MARRIAGE At the end of page one in the article “When Brothers Share a Wife” it says “The Tibetans’ own explanation for choosing fraternal polyandry is materialistic.” Tibetans typically choose this marriage style so that it prevents the division of their family’s farms and livestock. The ultimate goal is to achieve a higher standard of living. If the Tibetans practiced monogamous marriages, then their inherited land would be spilt up between them. Their grandchildren would end up owning very little pieces of property. This would be frowned upon in the society and those same grandchildren would probably have a hard time finding a wife to marry them. After carefully reading this article, I found that the perspective of culture that best explained why this polyandry situation exists is cultural materialism. Culture materialism is defined as; cultural traits are based on the resources available to a group. Tibetans have limited resources given to each family and in order for them to have a large share; it is in their best interest to practice polyandry. This displays culture materialism. Being that the Tibetan’s polyandry is due to cultural materialism, I can definitely see why that type of marriage works. The climate in Tibet is extremely harsh and I could imagine that large plots of land are not easy to come by. It would stand logic to marry a set of brothers versus only one that way you could keep all of the family land in one marriage. Having a lot of land in one marriage is much better than having a small portion, given that their land is so scarce. They would also have more animals which would give them plenty of resources such as milk, cheese, skins, etc. The Tibetans may not realize it, but polyandry also helps with population growth. The Tibetans having fewer children benefits them by allowing the pressure to be reduced from their valuable resources. When