Paper 82 Overview: The Evolution of Marriage

Marriage—arising from human bisexuality—represents mankind's adjustment to the biological reality of requiring two sexes for reproduction. Though not inherent in biological evolution, marriage became the foundation for all social evolution and will continue to exist in some form throughout human history. Throughout the ages, marriage has given humanity the home, which stands as the crowning achievement of human evolutionary struggle and perseverance.

Religious, social, and educational institutions are crucial for civilizational survival, but the family remains the most powerful civilizing influence. Children acquire their most essential life lessons within the family unit and from immediate neighbors. Early human societies, despite their relatively simple social structures, faithfully transmitted their cultural heritage to subsequent generations. Today's human races possess a rich social and cultural inheritance that must be wisely and effectively passed on to future generations through the educational institution of the family.

Marriage, the social response to biological bisexuality, developed as humanity's adjustment to the reality of needing both sexes for reproduction. While not an inherent part of biological evolution, marriage became fundamental to social evolution and will always persist in some form. The evolution of the marriage relationship ultimately produced the home, which represents the highest achievement in humanity's long evolutionary journey.

Although religious, social, and educational institutions are essential for civilization to survive, the family serves as the primary civilizing influence. Children learn life's most important lessons within the family context and from their neighbors. Even with minimal institutional support, early civilizations effectively passed their cultural heritage to successive generations through the family unit. Modern society possesses a rich social and cultural heritage that must be thoughtfully transmitted to future generations through the educational institution of the family.

The natural attraction between men and women, despite their personality differences, has always been sufficient to bring them together for reproduction. This instinctive drive functioned effectively long before humans developed concepts of love, devotion, or marital loyalty. Mating represents an innate biological tendency, while marriage evolved as its social consequence to provide structure and stability to reproductive relationships.

Sex was not a dominating passion for primitive peoples, who simply accepted it as a natural function without excessive imagination or embellishment. The heightened sexual interest found in more civilized societies largely resulted from racial mixing, particularly when evolutionary nature was stimulated by the associative imagination and aesthetic appreciation inherited from Nodite and Adamite influence. The red race developed the highest sexual code among the evolutionary races, showing the most advanced regulation of this biological drive.

The evolution of marriage is essentially the history of sexual control through social, religious, and civil restrictions. Nature shows little concern for individuals or moral concepts, focusing solely on species reproduction. While nature insistently demands reproduction, it leaves the resulting challenges for society to address, creating an enduring conflict between basic instincts and evolving ethical standards.

Early races maintained minimal regulation of sexual relationships, with some primitive groups like the Pygmies still lacking a formal marriage institution. Free love was never acceptable beyond the level of primitive savagery, and as societal groups formed, marriage codes and restrictions began to develop and expand. Mating progressed through numerous transitions from almost complete sexual freedom to the twentieth century's relatively comprehensive sexual restrictions, with early taboos defining boundaries of appropriate behavior.

Marriage functions as society's institutional response to humanity's persistent biological urge toward reproduction and self-propagation. Mating behavior occurs universally, and as societies evolved from simple to complex structures, corresponding marriage customs evolved alongside them, eventually becoming established institutions. In every society that has advanced to generate customs and traditions, marriage has emerged as an evolving social practice.

Two distinct realms have always existed within marriage: the formal rules governing the external aspects of mating, and the private, personal relationships between men and women. Individuals have consistently rebelled against socially imposed sexual regulations, creating an ongoing tension between personal desire and social expectation. When respected, marriage standards have always demonstrated sufficient power to restrain and control sexual impulses, serving as reliable indicators of a society's commitment to its customs and governmental integrity.

Marriage has maintained strong connections with both property ownership and religious practice throughout human history. Property served to stabilize marriage, while religion provided its moral foundation. For primitive peoples, marriage represented an economic investment and business arrangement rather than a romantic relationship, with unions planned and arranged by the group, parents, and elders for collective benefit.

The effectiveness of property customs in stabilizing marriage is evident in the greater permanence of marriages among early tribes compared to many modern societies. As civilization advanced and private property gained wider recognition, theft became the primary social offense. Adultery was understood as a form of theft—violating a husband's property rights—and wasn't specifically addressed in early laws since it was already covered under property violations. Woman began as her father's property, with ownership transferred to her husband upon marriage.

Early in human development, people observed that racial mixing improved offspring quality. While inbreeding wasn't universally harmful, outbreeding consistently produced better results, leading to social customs that restricted sexual relationships among close relatives. This recognition came from seeing that outbred individuals demonstrated greater versatility and survival capability in challenging environments.

Those who practiced inbreeding along with their restrictive customs gradually disappeared through natural selection. More advanced peoples also noted that excessive inbreeding sometimes resulted in general weakness in populations. While selective inbreeding of superior stock occasionally strengthened tribes, the dramatic negative consequences of inbreeding among those with hereditary defects made a stronger impression, reinforcing taboos against close-relative marriages.

No truly pure races exist in today's world. Among the original evolutionary colored peoples, only two representative races persist, the yellow and black races, and even these have significantly mixed with extinct colored peoples. The so-called white race, though predominantly descended from the ancient blue man, contains genetic contributions from all other racial groups, as does the red race of the Americas.

Contemporary prejudice against mixed-race individuals often stems from the perception that much modern racial interbreeding occurs among less advantaged or marginalized segments of the populations involved. Similarly, less favorable outcomes can result when individuals with significant hereditary or social challenges marry within the same group. If modern populations could reduce the influence of their most disadvantaged and socially disruptive elements, there would likely be less concern about limited racial intermarriage, particularly when involving the most capable and well-developed individuals from each group.