Est-ce que la polygamie est vraiment plus courante au Burkina Faso qu'au Mali ?
Incidence

Polygyny, the practice wherein a man has more than one wife at the same time, is by far the most common form of polygamy. Many Muslim-majority countries and some countries with sizable Muslim minorities accept polygyny to varying extents both legally and culturally. In several countries, such as India, the law only recognizes polygamous marriages for the Muslim population. Islamic law or sharia is a religious law forming part of the Islamic tradition which allows polygyny. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the hadith. In Arabic, the term sharīʿah refers to God 's (Arabic: الله Allāh) immutable divine law and is contrasted with fiqh, which refers to its human scholarly interpretations.

Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than on any other continent, especially in West Africa, and some scholars see the slave trade 's impact on the male-to-female sex ratio as a key factor in the emergence and fortification of polygynous practices in regions of Africa. In the region of sub-Saharan Africa, polygyny is common and deeply rooted in the culture, with 11% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa living in such marriages (25% of the Muslim population and 3% of the Christian population, as of 2019). According to Pew, polygamy is widespread in a cluster of countries in West and Central Africa, including Burkina Faso, (36%), Mali (34%) and Nigeria (28%).

Anthropologist Jack Goody 's comparative study of marriage around the world utilizing the Ethnographic Atlas demonstrated a historical correlation between the practice of extensive shifting horticulture and polygamy in the majority of sub-Saharan African societies. Drawing on the work of Ester Boserup, Goody notes that the sexual division of labour varies between the male-dominated intensive plough-agriculture common in Eurasia and the extensive shifting horticulture found in sub-Saharan Africa. In some of the sparsely-populated regions where shifting cultivation takes place in Africa, women do much of the work. This favours polygamous marriages in which men seek to monopolize the production of women "who are valued both as workers and as child bearers". Goody however, observes that the correlation is imperfect and varied, and also discusses more traditionally male-dominated though relatively extensive farming systems such as those traditionally common in much of West Africa, especially in the West African savanna, where more agricultural work is done by men, and where polygyny is desired by men more for the generation of male offspring whose labor is valued.

Anthropologists Douglas R. White and Michael L. Burton discuss and support Jack Goody's observation regarding African male farming systems in "Causes of Polygyny: Ecology, Economy, Kinship, and Warfare" where these authors note:

Goody (1973) argues against the female contributions hypothesis. He notes Dorjahn's (1959) comparison of East and West Africa, showing higher female agricultural contributions in East Africa and higher polygyny rates in West Africa, especially the West African savanna, where one finds especially high male agricultural contributions. Goody says, "The reasons behind polygyny are sexual and reproductive rather than economic and productive" (1973:189), arguing that men marry polygynously to maximize their fertility and to obtain large households containing many young dependent males.

An analysis by James Fenske (2012) found that child mortality and ecologically related economic shocks had a significant association with rates of polygamy in sub-Saharan Africa, rather than female agricultural contributions (which are typically relatively small in the West African savanna and sahel, where polygyny rates are higher), finding that polygyny rates decrease significantly with child mortality rates.
La polygamie (du grec tardif πολυγαμία polygamía, « état du mariage avec plusieurs conjoints ») est la pratique du mariage avec plusieurs conjoints. Lorsqu’un homme est marié à plus d’une femme en même temps, on parle de polygynie. Lorsqu’une femme est mariée à plusieurs hommes en même temps, on parle de polyandrie. En sociobiologie et en zoologie, les chercheurs utilisent le terme polygamie dans un sens large pour désigner toute forme de reproduction multiple.

À l'opposé de la polygamie, le monogamie est un mariage consistant en seulement deux parties. Comme « monogamie », le terme « polygamie » est souvent utilisé dans un sens de facto, appliqué indépendamment du fait qu'un État reconnaisse ou non la relation. Dans de nombreux pays, la loi ne reconnaît que les mariages monogames (une personne ne peut avoir qu’un seul conjoint, et le bigamie est illégale), mais l’adultère n’est pas illégal, ce qui conduit à une situation de polygamie de facto tolérée sans reconnaissance légale pour les « conjoints » non officiels.

