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When men finally figured out sperm had something to do with babies, they needed to control women, to make sure those babies shared the men's genetic material. They didn't want to bequeath their baseball card collections to someone else's kid. Also, marriage is a pretty good way to unite two families into one controlling interest, even among the poor. Marriage is an ECONOMIC institution. Historically and even, in most parts of the world right now, love has nothing to do with marriage. The concept of romantic love in marriage is a relatively new invention. In the past, women, whose uterus now belonged to her husband, could not have romantic love, at all. They were totally dependent on their husbands, economically and socially; to go outside marriage for love was, and still is, a death sentence. Men, of course, were permitted extra marital relationships and were even approved as more "manly" for having them.
There's no anthropological evidence to suggest that lifetime monogamy is a natural state for humans. It would seem men in sexual relationships with women are supposed to hang out just long enough to protect a pregnant woman until she gives birth and weans the baby. It appears SERIAL monogamy is more natural to humans.
Humans group into tribes. Tribes bear living duties communally, so everybody, to some extent, raises the children within the tribe, just as they share duties for the hunt, for gathering, for protecting the tribe from predators and enemies, etc.
The invention of the nuclear family, rather than the extended or tribal family is a very new, post-Industrial Revolution concept. Before mass production, local communities/tribes/extended families created what they needed locally, with trade to other areas.
Since the 1950s, the extended family/tribe/local community has been rendered "unnecessary," and women were segregated into individual households, with scant access to community support. It also coincides with a HUGE upsurge in alcoholism, addiction to prescription medications and child abuse in the USA.
Marriage was and is an economic institution. It is becoming less and less relevant to societies with the advent of birth control, education and employment of women, the transformation of cultures into "service sector" jobs, etc.
i think the main reason Queers want to marry is economic equality. They can't have spousal benefits, have legal rights to adopt children, visit a spouse in the hospital, get marriage deductions on taxes, etc.
When men finally figured out sperm had something to do with babies, they needed to control women, to make sure those babies shared the men's genetic material. They didn't want to bequeath their baseball card collections to someone else's kid. Also, marriage is a pretty good way to unite two families into one controlling interest, even among the poor. Marriage is an ECONOMIC institution. Historically and even, in most parts of the world right now, love has nothing to do with marriage. The concept of romantic love in marriage is a relatively new invention. In the past, women, whose uterus now belonged to her husband, could not have romantic love, at all. They were totally dependent on their husbands, economically and socially; to go outside marriage for love was, and still is, a death sentence. Men, of course, were permitted extra marital relationships and were even approved as more "manly" for having them.
There's no anthropological evidence to suggest that lifetime monogamy is a natural state for humans. It would seem men in sexual relationships with women are supposed to hang out just long enough to protect a pregnant woman until she gives birth and weans the baby. It appears SERIAL monogamy is more natural to humans.
Humans group into tribes. Tribes bear living duties communally, so everybody, to some extent, raises the children within the tribe, just as they share duties for the hunt, for gathering, for protecting the tribe from predators and enemies, etc.
The invention of the nuclear family, rather than the extended or tribal family is a very new, post-Industrial Revolution concept. Before mass production, local communities/tribes/extended families created what they needed locally, with trade to other areas.
Since the 1950s, the extended family/tribe/local community has been rendered "unnecessary," and women were segregated into individual households, with scant access to community support. It also coincides with a HUGE upsurge in alcoholism, addiction to prescription medications and child abuse in the USA.
Marriage was and is an economic institution. It is becoming less and less relevant to societies with the advent of birth control, education and employment of women, the transformation of cultures into "service sector" jobs, etc.
i think the main reason Queers want to marry is economic equality. They can't have spousal benefits, have legal rights to adopt children, visit a spouse in the hospital, get marriage deductions on taxes, etc.
