Category Archives: cultural values

Free Scandinavian Marriages and Free Families

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Marriages and families in Scandinavian countries are the free unions of independent individuals. “Open unions” are widely accepted in those societies. Men and women in both certified and uncertified marriages have equal rights and responsibilities.

Do Marriages still Exist in Scandinavian Countries?

The frequently asked question among Scandinavians is whether the institution of marriage is disappearing. Social scientists and journalists began to express such concerns in the early 2000s. For instance, Stanley Kurz, an American conservative commentator, wrote in 2004 in the magazine Weekly Standard that “Marriage is slowly dying in Scandinavia.” He believed that “same-sex marriage has undermined the institution of marriage.” How realistic and adequate are such concerns?

The data, on the other hand, indicates that this is not the case at all. According to the Nordic Statistical Yearbook, the number of marriages in the Nordic countries has increased since 1990, albeit with varying trends and shifts in different societies of that region. This trend can be seen throughout all of the Nordic nations (Love and Relationships in Scandinavia, 2015).

In reality, Scandinavian marriages have just become more diverse than before. People take their right to freedom and interdependence for granted, while still respecting their responsibilities.

We should keep in mind that people in the Scandinavian nations can be in either certified or uncertified marriages. The accepted practices of so-called “open unions” have existed in Scandinavia for a very long time. These kinds of de facto unions of partners are widespread and even prevalent. Both partners have rights and responsibilities concerning their property and inheritance. In a case of separation, both men and women have obligations regarding maintenance payments.

As one Finnish woman noted,

“I have been there, done that. To me, getting married just means finding someone to be with and to be loved, and of course, that is something that everyone wants.”

Scandinavians Highly Value Love, Good Relationships, and Parenthood more than Marriages

In Scandinavia, having a delightful, long-term relationship or becoming a parent is very important to many Scandinavians. Many Scandinavian couples choose to live together without getting married, a practice known as “sambo.” Some of these couples eventually decide to get married, largely to celebrate their union with a wedding ceremony and have a big party.

It is true that modern Scandinavians appear to be waiting longer to marry. It is quite normal for a couple to wait until they are in their 30s after finishing their studies before getting married. However, they also wait longer when they decide to divorce.

Longer education, career, or the cost of purchasing the apartment are some of the reasons for a late marriage. In addition to that, weddings in Scandinavia have become increasingly elaborate and costly. Church weddings are expensive. Therefore, many Danish couples now prefer a civil ceremony. Legal marriage is regarded as an important step in life among people living in Scandinavian countries. These steps, however, are secondary in importance after having a loving, long-term relationship or parenthood. As one Swedish woman of 27 years old commented,

“Marriage is a contract and a symbolic commitment to remain together forever. At the same time, it is an expression of love. These ideals of stability, love, and commitment haven’t gone out of style, even in progressive and liberal Scandinavia.”

Maria said this when she was in her late 20s, unmarried, and six-months pregnant.

The Free Scandinavian Families

For many Scandinavians, marriage is no longer a precondition for starting a family. It is not necessary, neither normatively nor legally. A nuclear family is changing its form. About 60% of the parents of first-born children are not married. And a marriage certificate is no longer required in order to obtain housing.

It may appear strange to men and women in other cultures that many Scandinavians wait so long before getting married. They may even already have one or two children before marriage, but in Scandinavian countries, it is a cultural reality. In other words, as Danish social scientist Mogens Nygaard Christoffersen of the National Social Research Institute commented,

“What defines and makes the foundation of the Danish family can be said to have moved from marriage to parenthood.”

The “Hygge” Style of Love and Life

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The Danes, according to a new global narrative, are happy people. Why Danes? Why are they frequently ranked among the happiest people in the world? The cultural idea of “hygge” could be the answer. “Hygge” is a popular Danish word that describes the Danes’ emotional culture and national character.

This Danish concept, pronounced “hyoo-guh” or “hoo-ga,” approximately translates to the word “coziness,” yet it is built around much more than that. This Danish word cannot be translated into a single English word but encompasses a set of feelings including coziness, comfort, and well-being through enjoying the simple things in life. “Hygge” is a Danish mental attitude, a style of life, and a set of Danish cultural values focused on keeping a person grounded, balanced, relaxed, calm, and happy.

According to Meik Wiking at the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, “hygge” is such an important part of being Danish that it is considered “a defining feature of their cultural identity and an integral part of the national DNA.” (Wiking, 2017). As he puts it, in other words, “what freedom is to Americans, … hygge is to Danes.”

