Obvious disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. Please consult a legal professional for legal advice.
First off, let's just say it: polyamory is NOT Sister Wives.
Breaking it down:
- Polyamory is the practice of engaging in multiple loving and consensual relationships at one time. It is legal.
- Polygamy is an arrangement in which one person has multiple spouses. It is illegal.
In other words, you cannot legally marry multiple partners (i.e., polygamy). But if you want to have a loving and consensual relationship with multiple partners (i.e., polyamory), there's no law against it and nobody is going to stop you.
While it is true that historically polygamous relationships were practiced in different cultures around the world, it is currently illegal in many countries (including the United States and Canada). Polygamous relationships followed a religious doctrine where the head of the family was male and he governed the relationships based on rules, structure, and status dictated by the religious community. They also traditionally engaged in heteronormative sexual behavior, which meant the man was able to have sex with all of the women, but the women only had sex with him.