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Comment by wannacboatmovie | Hacker News Reader

> Modern monogamy can be understood as writing different chapters with different people. Some people will have a longer word count than others, but there is no expectation that one story will last forever.

Why introduce a new term "modern monogamy" for this? There already exists a term for it: serial polygamy:

- https://www.lsd.law/define/serial-polygamy

- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/serial_polygamy

I’ve always heard it referred to as serial monogamy, as in a series of monogamous relationships. Either way, don’t see how calling it “modern” adds anything to the understanding of monogamy. Does anybody really hear monogamy and think that there’s no way the relationship will ever end?

While the two are similar, polygamy in any form implies some form of marriage or other legal binding. The term being made up here doesn’t require the marriage aspect. If an individual is divorcing and remarrying, then you’re correct.

Oddly enough, the phrase "serial monogamy" describes the same exact thing! https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/serial_monogamy

Wikipedia on this (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polygamy&oldid=11...):

"serial monogamy, marriage with only one other person at a time, in contrast to bigamy or polygamy[.] Some definitions of serial monogamy consider it to be polygamy, as it can result in evidence of genetic polygamy. It can also be considered polygamy for anthropological reasons."

So, "serial monogamy" vs "serial polygamy" seem to be two different interpretations of the same phenomenon:

- Serial monogamy: multiple monogamous relationships

- Serial polygamy: a polygamous relationship where the individual partners/relationships are separated in the time domain (like time-division multiplexing (TDM) in engineering: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Time-division_mul...).

Because then it's not new. /s

In the context of serial monogamy, a very high divorce rate is a natural and good thing, since it means more people are happier because they are free to abandon inevitably souring relationships.

The quasi mystical concept of soulmates is abandoned in this context, specially with the knowledge that very long lasting relationships usually take a decade or more of struggle (suffering) before the couple mutually surrenders and gives up trying to change their situation.

So you want to call it monogamy, but it's not monogamy?

How about no?

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