Stability.

Can be.

That's a "women are property passing from father to husband" ritual. Oughta go.

If marriage is binding into servitude, you're definitely doing it wrong.

Like always, context is everything. Marriage can be a bonding ritual to form a child-raising and adult companionship environment. Marriage has an advantage, in that being bound preserves the pair through small and medium sized tensions that might split an unmarried couple. Then there's divorce for when things get too bad.

Or, it can be ownership, servitude, etc. Could go either way.