Reply #21: "Marriage" is and always has been about PROPERTY and ...

[TahitiNut]

... ENTITLEMENTS. One such 'entitlement' (a government-granted authority) is the authority to speak on another's behalf when they're unable to speak for themselves, much as a parent may speak for a child. (In this, I use "speak" in a legal sense of "make choices.")

Under the woman-as-chattel tradition, she was a kind of property DEEDED to a male ("husband") by another male ("father") along with a payment ("dowery") for taking on the responsibility and expense of "husbandry".

The overwhelming reason churches even became involved was political power - the inheritance of TITLES (entitlement) in monarchical systems. The whole romantic notion of marriage as something "sacred" is a recent myth. Adultery was a PROPERTY crime - violation of an entitlement.