Women got married long before gay marriage

While interhuman relationships go back to the early years of civilization, marriage has only become commonplace in the recent annals of history. Evidence suggests that marriage as an institution may only be several thousand years old, just a small blip on humanity's ,year-old timeline.

And the general idea that one man and one woman would spend their whole lives together has only cropped up in the last few centuries. Many of the modern partner trends, like polyamory and throuples, are actually variations on historical marriage tropes. Also taking root in historical precedence are fads like the "trad wife " movement, which has been making waves on social media.

But even newer than the idea of marriage? The idea that you'd marry someone because you actually love them. The best available evidence suggests that it's about 4, years old. For thousands of years before that, most anthropologists believe, families consisted of loosely organized groups of as many as 30 people, with several male leaders, multiple women shared between them, and children.

As hunter-gatherers settled down into agrarian civilizations, society had a need for more stable arrangements. Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

The first recorded evidence of marriage ceremonies uniting one woman and one man dates from about B. Over the next several hundred years, marriage evolved into a widespread institution embraced by the ancient Hebrews, Greeks and Romans. But back then, marriage had little to do with love or with religion.

Marriage's primary purpose was to bind women to men, and thus guarantee that a man's children were truly his biological heirs.

Same-Sex Marriage Around the World

This was particularly important in women got married long before gay marriage societies where these heirs would often inherit leadership roles. Through marriage, a woman became a man's property. In the betrothal ceremony of ancient Greecea father would hand over his daughter with these words: "I pledge my daughter for the purpose of producing legitimate offspring.

Among the ancient Hebrews, men were free to take several wives; married Greek and Roman men were free to satisfy their sexual urges with concubines, prostitutes and even teenage male lovers, while their wives were required to stay home and tend to the household.

If wives failed to produce offspring, their husbands could give them back and marry someone else. As the Christian church became a powerful institution in Europethe blessings of a priest became increasingly common. Through the years, "there have been differing views about whether weddings are primarily religious or secular events," said the Christian-based Nelson University.

For "much of the early Christian Era, the Church stayed out of weddings and let the state handle the union of man and woman. While some religions may view marriage differently, they often share similar characteristics. Marriage is "highly valued in Jewish culture and the wedding is one of the most important events in the life cycle," according to the University of Chicagodespite the fact that "no wedding ceremony is described in the Torah.

Likewise, marriage in Islam is an "essential pillar of human life, as humans are the masters of creatures and the most honorable of them," said the Imam Mahdi Association of Marjaeya. A successful Muslim marriage is a "purposeful one and not one based on emotions and fleeting desires.

Beyond religion, varying cultures also have unique customs when it comes to marriage. In Scotland, a tradition called the Blackening occurs when "friends and family seize the engaged couple and gunk them with anything from rotten eggs and fish guts to manure and molasses," said the BBC.

And in certain Chinese provinces, there is a "ceremonial practice involving sobbing and singing by the bride and her family" where the bride "may cry intermittently," with her tears "seen as an expression of gratitude," said the South China Morning Post. The shift from "common law" marriages — where two people or their families simply declared they were married — to legal marriage began in the church, with the calling of "banns," or public announcements before the marriage in the 13th century.

The pros and cons of marriage.