Custer Laststand said:Pursuit of happiness...
Jeez, there are spelling experts everywhere....
If you think, Johndoe69, that when the U.S. Declaration of Independence was signed, adulteresses and their lovers were not "pursuing happiness" (and, not incidentally, relief from the trials of their lives which were *much* harder than ours) via extramarital sex , and if you think cuckold husbands did not exist then, your comprehension of history is sadly deficient.
Yes, cuckoldry predates various forms of religion or state defined or supported marriage.
I say religion, because there are or have been, to date, ~ 4,000 different types of 'faiths' around the world.
Some have been very austere, harsh and authoritative (as the 'priests' tried to control their followers), whilst others have relaxed and their interpretation numbered as many as their followers.
But cuckoldry would go even further back, perhaps millions of years back, as females struggled to wield to the more influential male of the time.
Amongst our nearer 'relatives' [apes] we see the stronger, bigger white back impregnating many of the females around him, and whilst those females enjoy the shelter of his assumed authority they don't mind too much occasionally fornicating (breeding) with a secretive younger male [or other male].
Of course, cuckolding is not just for the birds [ref: cuckoo]. I presume it is a form of 'pressure release' for us humans trying to put some 'artificial control and structure' over our very nature. That we're still animals.