Coontz and marriage

Michael linked, the other day, to Stephanie Coontz's post, at the Immanent Frame, on marriage.  Here, for what it's worth, is an earlier piece by Coontz, called "Taking Marriage Private."  Here are Fr. Araujo's thoughts in response, and here are some of mine.  It continues to be my view that Coontz's observations about changing practices and rules relating to dowry, inheritance, and the like do little to change the fact that the Church's understanding of marriage is, for us in the West, the "traditional" one.  After all, that an understanding is "traditional" does not mean that it has been, in every respect, static and unchanging.