The definition of marriage has been a hot topic this election year. Discussions about Amendment No. 3 have shown there are about as many definitions of marriage as there are voters.

What is marriage? How do you begin to define something that is a human construct, but is as old as humanity? Even if human beings are predisposed to it biologically, how does one define the institutionalization of the predisposition?

Marriage is as different between cultures as the cultures themselves. Yet nearly every culture has it and it means nearly the same thing in each. Marriage involves love, sex, family, religion, money, law, politics and has been studied from each of these angles and more.

This series does not hope to persuade anyone’s vote concerning Amendment No. 3, though the election is the motivation for beginning it now. This series hopes to initiate more discussion of marriage to prompt a deeper understanding of this human phenomenon.

What better time than now to explore the definition of marriage and where better than a university where students are embracing it and faculty are studying it?