Life in the “Hygge” Style

People in Denmark traditionally tend to look for places and situations that set up contexts conducive to the feelings of coziness, warmth, and emotional well-being. The Danes have a national obsession with all things that make life cozy. Even the smallest and most simple things can bring us happiness, and when we take care of the little things, it often makes a difference in the bigger things as well.

The Danish culture of happiness is different from other cultures. These supposedly happiest people on earth (typically) do not talk or think about life in terms of “happy.” They look at and feel life through a different set of cultural notions and scripts. Their cultural keyword “lykke,” pronounced like “lu-Kah,” is the Danish word for joy and happiness. This Danish happiness word, however, may have different cultural connotations (Levisen, 2014). Danish people have a propensity to cultivate feelings of peace in their minds. They strive to live their lives by nurturing the sentiments of tranquility and calm delight in their thoughts, emotions, and environments. They tend to enjoy the simple pleasures of being together and living in the moment (e.g., Johansen, 2017; Søderberg, 2016).

What Is Hygge Love?

The “hygge” cultural lifestyle predisposes Danish people to love in the same style. As Meik Wiking describes, “Hygge is about an atmosphere and an experience. It is about being with the people we love. A feeling of home. A feeling that we are safe.” “Hygge” is the feeling which Danish men and women get when they are cuddled up on a sofa, in cozy socks under a soft throw in the company of good friends. It is that mood when they are sharing food, comfort, and easy conversation with loved ones. It is the warm sensations they feel in the morning when the light is just right on a clear blue-sky day.

What Can We Get from Hygge‘s Cultural Know-How? Meik Wiking’s “The Little Book of Hygge” is a worthwhile text for people in other cultures of the world to learn about this cultural cornerstone of Danish life and love. This valuable experience can enrich our lives in our homelands. It is knowledge worth sharing and exporting to other societies. Their cultural secrets to happy love and a happy life are simple but beneficial:

“Get comfy. Take a break.

Be here now. Turn off the phones.

Turn down the lights. Bring out the candles.

Build relationships. Spend time with your tribe.

Give yourself a break from the demands of healthy living. Cake is most definitely Hygge.

Live life today, like there is no coffee tomorrow.”

Happy love is everywhere where you set it up. Pick the right lighting. Organize a Hygge get-together. Dress hygge. These are the simple suggestions Meik Wiking gives on how to experience more joy, love, and contentment the Danish way (Wiking, 2017).

What Are the Main World Cultures?

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What are the main cultures of the world? How global are they? And how diverse are they? These are among the key questions that cross-cultural researchers may ask.

The West-East dichotomy has been a classification of the world cultures well-known by scholars during recent centuries. Western and Eastern cultures should be construed as global cultures, presumably. However, Western culture has been exemplified by the United States, Canada, and a few western European nations, such as England, the Netherlands, Germany, and France. In contrast, Eastern cultures have been typified by China and Japan. These two global cultural regions differed in a number of general cultural dimensions.

Probably the most well-known cultural distinction between the West and the East is the contrast between individualistic Western societies and collectivistic Eastern ones. At the very least, this is the framework that researchers most often use to study different cultures.

How Do Global World Cultures Form?

Regional and global cultures like Western and Eastern ones are usually formed by historical cultural influences of neighboring societies, cultural regional domination of some societies or by expansive migration. The countries of China and Japan, for example, are culturally similar in some respects. In the same way, the cultures of the Netherlands and Germany are more culturally similar to each other than to France, while France is more similar to Spain.

Thus, due to geographical and historical traditions and religious and political influences, national cultures share similarities with those of other adjacent countries. Certain geographical locations may differ greatly in a variety of cultural elements. One source of these cultural distinctions is the transmission of ancient philosophical concepts to new generations. In recent years, many researchers have studied and thought about the differences between Western and Eastern cultures, whose mental and cultural perspectives are very different in many ways.

West-East Scholarly Comparison

Cultural and cross-cultural studies have actively investigated these worldwide distinctions empirically. By comparing the United States, the Netherlands, and occasionally other European nations as representatives of Western culture to Japan and China as representatives of Eastern culture, researchers have discovered a number of fascinating cultural differences between these two global cultures.

As a cultural framework for explanation, they typically referred to individuality and collectivism, or related social concepts.

The questions in this regard, however, have remained unresolved. Is the USA or England sufficiently exemplary of all so-called Western countries? Is Japan or China sufficiently prototypical of other so-called Eastern countries?

What does the West mean? What does the East mean? There are many differences between the cultures of East Asia and South Asia, as well as between the cultures of the United States and Western Europe. For example, many West European countries have very different ways of life in many ways.

