#joseph f was also like. deeply neurotic in a way that reads like a genuine anxiety disorder and also rather weird about women in both a

[alliluyevas]

I've been deep in the Mormonism archival trenches lately researching Joseph F. Smith and his family. I've been reading letters back and forth between Joseph F. and his five wives (Julina, Sarah, Edna, Alice, and Mary) as well as correspondence with his younger sister Martha and with two of his cousins with whom he had significant ideological/religious conflicts (ex-Mormon Ina Coolbrith of California and anti-polygamy Mormon Joseph Smith III of Iowa).

It's been very interesting delving into some really convoluted household dynamics and seeing the overlap between different circles of immediate and extended family. It's also really fascinating interpreting the relationship dynamics within polygamist households, On the one hand, the Smiths' marriage can be seen as one man who has five separate marriages to five different women (with five different sub-families of children who share both a mother and a father). But you can also see it as a group marriage involving multiple people who all share familial bonds, communal child-rearing responsibility, and a level of marital intimacy (not necessarily romantic or sexual in nature but I definitely think you can argue that the wives are married to each other too in some ways). I think they're both applicable lenses of analysis, and neither tells the whole story.

It's also really interesting seeing the expression of inter-wife jealousies and conflicts (including a tendency to "tattle" on other wives to their mutual husband if they perceive the other woman to be breaking the rules) mingled with things like Edna breastfeeding Sarah's baby or Sarah writing to Joseph F. to tell him that Alice suspects she's pregnant but doesn't know how to tell him herself because she's worried it's not a good time. A lot to think about and definitely a type of relationship that defies being easily categorized.