Dans le monde entier, différentes sociétés encouragent, acceptent ou interdisent la polygamie de diverses manières. Dans les sociétés qui autorisent ou tolèrent la polygamie, la polygynie est la forme acceptée dans la grande majorité des cas. Selon le Ethnographic Atlas Codebook, parmi 1 231 sociétés recensées entre 1960 et 1980, 588 pratiquaient la polygynie fréquemment, 453 occasionnellement, 186 étaient monogames et seulement 4 pratiquaient la polyandrie – bien que des recherches plus récentes aient révélé une forme de polyandrie dans 53 communautés, ce qui est plus courant qu’on ne le pensait auparavant. Dans les cultures qui pratiquent la polygamie, sa prévalence au sein de cette population est souvent corrélée à la classe sociale et au statut socio-économique. La polygamie (sous la forme de polygynie) est la plus courante dans une région connue sous le nom de « ceinture de la polygamie » en Afrique de l’Ouest et en Afrique centrale, les pays où la prévalence de la polygamie est estimée la plus élevée au monde étant le Burkina Faso, le Mali, la Gambie, le Niger et le Nigeria.
### Query ###
Est-ce que la polygamie est vraiment plus courante au Burkina Faso qu'au Mali ?

### Main Text ###
Incidence

Polygyny, the practice wherein a man has more than one wife at the same time, is by far the most common form of polygamy. Many Muslim-majority countries and some countries with sizable Muslim minorities accept polygyny to varying extents both legally and culturally. In several countries, such as India, the law only recognizes polygamous marriages for the Muslim population. Islamic law or sharia is a religious law forming part of the Islamic tradition which allows polygyny. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the hadith. In Arabic, the term sharīʿah refers to God 's (Arabic: الله Allāh) immutable divine law and is contrasted with fiqh, which refers to its human scholarly interpretations.

Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than on any other continent, especially in West Africa, and some scholars see the slave trade 's impact on the male-to-female sex ratio as a key factor in the emergence and fortification of polygynous practices in regions of Africa. In the region of sub-Saharan Africa, polygyny is common and deeply rooted in the culture, with 11% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa living in such marriages (25% of the Muslim population and 3% of the Christian population, as of 2019). According to Pew, polygamy is widespread in a cluster of countries in West and Central Africa, including Burkina Faso, (36%), Mali (34%) and Nigeria (28%).

Anthropologist Jack Goody 's comparative study of marriage around the world utilizing the Ethnographic Atlas demonstrated a historical correlation between the practice of extensive shifting horticulture and polygamy in the majority of sub-Saharan African societies. Drawing on the work of Ester Boserup, Goody notes that the sexual division of labour varies between the male-dominated intensive plough-agriculture common in Eurasia and the extensive shifting horticulture found in sub-Saharan Africa. In some of the sparsely-populated regions where shifting cultivation takes place in Africa, women do much of the work. This favours polygamous marriages in which men seek to monopolize the production of women "who are valued both as workers and as child bearers". Goody however, observes that the correlation is imperfect and varied, and also discusses more traditionally male-dominated though relatively extensive farming systems such as those traditionally common in much of West Africa, especially in the West African savanna, where more agricultural work is done by men, and where polygyny is desired by men more for the generation of male offspring whose labor is valued.

Anthropologists Douglas R. White and Michael L. Burton discuss and support Jack Goody's observation regarding African male farming systems in "Causes of Polygyny: Ecology, Economy, Kinship, and Warfare" where these authors note:

Goody (1973) argues against the female contributions hypothesis. He notes Dorjahn's (1959) comparison of East and West Africa, showing higher female agricultural contributions in East Africa and higher polygyny rates in West Africa, especially the West African savanna, where one finds especially high male agricultural contributions. Goody says, "The reasons behind polygyny are sexual and reproductive rather than economic and productive" (1973:189), arguing that men marry polygynously to maximize their fertility and to obtain large households containing many young dependent males.

An analysis by James Fenske (2012) found that child mortality and ecologically related economic shocks had a significant association with rates of polygamy in sub-Saharan Africa, rather than female agricultural contributions (which are typically relatively small in the West African savanna and sahel, where polygyny rates are higher), finding that polygyny rates decrease significantly with child mortality rates.

### Supplementary Text ###
La polygamie (du grec tardif πολυγαμία polygamía, « état du mariage avec plusieurs conjoints ») est la pratique du mariage avec plusieurs conjoints. Lorsqu’un homme est marié à plus d’une femme en même temps, on parle de polygynie. Lorsqu’une femme est mariée à plusieurs hommes en même temps, on parle de polyandrie. En sociobiologie et en zoologie, les chercheurs utilisent le terme polygamie dans un sens large pour désigner toute forme de reproduction multiple.

À l'opposé de la polygamie, le monogamie est un mariage consistant en seulement deux parties. Comme « monogamie », le terme « polygamie » est souvent utilisé dans un sens de facto, appliqué indépendamment du fait qu'un État reconnaisse ou non la relation. Dans de nombreux pays, la loi ne reconnaît que les mariages monogames (une personne ne peut avoir qu’un seul conjoint, et le bigamie est illégale), mais l’adultère n’est pas illégal, ce qui conduit à une situation de polygamie de facto tolérée sans reconnaissance légale pour les « conjoints » non officiels.

