Marriage [is like] …an archaeological site on which the present is constantly building over the past, letting history's many layers twist and tilt into today's walls and floors…many people believe theirs is the one true claim to this holy ground. But…marriage has always been a battleground, owned and defined first by one group and then another. While marriage…may retain its ancient name, very little else in this city has remained the same, not its boundaries, boulevards, or daily habits – except the fact that it is inhabited by human beings. And yet, marriage has outlasted its many critics…and has outlasted as well, the doomsayers of so many eras who post marriage's obituary notice every time society talks about changing its marriage rules.

E.J. Graff,
What is Marriage For? (Boston: Beacon Press, 1999) at xi.