A Select History of Consensual Nonmonogamies in the US
“Especially important for this post, their common focus on egalitarian social relationships and acceptance of women as full humans created the space for the first wave of CNM in the US. This is important historically, because previous multiple partner relationship formats were almost exclusively polygyny in which one husband could have multiple wives. For women to have access to multiple men was historically and socially unique, and not particularly widespread at that time. In fact, most of what we know about CNM during this era is based on communities that separated themselves from the mainstream society around them.”
