Item Detail
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11959
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0
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0
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English
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Paradox and Polygamy : Contradiction and Irony in the History of Mormon Doctrine
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Carson, CA
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California State University, Dominguez Hills
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74
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Master's Thesis
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'Considered threatening to the integrity of Victorian families in US society, the Mormon doctrine of polygamy is historically rife with contradiction and irony; evidence exists within a variety of primary and secondary written sources. Polygamy reinforced internal and public views of Mormons as deviant outcasts, paradoxically contributing to Mormon solidarity against reformers. Though family life was valued by both groups, Victorian influenced constitutional interpretations validated monogamy despite Mormon belief in a divinely inspired Constitution. Characterized as enslaved and ignorant, plural wives--likely ambivalent and lonely--often become more self-sufficient and independent than their monogamous counterparts, though used newly gained political power to support the patriarchal theocracy. Though a martyr's cause in Utah Territory, polygamy ironically flourished among self-exiled colonists in Mexico. Today's LDS Church, sensitive to negative associations with polygamy, retains the written doctrine, not the practice. Paradoxically, fundamentalist polygamists are excommunicated, yet polygamy exists in the LDS afterlife.' (author's abstract)