Why license marriage?

Just why do you need government permission to get "officially" married? And is there anything aberrant about couples who choose to intermingle their lives without the benefit of a piece of paper issued by a surly civil servant?

Stephanie Coontz, a professor of history at Evergreen State College, answers these questions and more in an interesting column for the New York Times on just how we got to the point where people have to ask for permission to formalize their most private relationships.

Not until the 16th century did European states begin to require that marriages be performed under legal auspices. In part, this was an attempt to prevent unions between young adults whose parents opposed their match.

The American colonies officially required marriages to be registered, but until the mid-19th century, state supreme courts routinely ruled that public cohabitation was sufficient evidence of a valid marriage. By the later part of that century, however, the United States began to nullify common-law marriages and exert more control over who was allowed to marry.

Basically, licensed marriages are a relatively newfangled innovation, while shacking up with the one you love is a time-honored practice that's been respected for millennia. The growing number of families spurning marriage licenses in favor of arrangements of their own making are the true traditionalists.

It's interesting reading.