The history of marriage

There have been many different things written and said about marriage.

From the sweetly inspirational to the hilariously cynical.

But what many of them have in common is that they sound like they express

a universal and timeless truth, when in fact nearly everything about marriage,

from its main purpose to the kinds of relationships it covers

to the rights and responsibilities involved, has varied greatly between different eras,

cultures and social classes. So, let's take a quick look at

the evolution of marriage. Pair bonding and raising children

is as old as humanity itself. With the rise of sedentary agricultural societies

about 10,000 years ago, marriage was also a way