Traditional Marriage: When and Where? (reject, homosexual, evolution, divorce)

[Inky]

So, a lot of definitions have been thrown around for "traditional marriage" in the aftermath of Prop 8. Calling a definition "traditional" implies that there was some extended period of time when it was not only current, but widespread and taken for granted by a community. For anyone who thinks that modern legal marriage should adhere to the guidelines set by traditional marriage, I'd like to know what the rules are, what time period and place/culture/community you're drawing it from, and about how long they adhered to it.

Some things to include are acceptance or rejection of:
Interracial marriage
Marriage against the wishes of the couple's parents
Divorce and remarriage
Same-sex marriage
(Hetero) marriage where the woman and man have equal decision-making power and control of shared resources

So: In what time and place, and for how long, did people overwhelmingly share your definition of marriage in relation to each of those things; in other words, when and where does the "tradition" come from? I'm looking for answers like "rurual England, first half of 19th century" or "United States, 1930s through 1950s".

Or alternately, if you define traditional marriage in a way that was never the norm in a particular time and place but have an argument for why it should still be considered a tradition, you can give that.

This is the discussion forum, so no debate please! : )

[Father Heathen]

Traditional marriage is when the father sold his underage daughter without her consent to a suitor.

[cardero]

Traditional Marriage: When and Where?
When the pregnancy test says so.

[ChristineES]

There is as many traditional marriage types as there are cultures.

[Sunstone]

A traditional marriage is when one man and one woman get together to deny that evolution occurs and to vote Republican.

[Sunstone]

Marriage seems to be in part instinctual to our species. If so, some aspect of it dates back hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of years. I guess you could call that aspect -- if you could define it -- "traditional marriage".

[OutOfTime]

a marriage where you can actually have children?

bang

[Alizée]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

A traditional marriage is when one man and one woman get together to deny that evolution occurs and to vote Republican.

So stereotypical.

If this is all you have, then

[Sunstone]

Originally Posted by Alizée

So stereotypical.

If this is all you have, then

I notice you haven't done better.

[Rolling_Stone]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

Marriage seems to be in part instinctual to our species. If so, some aspect of it dates back hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of years. I guess you could call that aspect -- if you could define it -- "traditional marriage".

Marriage is far from instinctual, neither is it a "sacred" institution. It is merely a response to nature's demand on man to reproduce and man's need to get along in communities: it is man's way of putting a cap on competition due to to nature's demands. That's it. It's that simple. Marriage was, and is, the great civilizer.

The OP suggests that marriage has sometime in the past been defined to include members of the same sex. When and where? Even in ancient Greece where homosexual behavior was accepted and even encouraged, marriage was between a male and female.