Polygyny: insufficient father-son contact and son's masculine identity

In polygynous societies in which the family consists of husband, wives, and children only, if each cowife lives in a separate quarter with her children, males are more likely to be circumcised or segregated at puberty. These customs are interpreted as the measures to rectify boys' mother-oriented personality development because of limited contact with their fathers due to their mother's separate quarters. Circumcision and segregation can be explained better in terms of the son's insufficient contact with the father rather than a very close relationship with the mother due to the long postpartum sexual taboo.