A Cultural Variety of the World Regions

In the last few decades, scholars have started to look into the different cultures of the world in more depth. For example, Shalom Schwartz (2014) found eight transnational cultural regions based on the values the countries share. They are English-speaking, West European, East Central and Baltic European, Orthodox East European, Latin American, South Asian, Confucian-influenced, and African and Middle Eastern.

Each of these transnational zones is distinguished by a distinct cultural value pattern. However, eight cultural regions do not fit within the expected locations.

Is Western Culture Really Individualistic?

Studies of the last decades have revealed that the West-East division of culture is not quite accurate in several regards (Karandashev, 2021a). There is a great cultural difference between different “Western cultures” and between different “Eastern cultures.”

As Schwartz (2014) noted, it is not entirely valid to describe Western civilization as individualistic. The complex analysis of cultural orientations has shown that people in the West have a lot of differences.

For example, the cultural samples from the USA and Western Europe showed significant variations in six of the cultural value orientations. Mastery, embeddedness, and hierarchy are more prevalent in the US. Intellectual autonomy, equality, and harmony, on the other hand, are more prevalent in Western European countries (Schwartz & Ros, 1995).

The Transnational Cultural Regions Based on their Geographical Proximity

According to the recent comprehensive analysis of cultural orientations, the transnational cultural regions are based on geographical proximity (Schwartz, 2014). Their cultural similarities can be explained by the transmission of values, norms, and practices across international borders. Additionally, language, history, religion, and other cultural variables also had an impact.

How Does Cultural Power Distance Affect Societies?

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People’s social relationships are hierarchically structured in many regards. Individuals’ power and status, for example, are distributed unequally in many societies. And the degree of this social inequality varies in different cultures. Power distance is a measure of how important a society considers social ranks and the hierarchies of power in relationships and interactions between people (Karandashev, 2021a).

A Dutch social psychologist, Geert Hofstede, proposed the cultural parameter of “power distance” to explain how societal cultural norms expect and accept that social status, power, and “vertical” interactions are dispensed unequally (Hofstede, 2001; 2011).

As a cultural variable, power distance assesses how much people recognize and accept that social distance and power are distributed unequally between people of low and high status. In other words, it is the rate of inequality versus equality that people of status and power have in a society.

What Are the Cultures with High Power Distances?

High power distance cultures are present in societies in which the differences in power of “superiors” and “subordinates” seem to be natural and reflect an “existential inequality” (Hofstede, 1980/1984).

In societies with high power-distance cultures, less powerful people accept inequality and expect that power within a society is dispersed between individuals disproportionately. The people of authority, such as rulers, elders, parents, and heads of families, are higher in a relational hierarchy. Subordinate people, such as commoners, youngsters, and children, are lower in a relational hierarchy. These authorities and subordinates are relationally and emotionally distant from each other.

Submissive attitudes and respect of lower-status people towards higher-status people are expected and suggested.

The instances of such high power-distance societies are the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, India, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil (Hofstede, 1980/1984).

What Are the Cultures with Low Power Distances?

Low power distance cultures are present in societies in which people are considered equal in their social status and power in social relations. Cultural norms in societies with a low power distance culture expect equality in relationships and power, and an egalitarian style of communication.

The instances of low power-distance countries are Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Austria, Switzerland, Israel, Ireland, and New Zealand (Hofstede, 2001; 2011; Würtz, 2005).

The culture of the United States of America is evaluated as lower than the median in power distance. Despite the official declarations of and inspirations for democracy and equality in the US, the social reality of relationships in American society is still far from these egalitarian ideals. Social inequality is widespread. The racial and cultural diversities of American society make it dependent on social context (Andersen, Hecht, Hoobler, & Smallwood, 2003).

The 7 Major Cultural Values That People Across Societies Live By

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Cultural values are the general and overarching aspirations and ideals that societies promote for their people. These are broad ideas of what is suitable and desirable. These are the abstract ideas of what is good and bad, what is right and wrong.

Cultural values are the cultural parameters of a society. They characterize a society, not individuals. The majority of people from a certain culture presumably share the same cultural values in social life.

Researchers have studied cultural values over many years in a variety of social sciences, including cultural anthropology and social psychology. The Schwartz theory of cultural values is among the outstanding conceptions in this field (see for review, e.g., Karandashev, 2021a).

Schwartz’s Theory of Cultural Values

The Schwartz theory of cultural values includes seven cultural values: (1) Embeddedness, (2) Intellectual autonomy, (3) Affective autonomy, (4) Hierarchy, (5) Egalitarianism, (6) Mastery, and (7) Harmony.

