If we're going to throw the Quran into the blend, then it's perhaps of interest to note that the practice of marrying and divorcing and marrying again is considered "serial polygamy" within Islam... although this is thoroughly normalized and regarded as unproblematic within other (especially Western) cultures. As always, it's a case of what one has been exposed to as 'the norm' that shapes much of one's judgment.Supposedly much of our "marriage" ideas come from the Bible. In my post I point out that many of them are not in the Bible but from English Common law. The Koran was mentioned first.
Actually the Bible says the King Soloman had 300 wives and a thousand concubines.
I will always question any claim of universality. Many historians have asserted that polygynous and polyandrous cultures appear to have been rather more commonplace in the past than the current historical record (constructed retrospectively from a western patriarchal perspective) leads one to conclude. Stronzo's point about same-sex parents is also of relevance here; as might be a discussion of "nannying" and "boarding school upbringings", which point to a very different familial model than you are suggesting is universal.I would have prefered a discussion of what seems a universal reason for marriage and that is to protect the children and provide them a father. That seens to be true in all cultures. If that be true, how does that relate to our world today?
EDIT: all underlined phrases link to sources, as usual.