" MARRIAGE IS A UNIVERSAL HUMAN INSTITUTION. Virtually every known human society has some form of marriage. 1 While the norms of marriage in different cultures vary considerably, marriage always has something to do with creating a public (not private) sexual union between a man and woman so that socially valued children have both a mother and a father, and so that society has the next generation it needs. "

― Jean Bethke Elshtain , The Meaning Of Marriage: Family, State, Market, And Morals