The institution of marriage has had an elongated and blemished past. Not always called

marriage this sacred state had slipped through history under many impersonations and

• Monogamy - summarizes an union of male and female or todays same sex couples, so long as the partners are only sleeping with one another.

• Polygamy - is the practice of one man or woman with numerous spouses of the opposite sex. Often, the need for this type of arrangement came from times of war, affliction or other disaster.

• Polyamory - is a multiple-partnered marriage whereby the partners get together out of love.

• Common-Law - is the relationship of a couple without legal ceremony or license.

The Puritans moved marriage to a point where love counted and delighting in the state

of marriage became commonplace, yet extremely committed. The Victorian period dragged

marriage into the closet. Sex was something embarrassing and improper with a quiet

understanding that married couples engaged in marital relations, without pleasure and as duty

and God dictated for the purpose of procreation.

One reason given to justify the denial of legal marriage to same-sex couples is the

and American studies at Yale University, show that at the time of the American Revolution

companies will extend benefits to domestic partners' who are not married.

a nearly constant state of flux and redefinition. "Christian monogamists were a minority," Cott

America was primarily an economic arrangement negotiated among families in which family

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