Shalom Schwartz, a cross-cultural researcher in social psychology, conducted extensive studies of the value orientations of thousands of respondents across many different countries in the world. The results allowed him to establish seven country-level value orientations (Schwartz, 1992, 1994, 1999).

  1. Embeddedness emphasizes the need to maintain the status quo, propriety, and restraint of actions or inclinations that might disrupt the solidary group or the traditional order in which people are embedded.
  2. Intellectual autonomy emphasizes the desirability of individuals to pursuing their own ideas and intellectual directions independently.
  3. Affective autonomy emphasizes the desirability of individuals’ pursuing affectively positive experiences.
  4. Hierarchy emphasizes the legitimacy of an unequal distribution of power, roles, and resources.
  5. Egalitarianism emphasizes the transcendence of selfish interests in favor of a voluntary commitment to promote the welfare of others.
  6. Mastery emphasizes getting ahead through active self-assertion.
  7. Harmony emphasizes fitting harmoniously into the environment (quoted in Smith, Peterson, & Schwartz, 2002, p.193).

The detailed analysis of the results showed that these seven country-level types of values are organized into a quasi-circumplex structure consisting of three dimensions (Schwartz, 1999, 2003, 2006, 2016):

  1. embeddedness versus autonomy,
  2. hierarchy versus egalitarianism,
  3. mastery versus harmony.

The Values of Embeddedness and Autonomy

The dimension of embeddedness versus autonomy explains how societies maintain the boundaries between an individual person and a larger group of people.

In cultures high in autonomy, a society considers people as individuals autonomous from their group. Autonomous individuals are expected to appreciate their own uniqueness, follow their own ideas, preferences, and abilities, and express their own internal preferences, motives, and feelings. There are two realms of autonomy: intellectual and affective. People are encouraged to pursue their personal interests and ideas in a society that places a high cultural value on intellectual autonomy. This value encourages people to follow their independent intellectual aspirations and growth. Affective autonomy implies the high value of pleasure and excitement in life and inspires people to appreciate their own positive affective experiences.

In cultures high in embeddedness, individuals are strongly embedded in their in-group.

The major value and meaning of individual life for them are linked to identification of a person with a group, social relationships, a shared way of life, and pursuing shared goals of the group. This collective orientation of embeddedness in society entails respect for social order and tradition, the maintenance of proper relationships with people in the immediate social environment surrounding a person. This value advises individuals to restrain their dispositions and actions that may disrupt the solidary of a group.

The Values of Hierarchy and Egalitarianism

The cultural dimension of hierarchy versus egalitarianism explains how societies regulate social order and how people coordinate with others, consider their welfare, and manage their interdependencies.

In cultures high in hierarchy, society is considered as a hierarchical system of social relationships with ascribed roles. The system of social power works to ensure the responsible behavior of people. This cultural value expects that people understand this hierarchical distribution of roles and conform to the obligations linked to their roles. Individuals should accept that status differentials in power and unequal resource distribution are socially legitimate. The values of authority, social power, wealth, and humility are very important in hierarchical societies.

In cultures high in egalitarianism, society suggests that people recognize each other as equal individuals and take responsibility for each other. They should respect equality in interpersonal relationships. The value of egalitarianism entails a voluntary commitment to cooperate with others. This value also means a desire to promote the wellbeing of other members of society. The virtues of social justice, honesty, and responsibility are given high priority.

The values of harmony and mastery

The dimension of harmony versus mastery explains the societal values of how individuals consider relations with other people and the environment.

Cultures high in harmony expect that people should fit into the environment around them and into social relationships. In ecological meaning, the value of harmony underscores the importance of unity with the physical environment, adjustment to nature, and self-transcendence. In social and interpersonal relationships, this value highlights the need for social and interpersonal adjustment. People in a society with such cultural values tend to understand and appreciate things as they are, rather than to direct and change them.

In cultures high in mastery, society accentuates the need to control situations and contexts rather than adjust to the social environment. It encourages individuals to master and change the environment. The value of mastery emphasizes the importance of getting ahead. Society encourages individuals to actively pursue their personal goals, despite the expense of others. In such a society, self-assertion, along with ambition, daring, competence, and success, are the personal characteristics of high priority.

What Makes the Nordic Cultures so Unique?

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The Nordic countries represent a cultural region in Northern Europe, which includes the countries of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, and some other territories. The terms “Nordic” and “Scandinavian” have been used interchangeably. Technically, these two notions overlap. Scandinavian cultures, considered in a narrower sense, are formed by people living in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. These are linguistically and culturally similar groups. “Scandinavian” also refers to the Scandinavian Peninsula, which is made up of mainland Norway, mainland Sweden, and the northwesternmost part of Finland.

