FRIENDSHIP, COMMUNITY, AND FORMING POLYGAMOUS RELATIONSHIPS ONLINE .........................................................................................................95 Friendship ..........................................................................................................................95 Community ........................................................................................................................98 Forming Polygamous Relationships ................................................................................102 Social and Cultural Influences .........................................................................................107 CHAPTER 8: POLITICS, THE INTERNET, AND POLYGAMY IN THE U.S. ......................114 Political Involvement and the Internet .............................................................................114 The Internet and Activism ...............................................................................................115 Polygamy and the Law in the U.S. ..................................................................................118 Decriminalization or Legalization ...................................................................................121