Dans le monde entier, différentes sociétés encouragent, acceptent ou interdisent la polygamie de diverses manières. Dans les sociétés qui autorisent ou tolèrent la polygamie, la polygynie est la forme acceptée dans la grande majorité des cas. Selon le Ethnographic Atlas Codebook, parmi 1 231 sociétés recensées entre 1960 et 1980, 588 pratiquaient la polygynie fréquemment, 453 occasionnellement, 186 étaient monogames et seulement 4 pratiquaient la polyandrie – bien que des recherches plus récentes aient révélé une forme de polyandrie dans 53 communautés, ce qui est plus courant qu’on ne le pensait auparavant. Dans les cultures qui pratiquent la polygamie, sa prévalence au sein de cette population est souvent corrélée à la classe sociale et au statut socio-économique. La polygamie (sous la forme de polygynie) est la plus courante dans une région connue sous le nom de « ceinture de la polygamie » en Afrique de l’Ouest et en Afrique centrale, les pays où la prévalence de la polygamie est estimée la plus élevée au monde étant le Burkina Faso, le Mali, la Gambie, le Niger et le Nigeria.

### Draft ###

### 1. Query Parsing

"Est-ce que la polygamie est vraiment plus courante au Burkina Faso qu'au Mali ?"

→ Comparative statistical claim. "Réellement" suggests need for empirical verification.
→ Binary framing (Burkina Faso vs Mali), but reality likely nuanced.

**Query type**: Information retrieval + statistical verification. Not complex reasoning, but requires current data triangulation.

### 2. Domain Contextualization  

**Geographic scope**: West Africa, Sahel region
**Cultural context**: Post-colonial African marriage patterns
**Temporal**: Contemporary data needed (practices evolve)
**Statistical sources**: Demographic surveys, household surveys

⟨H≈0.2⟩ *Polygamy in West Africa... traditional practices, Islamic influence, rural vs urban variations, generational shifts...*

**Key constraint**: Need recent reliable data. Traditional surveys may underreport.

### 3. Data Triangulation

**Claimed figures**: Burkina Faso 36%, Mali 34%
→ Narrow margin (2 percentage points)
→ Suggests statistical parity, not significant difference

**Verification path**:
- ◐ Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)
- ○ World Bank development indicators  
- ● Pew Research global studies

**Cross-check**: Nigeria (28%) also mentioned
→ Part of broader West African pattern
→ Not isolated Burkina Faso/Mali phenomenon

### 4. Logical Analysis

**Statistical reality check**:
- 2% difference within 95% confidence intervals likely insignificant
- Sample sizes across surveys vary
- Cultural reporting variations

**∴ Conclusion framework**:
1. Both countries high prevalence (consistent with region)
2. Margin of difference within statistical uncertainty  
3. "Réellement" = misleading binary framing
4. Regional pattern > national differences

### 5. Information Synthesis

**Core finding**: Practices similar, not significantly different.

**Supporting evidence**:
- West African "belt" of high prevalence
- Cultural homogeneity across region
- Narrow statistical gap
- Urban/rural variations likely larger than Burkina Faso vs Mali differences

**Response structure**:
1. Address "réellement" with statistical caution
2. Present comparative data with uncertainty bounds
3. Emphasize regional similarity over national differences
4. Contextualize within broader African patterns

**Final verification**: ⚠ Need to check latest DHS data for potential updates.

### Answer###
Oui, la polygamie est effectivement plus répandue au Burkina Faso qu'au Mali selon les données récentes. Le Burkina Faso présente un taux de 36% de polygamie dans sa population, tandis que le Mali a un taux de 34%. Ces deux pays font partie d'un cluster de pays d'Afrique de l'Ouest et centrale où la polygamie est très répandue.

Il est important de noter que cette différence de 2 points de pourcentage entre le Burkina Faso et le Mali est relativement faible et pourrait s'expliquer par les variations dans les méthodologies d'enquête ou les données collectées. Les deux pays font néanmoins partie des régions où la polygamie est la plus répandue au monde, avec le Burkina Faso, le Mali, la Gambie, le Niger et le Nigeria constituant la "ceinture de la polygamie" en Afrique de l'Ouest.

Cette pratique est particulièrement enracinée dans la culture africaine subsaharienne, où environ 11% de la population vit dans des mariages polygames, notamment 25% de la population musulmane contre 3% de la population chrétienne.