Internationally, beyond the Nordic region, the term “Scandinavian” is more commonly used when people refer to the Nordic countries. However, the term “Nordic” is more authentic, and it is a more general term. More precisely, the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are parts of the Nordic region.

Nordic Countries’ Territories and Languages

These Nordic countries are the closest territorial neighbors and have a lot in common in their history, ethnicity, and cultures. There are three different language groups in this area. However, they are not related to each other. Still, the fact that these societies share a common history of language helped form the Nordic cultural identity.

Ethnicity and Religions of Nordic Cultures

The largest ethnic groups in this geographic region are North Germanic peoples. Other large cultural groups are ethnic Finns and the Sami people, who make up most of the population in Finland. The historically common religious beliefs of Norse paganism, then Christianity, Catholicism, and Lutheran Christianity have also shaped the cultures of many Nordic societies of the region. Recent immigrants and their descendants from other countries have contributed to the cultural diversity of Nordic countries (Munch Haagensen, 2013).

What Do Nordic Societies Have in Common in their Social Life?

The Nordic countries have a lot in common in the modern way of life, social organization, universalist welfare, and cultural relations. They share characteristics of the Nordic economic and social paradigms to varying degrees. They have many similarities in modern people’s lives, including quality of life, civil liberties, social equality, education, and human development. Their social culture stresses individual autonomy as well as trust in the state. Their moral logic is the basis for their welfare state (Berggren & Trägårdh, 2022; Munch Haagensen, 2013).

How Different Nordic Societies Are

The Nordic societies are still different in several regards. They are linguistically heterogeneous. The majority of the languages spoken in this region belong to the North Germanic, Finno-Ugric, or Eskimo-Aleut subgroups. The first two are the most spoken in the five Nordic countries. The people speaking Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, the North Germanic languages of three countries, can to some extent understand each other. The Nordic countries each have their own economic and social models for social and human development. In some ways, these models are very different from each other.

The Valuable Cultural Features of Nordic Societies

There are several important cultural characteristics of social life in Nordic countries which make them especially interesting to learn for people in other countries of the world.

Nordic societies are widely recognized as egalitarian cultures with strong values in human rights, social justice, cultural freedom, and gender equality. The Nordic cultures enhance the social values of relational independence, human equality, and social responsibility. These cultures respect individual autonomy, personal privacy, and emotional confidentiality in interpersonal relationships. Societies are characterized by high social and relational mobility.

For the cultures of Nordic societies, egalitarianism, tolerance, nonviolence, and moderation are essential values. They keep strict bounds between the private and the public. People in other cultures would label this trait as being shy. However, Nordic people consider it differently. They have a desire for personal autonomy and a penchant for solitude (Daun, 1995; Erickson, 2005).

Gender Roles in Families in Nicaragua

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Across cultural history, patriarchal systems have been common in many human societies. Gender inequality has been typical of such patriarchal cultures. It is still widely present in many traditional societies around the world. Gender inequality in patriarchal societies, however, has cultural variations across all cultures. Let us see how it looks in Nicaragua, the country situated in Central America.

Inequality in Gender Roles in Nicaragua

In Nicaragua, there is a patriarchal culture with a social hierarchy of gender roles. Men have a higher social status than women. They have more affordances in their behavior than women do. Their culturally normative rights in a relationship are unequal. Men are supposed to be dominant, while women are supposed to be submissive.

Such gender roles and inequalities are rooted in the Latin American cultural norms of “machismo” and “marianismo,” which reflect the masculinity of men and the femininity of women. In Nicaragua, however, machismo and patriarchy take an odd twist with peculiar characteristics (Karandashev, 2017).

Typical Nicaraguan machismo cultural practices include their independence from family obligations, plenty of leisure time, taking adventurous actions, gambling, drinking, and womanizing. According to these gender norms, it is acceptable for men to do whatever they want. They are proud to feel independent.

On the other hand, Nicaraguan women, like many other Latin American women, are supposed to follow the ideal of “marianismo.” The typical cultural roles of Nicaraguan marianismo are to be a “good woman,” submissive, and nurturing. Women are expected to serve men and accept any degree of freedom in their behavior (Hagene, 2010).

These unequal gender roles of Nicaraguan men and women also include their sexual inequality. Society accepts that men are free in their sexual behavior, while women are culturally restricted in their sexuality. Both men and women view these cultural practices as normal. It is assumed that men are sexual beings and women are emotional beings.

Family Roles of Nicaraguan Women and Men

A Nicaraguan man can engage in polygamous relationships after being married. Men frequently have multiple women at the same time. Their formal marriage does not preclude husbands from having more than one partner. They can have two wives and children with other women. They feel free from family obligations.

