>>3395358Everything you just said is complete and utter nonsense. I am impressed.
Marriage has almost exclusively always been a matter of tying families together and redistributing wealth, forming ties that meant that those families have to support each other. Whether that is among rich people or peasants. You dont seem to know what a dowry was even for.
Nothing I said was made up, it has always been something that people higher than the married pair (and even if its just the heads of the families) have to approve. That is common sense and the fact that you are trying to argue against it only means you dont know shit.
If you got "married" without approval of your families you are an outcast and had to live on your own and support your new family on your own. Which is completely unreasonable, especially in medieval times. All you are doing is living together, it's not marriage.
I dont give a shit if you think the practices are "arbitrary", any law is. But they have been going on for centuries and are the only binding thing right now. If anyone who vowed to be together forever was "married" then marriage has no purpose. Explain to me the difference between a couple living together and a married couple. What do I hear your retarded mouth say?
>It's the legal/religious rights and advantagesWow, thank you for understadning basic logic. This is why we have more than 1 term in our vocabulary and can actually categorize relationships.
Can Tomoe and Sukoya get married right now? No. Not by any modern definition of the word. No manner of fringe cases from ancient history you can pull out of your ass will ever change that. Marriage has become more than a promise, it is a institution. Deny it, cry about it, but that is exactly how it is. That is reality.
>Arranged marriages are the domain of very specific culturesArranged marriages were the most common practice in Japan, regardless of wealth. Is that not the culture we are talking about right now, you absolute autist?