Polygamy and Women as Property
This video suggested to me that women being considered the property of a man is rooted in the need for a man to have claim to her children as being his. If the woman is his property, then so too are her children. The man needs to know which children he is responsible for: he should not have to invest time and energy providing for children who are not his. When a woman is the PROPERTY of a given man, other men ought not have sex (babies) with her. So: one man per woman (though that man may claim multiple women). Women as the PROPERTY of a man is found in the practice of a woman taking her husband's name. The children also take the father's name. That common name being the father's name is a way of identifying which man is responsible for a given woman and children. And that, since they are the PROPERTY of that man, no other man may lay claim to them. Many of these practices still exist into modern day: wives and children still take their husband's/father's name. So...