On the other hand, a Nicaraguan married woman is more likely to stay in monogamy. Sometimes, she may need to engage in a serial monogamous relationship. It happens when one husband abandons her for another woman while another man approaches her with romantic advances. Women in Nicaragua are usually householders. They have strong agency in the economic and religious areas of their family life. However, they are certainly dependent on men in emotional and, to some extent, social matters (Hagene, 2010).

These examples of marital relationships represent a widespread cultural practice in society rather than isolated incidents. Hagene (2010) called this type of patriarchy the “absentee patriarchy,” in which a man is largely physically absent from the family but still attempts to control much of the woman’s life. In family relations, the man forces the woman into dependency by threatening to leave her. In fact, they frequently do so. Such an ambiguous relationship can also be called love, yet it is quite specific. The man practices this kind of love, which the woman calls amor compartido. This means “shared love,” when the man has another lover and sometimes has a second family.

Dramatic Stories of Women’s Marriages in Southwest Nicaragua

Historically, women’s economic reliance on men contributed to gender role asymmetry in Nicaraguan patriarchal society. However, women now control and head a sizable portion (nearly half) of families and households.

These cases are especially common in rural residency areas in southwest Nicaragua, such as San Juan, a small coastal town situated 87 miles (140 kilometers) south of Managua, the country’s capital.

An anthropological study has revealed the dramatic stories of love and marriage of women in those cultural contexts (Hagene, 2010). The women revealed in their interviews how difficult it is to balance the needs for income earning, raising their children, serving, and providing sexual and emotional support for their husbands, who frequently have more than one wife and family.

Why do women continue to accept such inequality and presumably unjust relationships with men? Hagene’s anthropological research shows that the reasons women submit to men and stay in relationships that aren’t fair are more emotional than economic.

Stories of Women’s Marriages in the Nicaraguan City of Rivas

It is likely that cultural practices differ across the country. Here are different examples obtained from the city of Rivas, located on land between the Pacific Ocean and Lake Nicaragua in southwestern Nicaragua. The stories of other studies have shown different pictures of marriage. For instance, patriarchy in the vegetable-growing collective in Rivas shows a different form of family relations. The husbands apparently sustain their wives and families, as in the classic patterns of patriarchy (Montoya, 2003).

Even though gender inequality is still present, it is based on a relatively fair contribution from both a man and a woman. In such families, the man makes the rules, provides resources, and holds control of family issues while the woman stays home, does household work, and cares for the children.

The Pursuit of Fair Marriages and Families in Nicaragua

There can be hope for more gender equality, just gender roles, and fair marital and family relationships in Nicaragua. In the 1980s, the Sandinista revolutionary government declared new legislation. The new laws pursue less asymmetrical and more just gender relationships. These laws also advocate for more egalitarian family authority, child support, and divorce.

However, Sandinista gender ideologies were ambiguous, allowing men to interpret revolutionary masculinity on their own terms. This revolutionary legislature was not able to dismantle gender inequality but destabilized local patriarchies (Montoya, 2003).

Cultural practices are still diverse in different regions of the country and, likely, in different social classes. In some residential areas and communities, such as Rivas, patriarchal cultural norms tend to be relatively fair according to the classic patriarchy. However, in other regions, such as San Juan, these new laws did not inspire husbands to fairly contribute to their household and maintain responsible family relations.

The Strange Gender Inequality between Nicaraguan Men and Women

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Sex differences between men and women are commonly known for several biological characteristics. The long history of gender inequality has shaped social and psychological differences in many patriarchal societies. There is no doubt that these different sexual and gender roles are reflected in the cultural norms and practices of how men and women love and marry.

The gender inequality of patriarchal societies, however, has cultural specifics across all cultures of the world. Let us consider gender-specific love and relationships in Nicaragua, the Central American country located between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

The Notions of “Machismo” and “Marianismo” in Nicaraguan Culture

In Nicaraguan culture, there is a social hierarchy in which men have a higher rank and have more freedom than women. The rights in a relationship are unequal, with culturally normative men’s dominance and women’s submissiveness. These gender roles and relationship inequalities are coined in the culturally specific terms of “machismo” and “marianismo”, which are associated with Latin American notions of masculinity and femininity (Karandashev, 2017; Lancaster, 1992, p. 92).

The sociocultural conditions of colonial and Catholic traditions have had a significant impact on Nicaragua, like many other Latin American nations in that cultural region. These historical origins have had a significant impact on the formation of gender-specific concepts like “machismo” and “marianismo.” They still certainly affect relations between men and women.

