Kinships Beyond Monogamy: Polyamory and Multiparenthood in the UK and Brazil

Abstract (English)

One of the central socio-anthropological debates of the 19th century concerned the origins and development of marriage and family. Thinkers such as McLennan, Morgan, and Engels argued that monogamy was a relatively recent historical phenomenon. In contrast, authors like Letourneau, Westermarck, and Malinowski opened space for interpretations framing monogamy as a natural and enduring institution, present even among so-called “primitive” societies. Throughout the 20th century, dominant kinship theories—especially structural functionalism (e.g. Radcliffe-Brown, Fortes, Evans-Pritchard)—reinforced the centrality of the nuclear, conjugal family. Since the late 1990s, however, feminist, queer, and postcolonial critiques have increasingly challenged the idea that the heterosexual monogamous couple is either the sole or the primary foundation of kinship, including within Euro-American societies.

This paper investigates kinship practices emerging from Consensual Non-Monogamies (CNMs), such as polyamory and relationship anarchy. While CNM studies have established themselves as an innovative research field, CNM-related kinship remains underexplored in academia, legally unintelligible, and socially marginalised. In both Europe and the Americas, monogamy continues to function as a normative legal framework for the recognition of conjugal and parental ties, shaping which relationships are rendered legitimate, visible, and entitled to rights.

Based on 30 in-depth interviews with CNM practitioners in the United Kingdom and Brazil, this research focuses on multiparenting arrangements—contexts in which more than two adults share parenting responsibilities. It examines how such kinship connections are formed, how roles such as “mother” and “father” are defined, left undefined, or contested, and how participants navigate legal and cultural frameworks that continue to prioritise dyadic, couple-centred views of kinship.

By exploring how kinship is imagined and lived beyond monogamy and dyadic parenthood, this paper invites reflection on the limitations of current legal and anthropological paradigms and on the need for more inclusive approaches to family, kinship, and care in contemporary societies.