Alternate forms of relationships, including committed lifelong relationships, have developed but they have, for the most part, developed in opposition to marriage as an attempt to create something unique that is not marriage; they have never attempted to transform marriage itself until the current era.
D'autres formes de relation, comme les relations d'engagement à vie, ont surgi depuis, mais en grande partie par opposition au mariage, afin de créer quelque chose d'unique et de distinct; ce n'est qu'à notre époque qu'on a commencé à vouloir assimiler ces relations au mariage.