Nicaraguan patriarchy and masculine “machismo,” however, have certain specific characteristics.

Typical masculine behaviors are characterized by independence, risky actions, drinking, gambling, and womanizing. These are the social norms and practices that men are commonly expected to follow in relationships. The fact that men don’t follow these rules is a threat to their manliness.

Cultural Norms of Gender Inequality in Nicaraguan relationships

Machismo norms presumptively assume that wives should serve their husbands in marital relationships. On the other hand, their gender norms allow men to do whatever they want. They can drink and womanize. Women tend to forgive their male spouse’s behavior. Following their gender roles, they frequently justify their husbands’ behavior and infidelity. They say that these manly traits, like strong sexual desires, are part of “male nature.”

According to “marianismo” roles, women demonstrate their submissive and nurturing qualities. They fulfill their gender roles as “good women,” upholding the chastity norm. Community control, ‘social censorship’, ‘rumors’, and ‘gossip’ strengthen their behaviors (Hagene, 2010).

Sexual Inequality in Nicaraguan Marriages

On the one hand, according to gender norms, women are expected to be chaste, submissive, and follow their sexual fidelity. On the other hand, according to gender norms, men can conquer, dominate, and womanize. Such practices are culturally normal. Both men and women believe that men are sexual beings and women are emotional beings.

Both men and women can have extramarital affairs. However, only men in Nicaragua can publicly display these relationships. Sometimes, they even use such relationships to implicitly threaten their women. This way, they enforce them to accept their behavior as it is. For women, having such complicated relationships with their partners is physically and emotionally painful, but they have to put up with it and accept it (Hagene, 2010).

It is common in Nicaraguan society for men to be romancing multiple women at the same time. But only one of these women succeeds in establishing herself as the ‘woman of his house.’ (Montoya, 2002).

Nicaraguan Men and Women Have Complicated Monogamous Relationships

In marriage, Nicaraguan women are more likely to practice monogamy than their husbands. Women often need to practice serial monogamy when they have one husband after another. They still maintain their family household. These instances present a widespread cultural practice rather than individual cases.

In contrast, men frequently practice “polymonogamy.” Formal marriage does not prevent husbands from having several partners. Men often have several women at the same time. Husbands may have two wives at the same time and have children with other women while still living with the first. This case also represents a widespread cultural practice (Hagene, 2008, p.32).

It appears that the practices of intergender relationships in Nicaragua are still following the cultural norms of gender inequality. The Nicaraguans continue to be resistant to modern cultural norms of gender equality, which are evident in many other societies.

What about Nicaraguan love? How does it look?

Collectivistic Values of Arranged Marriages

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The practices of arranged marriages have been common in many traditional collectivistic societies in the past. They are still performed in certain old-fashioned cultural communities in India, China, Muslin societies, and some other countries.

What Are Arranged Marriages?

Arranged marriage is an old, traditional way for men and women to meet for the purpose of marriage and marry each other in many collectivistic cultures. In this kind of matrimonial arrangement, the groom and bride have limited control over who and when they marry and how and when the ceremonies are organized. Instead, other family members, religious leaders, community elders, or professional matchmakers find a decent match for a man and a woman to become a good couple for life. These people, as well as the whole family, are responsible for the appropriate organization of the wedding in terms of the right time and proper rituals.

Practices of Arranged Marriages in Collectivistic Cultures

Collectivistic societies are characterized by the strong individual interdependence of members of families and other social groups. Such interdependence is highly valued and widely practiced in collectivistic cultures. Therefore, arranged marriages are very suitable for family formation in a cultural context where marriage is a matter that concerns the entire family. Being interdependent in a family, a man and a woman cannot afford to ignore its interests. Even though they may feel romantic attraction and experience love for someone, they recognize that an arranged marriage is a cultural norm that they need to abide by. Consequently, they agreed to such an arrangement.

It should be noted that cultural traditions of arranged marriages have substantially varied across collectivistic societies throughout history (Karandashev, 2017).

How People in Collectivistic Cultures Feel About Arranged Marriages

People who were raised in a collectivistic culture feel differently than those who were raised in an individualistic culture regarding an arranged marriage because they have different conceptions of individuality and models of self. Therefore, they understand freedom of choice differently.

People in individualistic societies are more likely to have culturally normatively independent models of themselves, while people in collectivistic cultures are more likely to have interdependent self-in-relationship-with-other models of themselves. These differences determine different attitudes towards arranged marriages.

It should be noted that in Western individualistic cultures and Eastern collectivistic cultures, people’s attitudes toward arranged marriages differ. The example of arranged marriages in India well illustrates these practices in collectivistic societies.

