The other is certain tribes of Australian aborigines, which practice gerontocratic polygamy: Men do not marry until they are forty, and by the age of sixty-five they have usually accumulated up to thirty wives. But this peculiar system is far from what it seems. Each old man has younger assistant men whose help, protection, and economic support he purchases by, among other things, turning a blind eye to their affairs with his wives. The old man looks the other way when the helpful nephew carries on with one of his junior wives.
