The history of human marriage

"The history of human marriage" by Edward Westermarck is a work published in 1891. This monumental anthropological study attempts a grand synthesis of marriage as a social institution across world history. Westermarck argues that marriage rests on biological foundations, evolving through human needs for companionship, economic cooperation, and child-rearing. The work also introduces what became known as the Westermarck effect—a theory explaining sexual desensitization among those raised in close proximity and the origins of incest taboos. (This is an automatically generated summary.)