“But Why Do They Both Call You ‘Sweetheart’?”. An Anthropological Perspective on Consensual Non-monogamy in Poland

Abstract

The article explores consensual non-monogamy as a new area of research in anthropology regarding intimate relationships in postmodernity. While psychology and sociology currently dominate this topic, an anthropological approach based on ethnographic research can provide a deeper understanding of this phenomenon. Ethnography allows for the examination of diverse strategies and practices adopted by people living in a nonmonogamous manner. The anthropological approach, which places individual human experience at the center of cultural context, has the potential to broaden an understanding of concepts such as jealousy, relationship/ frienship, and family. The author examines the development of concepts of non-monogamy, polygamy, and monogamous family by looking at the beginnings of anthropology and then critically reading them in relation to the contemporary social world and her own fieldwork conducted among women living in consensually nonmonogamous relationships in Poland.