The transformation of Lagos, Ibadan, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, and other southern Nigerian cities into first-class colonial urban centers, along with the concomitant rise in literacy among many people, was essential to the cultural evolution of love in West Africa. Growing … Continue reading
Category Archives: cultural evolution
The Challenges of Love Marriages for African Men and Women
In the second half of the 20th century, social and economic modernization transformed traditional African marriages. Urbanization and social mobility were key contributors. Many young men and women moved to the cities. The new labor market and many new urban … Continue reading
African Cultural Evolution of Marriage
The traditions and patterns of traditional African marriages and gender relationships varied substantially across the continent due to the cultural diversity of societies and tribes. Premarital love and sexual plays were allowed for youngsters in many indigenous cultures. However, when … Continue reading
How “Romantic Love” Conquered Literary Fiction
The article reviews the findings of recent studies on how the idea of romantic love appears in literary fiction in many cultures across the world. What the Early Scholars of Love Believed Researchers of literary history once believed romantic love … Continue reading
What Is “Romantic” in Romantic Love Across Cultures?
Once, Western historians and literary scholars believed that “romantic love” was invented by West-European civilizations during the Medieval and Early Modern periods. Beginning with the “courtly love” (amour courtois) of the 12th and 13th centuries in France, Spain, and Germany, … Continue reading
How Did “Romantic Love” Emerge in the Literary Evolution?
We evidently recognize that “romantic love” can exist on both the plane of cultural ideas and the plane of individual realities. Folklore, poems, novels, and other pieces of literature and art represent the “ideas of love” as made-up fiction with … Continue reading
Who Invented “Romantic Love”?
A great variety of feelings, emotions, motivations, dispositions, traits, and values represent people’s experiences of love. Romantic love includes certain cultural ideas, beliefs, storylines, narrative schemes, and emotions. There are two realms in which romantic love exists: the realm of … Continue reading
The Recent Evolution of Mexican Marriage
For years, Mexican society has been a collectivistic society, with strong family bonds and cultural values of “familism.” People’s selves were deeply imbedded in family relationships. And both men and women valued their strong connections with family. Traditional Mexican Marriage … Continue reading
Remarkable History of Mexican Love and Marriage
Traditional collectivistic societies of the past had greatly interdependent social structures of relationships between people, in which extended families and clans were the major units of society. The strong position of a group was beneficial both for the group and … Continue reading
When Romantic Love Was Real
Romantic love ideas and folk and literary stories filled with love, romance, drama, happiness, suffering, and tragedy have inspired educated people across centuries and cultures. They were fascinating, captivating, and often intriguing. The love stories were engaging and emotionally sweet, … Continue reading