"Marriage is an institution necessary to the maintenance of society but contrary to the laws of nature". Honore de Balzac
Only around 15% of human cultures have been monogamous and it seems to have existed in it's present form for a few thousand years at the most. This seems to have come about when humans moved away from their hunter gather lifestyles and started to settle.
It restricted the most feral aspects of human reproductive behaviour. Average women had to make do with average men while the top men were restricted to just 1 wife. The socially enforced distribution of one man to one woman had massive benefits to society. A man with a wife and child to support is the most productive person in it. I would go as far to say that marriage effectively built civilization by kerbing the violent tendencies shown by the majority of men who live in Polygamous cultures. Society's with enforced monogamy were more likely to survive than the ones without it.
Monogamy also shaped human mating choices on an individual level. The only socially acceptable way for a person to have sex was within marriage. Therefore men had to demonstrate long term provisioning potential (training to be a doctor for example) in order to get the best possible wife.
Women had to take the long term view of compatibility when choosing her husband. Due to her Obsolete biology she would have still found the unemployed local thug attractive but would have never been able to take him home to meet her family.
Marriage was essentially a contract where the woman gave a man exclusive sexual access and raised his children. A man would work and provide for his family for the rest of his natural life.
MONOGAMY HAS IT'S DOWNSIDES
By directly conflicting with human nature monogamy required society to police it. This is why organizations like the church had harsh rules against adultery and sex before marriage. It was never perfect of course and certain individuals had their lives destroyed as a result of this enforcement. Magdalene Laundries in Ireland - Wikipedia. People were stuck in marriage for life as it was traditionally very difficult to get out.
It was the classic dilemma of what's good for society isn't necessarily good for individuals.
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