Which marriage form involves one female having multiple male partners?

The correct answer is polyandry. This form of marriage specifically refers to a situation where one woman is married to multiple men at the same time. Polyandry is less common globally compared to its counterpart, polygamy, where a person can have multiple spouses, but it serves as an adaptive strategy in certain cultures, particularly in regions where resources are scarce.

In societies practicing polyandry, it is often seen as a means to consolidate land and manage limited resources, ensuring that family property remains within a single family unit and thereby preventing the fragmentation of land holdings. This arrangement can help siblings to share responsibilities and resources among themselves while sharing a single wife, thus facilitating cooperation and maintaining family ties.

The other forms of marriage listed, such as polygamy (which broadly encompasses both polygyny and polyandry), exogamy (which involves marrying outside a particular group or social unit), and monogamy (where an individual has one spouse at a time) do not accurately describe the scenario of one female having multiple males as specifically as polyandry does. Understanding these distinctions is crucial in the study of marital systems across different cultures in anthropology.