58. This sounds like a controversial statement, but it is not. As all social history books will tell you, marriage had its origins in “prehistory”—in other words, the human race cannot remember a time in which marriage did not exist. There have been some efforts to make the case that this or that remote culture or small ethnic group has existed without marriage, but none of these efforts are widely regarded as successful. One example is the argument some have made regarding the Mosuo (or the “Na people”), a small ethnic population in southern China. In this society, marriage partners do not live together in the same home. Brothers and sisters live together in households and raise the children of the sisters. Men are held most responsible to support and raise their sisters’ children—their nieces and nephews, not their biological children. This family arrangement is highly unusual, but that does not mean that marriage and family mores are not in existence and, indeed, they are strongly enforced. Fathers are definitely part of their children’s lives even though they do not live in the same household. Women form long-term relationships with their partners. Some married couples practice cohabitation as well. See Tami Blumenthal’s 2009 report, The Na of Southwest China: Debunking the Myths, at web.pdx.edu/~tblu2/Na/myths.pdf.