The history of marriage - Alex Gendler

A white, puffy dress. Eternal love. A joint tax return. Marriage means something different to everyone and has changed over time and across cultures. Alex Gendler traces the history of getting hitched, providing insights on polygamy, same-sex unions and even marriage between the dead and the living.

Lesson by Alex Gendler, animation by Augenblick Studios.

[ellenspear]

So Jane Austen's novels with their stories of marrying for love and happiness were cutting edge.

[felicciasc]

Ghost Marriage... Hopefully no Ghost divorce.

[aurelio-nerdo]

I can't be the only one who loves the idea of having just one partner for the rest of his life...

[jenp]

... has anyone ever married themselves?

[lorenzo]

The most important part of the video is the last sentence.

As society's needs changes, so does marriage itself will also change. 
As humans change and demand their needs, marriage will also cater to human needs. 

This requirement is beyond religion, practicality, money or the individual pursuit of happiness.

Whatever the needs of society will present, the demands of marriage will follow suit.

[UPlayNetwork]

King Solomon from the Bible had 700 wives and 300 concubines, so people who say marriage is between 2 people aren't always right

[marib]

"All marriages have one thing in common "
Me: food

[deniseseminoff]

Marraige be like:
I love you so much lets get the goverment involve

[harshvardhanjha]

*Back then "I'll marry my boo" had totally different meaning*

[ekaiLo]

So, ...what exactly are conservatives trying to conserve about marriage?

[LeBasfondMusic]

A lot of Indigenous cultures' marriages were based around love and, and were part of the entire community. The Abenaki are a great example of this.

[mellored]

Marriage = Who get's your stuff when you die.

[johnbenton]

This shoots down the 'traditional marriage' adherents.

[Phoenixspin]

Maybe I can marry a ghost. But she has to be really cute.

[pragy]

"Marriage has always been shaped by society" Always the greatest control on things has been in hands of society

[prakharvishnoi]

You are telling me that it's normal in some cultures for one to marry a ghost but not a living person because he's of same gender😂 society's messed up!

[mikeescobar]

Thank you, TedED, for sharing this! It's so important that people realize how the institution of marriage is deeply rooted in culture-specific context and not exclusively the domain of one religion/philosophical perspective to define.

[Liuhuayue]

You didn't mention wacky modern examples of marriage, such as men marrying dogs, electronics, or other non-human objects.

[msk-qpfn]

You know, sometimes I seriously wonder why the HELL do people think/assume that some people are "gay" because they are super close to a friend who is of the same gender?? It's like somehow now people just can't think that people can be in a really close relationship even without being in a romantic or sexual relationship with the someone of the sex!
I am not from an English speaking country, and was in a English debate camp, and I once complimented my teammate for being cute, which I meant things like her polite and naive nature combined with wit.(and back then I didn't really knew of the LGBT things too) The teammate was from the same country as me, so she knew what I was talking about, and thanked me and called me "pretty, " but then some other kids who lived in America just started to blurt out that we were lesbian because I called her "cute, " and she called me "pretty." And we were both like "WTH are you talking about?"

[CountBifford]

When conservatives talk about "preserving the institution of marriage", what are they really talking about?