Why do you think that economic organization and other cultural features such as marriage are closely intertwined in all cultures?

Answer 1

The following is only a brief explanation void of any cited peer reviewed sources short of my own knowledge gained through higher educational training in the area of interest, anthropology, as pertaining to the question at hand. In the following answer I will address only one area of economic organization in the form of the family unit and it's necessity for successful interdependent survival.

Institutions such as marriage in the past have provided functionality in the form interdependence to individuals that, although different today, provides an important service to the individual that could not obtain with sole dependence. Marriage in particular has provided the stability and or interdependence necessary for survival in any economic situation in any geographical or historical time related environments.

When looking at primitive (referring to lesser developed civilizations only not in terms of mental inferiority) times it was the family that served the role of production and sustainability, not the society alone. Because there are many sectors necessary for survival (i.e. food, water, shelter, and clothing if necessary) a family can potentially mean extra hands necessary in helping to accomplish the individual time consuming tasks necessary for each sector. I could go into further detail here but for the sake of informality, I will leave it to you to imagine the individual tasks necessary for food production, water accommodations, shelter, ect.

Examples of this form of survival can still be observed in many of the "primitive" societies that still exist today. Tasks such as food gathering, hunting, processing of certain materials for clothing or tools, could not be accomplished by one person alone. Many tasks require many coordinated cooperating hands. Centralized or even egalitarian forms of government only became necessary to accommodate the growing need for more and more food resource production necessary to sustain growing populations. If sustainability is centralized, meaning a central authority and interconnected economic unit much like we have here in the U.S. today, then a family system might not be as important, but even today with pressing economic stresses it is not uncommon for a household to require two incomes to ensure functionality. In addition in most households of today the children still provide important resources in the form of chores (i.e. taking out the trash, mowing the lawn, doing the dishes, cleaning the house, ect). Similarly, much like societies from today, early societies were made up of individual households composed of individual players that each provided individual services. So historically it has been economically reasonable for groups of people to maintain interdependent family relationships that would provide all the hands necessary for a successful survival regardless of time and geographical location.