PDF Version. While Western cultures often view love as internal feelings, West African cultural traditions view love as an active practice of physical care. Drawing on cultural models of social interdependence, the “materiality of care,” and agape, this article explores … Continue reading
Category Archives: cultural values
Whose Love Stories Matter? Gender, Prestige, and the Diversity of Popular Romance
A Review of Francesca Pierini’s Romancing Literature Book Reviewed: Pierini, F. (2026). Romancing Literature: When Literary Fiction Meets Genre. Routledge. 124 pp. ISBN: 978-1041289821. PDF Version. If you study love, you have likely run into an invisible wall separating high … Continue reading
Attitudes toward Cleanliness and Wastefulness in Bicultural Marriages in Japan
PDF version. Couples in bicultural marriages face numerous challenges when trying to sustain love. Some practical issues, such as attitudes toward cleanliness and wastefulness, can play a very important role in bicultural marriages in Japan. In one of my previous … Continue reading
How Sensitivity and Humility Work in Bicultural Marriages in Japan
PDF version. Intercultural partners encounter numerous challenges when attempting to find and maintain love in a bicultural marriage. For example, culturally specific attitudes towards sensitivity and humility are crucial in bicultural marriages in Japan. In one of the previous articles, … Continue reading
Can Touch and Intimacy Sustain Love in Bicultural Marriages in Japan?
PDF version. In bicultural marriages, intercultural partners face numerous obstacles when trying to establish and maintain love. For example, culturally specific attitudes towards touch and intimacy are important to sustain love in bicultural marriages in Japan. I went over the … Continue reading
How Our Personal Values Affect Our Love and Romantic Relationships
Men and women tend to attribute the problems to their partner’s shortcomings when they encounter difficulties in their romantic relationships. Sometimes, we may acknowledge that our personal values, individual characteristics, and behaviors also affect the quality of our relationships. Is … Continue reading
How Gratitude Benefits Our Relationships
PDF Version. Gratitude benefits are culturally normative in all major cultures, which encourage people to be grateful and express their gratitude to others. The cultural norms of gratitude have been highly valued across civilizations and cultures. In the ritual of … Continue reading
The Religious Bias of Love and Prejudice
Many religious teachings emphasize love, kindness, and generosity as the primary cultural values. Whether or not you are religious, you have probably heard of the “Golden Rule.” It states that you should treat others as you would like to be … Continue reading
What Happened After the Golden Age of Marriage?
Social scientists coined the term “golden age of marriage,“ referring to the period in the middle of the 20th century. In the 1950s and 1960s, the cultural ideology of “love marriage” and a number of marriages became popular and prevalent … Continue reading
How People Experience and Express Emotions in Individualistic Cultures
Several cultural ideals, the norms of social life, personality traits, emotions, and behavior define the individualistic features of societies. The key attributes of an individualistic culture are personal autonomy and relational independence, the primacy of a person’s individuality and uniqueness, … Continue reading