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One common reason religious/cultural/governmental groups have done so is to build ubiquity, spread ideology and compete regionally or globally.

I'm not saying there's merit to it, but it has certainly bolstered the "importance" of marriage and children.

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It certainly makes sense that those societal structures would be oriented towards families -- throughout history (and in modernity), families have always been the atom of democracy. The sanctity of individuality is a relatively new phenomenon and it is weak when compared to the sanctity of families.

There's no evidence that pre-civilization humans had monogamous family units. In fact, in pre-contact Hawaii, it's well documented that they didn't practice monogamy at all, except among the royal families.

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