Marriage is a method of making sure that any children a given woman has, are taken care for by her husband... it helps if the woman has no children prior to the marriage... or, better yet, is a virgin! 
Take this raw rule of thumb and you get the first marriages...
The party itself is a way of letting everyone in the community know that those two persons are bonded and also to tell everyone else to keep their hands off.
Religions took over the task of keeping records, as a part of their rubbing their noses up into everyone's affairs.
Then states took back that privilege and now it's a mess.
Legal rights depend on where you live, but, for the most part, you get some tax breaks... in my country, you get even more tax breaks if you're legally divorced! go figure!
The religious (catholic) marriage is only valid for believers and... for some 30~50% of marriages... it becomes a nuisance because they can't re-marry.
Bottom line, for me, marriage is just a contract, where I pledge myself to keep the kids healthy and the wife happy... while she does the same for me. As long as both are willing, it works quite well. It's a partnership, at best, for the rest of your life. So... it's good policy to pick out a compatible partner.... not an easy task when all... most... girls want to be princesses, with their prince charmings and all the stuff money can get them.
Take this raw rule of thumb and you get the first marriages...
The party itself is a way of letting everyone in the community know that those two persons are bonded and also to tell everyone else to keep their hands off.
Religions took over the task of keeping records, as a part of their rubbing their noses up into everyone's affairs.
Then states took back that privilege and now it's a mess.
Legal rights depend on where you live, but, for the most part, you get some tax breaks... in my country, you get even more tax breaks if you're legally divorced! go figure!
The religious (catholic) marriage is only valid for believers and... for some 30~50% of marriages... it becomes a nuisance because they can't re-marry.
Bottom line, for me, marriage is just a contract, where I pledge myself to keep the kids healthy and the wife happy... while she does the same for me. As long as both are willing, it works quite well. It's a partnership, at best, for the rest of your life. So... it's good policy to pick out a compatible partner.... not an easy task when all... most... girls want to be princesses, with their prince charmings and all the stuff money can get them.
