Marriage is the socially sanctioned union that reproduces the family. It may do this biologically, through children, and/or socially, through forming a household. It is found in all societies, but in widely varying forms. Marriage sometimes: establishes the legal father of a woman's child; establishes the legal mother of a man's child; gives the husband or his family control over the wife's sexual services, labor, and/or property; gives the wife or her family control over the husband's sexual services, labor, and/or property; establishes a joint fund of property for the benefit of children; establishes a relationship between the families of the husband and wife. No society does all of these; no one of these is universal - see Edmund Leach's article in "Marriage, Family, and Residence," edited by Paul Bohannan and John Middleton). The most common type of marriage is the union of one or more men with one or more women. Marriage is usually heterosexual and entails exclusive rights and duties of sexual performance, but there are instructive exceptions.
In the United States, "marriage" typically refers to a formally declared, officially recognized, and ostensibly permanent relationship existing between a man and a woman. It also refers to the legal, social and religious recognition of such a relationship. The ceremony in which a marriage is contracted and announced to the community is called a wedding.
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