what is the definition and the origin of marriage?

Question

not the religious version/

Answer 1

It originated when people began formalizing unions, to protect the children. A society that doesn't protect its children will die out pretty quick. Women are handicapped for about 2 - 5 years when they have a kid; during the last 2 trimesters they can't hunt and gather as well, and until the kid is walking on its own, they have to spend about half their waking hours watching out for it. So, marriage is society's way of saying "Look, Jack, you can have the privilege of sex with the woman, but you have to promise us you will bear the responsibility of protecting her - and your children - too".

It is between a man and a woman and for the purpose of procreation except

1a) Among most Mormons long ago
1b) Among some Mormons today
2) Among many Muslims and some Hindus today
3) Among some societies, temporarily, when there were not enough women to go around and women could have more than one husband
4) Among White Saxon Catholics like Charlemagne, King of the Franks and Emperor of the West (and my 42nd great grandfather, supposedly), who had 20 wives
5) Among pre-Christian Jews - King David had a bunch of wives
6) When two old people marry, even though they can't have children, for companionship.
7) When someone is infertile

"One man - one Woman" is just a ploy by the fundamentalists to keep homosexuals in their place, another way of making them second-class citizens. It was illegal for people of different races - Black and White, Asian and White, Asian and Black - to marry in California until 1950. We seemed to have survived. My internist is Japanese, his wife is mostly Scottish. Their kids all have one head, two arms, two legs, bright smiles.

Answer 2

"And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Genesis 2:20-24).
There is your origin. The meaning derives from the origin. Since man and woman are connected so intimately that they were one flesh, and are again when married, the two genders feel an intrinsic longing to be united to each other. God merely says limit it to one and make that one union last a lifetime. While some do not marry, those who do marry feel as if they are designed to be married.

Answer 3

I have no idea. You should look in the dictionary