The individualistic point of view presumes that an independent and free choice of who, when, and how to marry is of primacy. This is why people in individualistic cultures strongly oppose the idea of arranged marriage as violating individual autonomy. They believe that they must “follow their hearts” and that romantic passion is the best guide to marriage as a long-term union.

The collectivistic view assumes that the choice of who, when, and how to marry is interdependent with others’ interests. This is why people in collectivistic cultures naturally accept the idea of arranged marriage and abide by it. They believe that they must “follow the wisdom” and that romantic passion, though a bitter-sweet enjoyable feeling, is not the best guide to marriage as a long-term union.

What Are the Values of Romantic Love in Collectivistic cultures?

Romantic love, passionate attraction, and erotic allure are highly praised and finely elaborated in the arts and poems of many Eastern cultures. These artistic depictions of intense emotional experiences serve as great ideals, inspiring people to dream about love, its joy, happiness, and bitter-sweet suffering (Karandashev, 2017, 2019).

However, people of collectivistic Eastern wisdom do not dare admit all these beautiful idealistic experiences as the guide for their long-term marital relationships. The ideas of love and marriage are separated in their minds. That is different from the individualistic viewpoint, in which men and women believe that love will win marriage.

We should acknowledge, however, that due to increased relationship mobility, education, urbanization, and social modernization, the tendency towards Westernization of many Eastern cultures is evident. These changes are shifting the cultural norms and values in those collectivistic societies toward more individualistic norms and values. Consequently, attitudes toward arranged marriages are also changing.

What Is Multiculturalism?

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Multiculturalism in a society is not simply the presence of various cultural groups living in a country but also the manifestation of positive attitudes by the society and its people towards individuals of other cultures. Such multicultural societies acknowledge and respect their diversity (Karandashev, 2021).

However, multiculturalism is not only about respecting the dominant majority culture toward minority cultural groups. In my opinion, true multiculturalism lies in the abandonment of such notions as “majority” and “minority”, in abandoning public discussion, and in the formal collection of diversity-specific personal information. Society and people should accept the people of other cultures as they are, without the reservations that cultural stereotypes can impose.

Examples of Multicultural Strategies

Some cultural policies in France present good examples of multiculturalism. In many cases, it is prohibited to ask about the ethnicity and sexual orientation of people. It is personal information that is often not pertinent to the reality of public life. Why, then, should they ask? For some reasons, some individuals may not want to identify themselves with their formal ethnicity. Children of multicultural couples simply cannot identify with any ethnicity. Should they do this?

Hawaii presents another good example of multiculturalism. They accept race and ethnicity as natural, not paying much attention to these individual characteristics. The more we see diversity and the less we talk about racial and ethnic differences, the more natural people look. Hawaiians just do not care about the ethnicities of people; they accept people as individuals, not as members of ethnic groups.

In the United States, however, many officials have another cultural policy regarding multiculturalism. In their fight for racial, ethnic, and sexual diversity and equality, they strive to highlight and accentuate these cultural attributes of individuals. Many American surveys obsessively ask about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, presumably with the good intention of reaching and extending the cultural diversity of cultural representation. Sometimes, this looks like an intrusion into a confidential personal life. Why does society strive to sneak into the private lives of couples? Why are surveys interested in who a person’s sexual partner is and what they do in bed when they are alone?

The more we highlight and talk about ethnic differences, the more likely we are to pay attention to them. Therefore, we are more likely to differentiate rather than appreciate people as individuals. They are people with personalities, rather than members of ethnic groups. Hawaiian culture can teach us a lot.

Multicultural Ways of Living

Fair multicultural attitudes in society imply that all races, ethnicities, and cultures deserve special acknowledgment of their cultural differences. These multicultural beliefs are based on the idea that people in the cultural majority don’t think they are the dominant culture and that they treat minorities’ cultures as equal to their own.

Multicultural societies are open to others and inclusive (Karandashev, 2021).

Socially fair attitudes and actions are those that:

(1) acknowledge the multiculturalism and diversity of cultures,

(2) tolerate others’ cultural differences,

(3) respect each other’s cultural differences,

(4) recognize that different cultural expressions are equally valid,

(5) appreciate different cultures as valuable parts of multicultural society,

(6) celebrate cultural differences,

(7) encourage cultural groups to contribute to the common good.

Equity and Equality in Multicultural Societies

Many countries in the world have multicultural diversity. They live in multicultural communities and often follow the policies of multiculturalism.

The ultimate ideal of multiculturalism is equality, which treats people of other cultures as equal. Cultural equality is a great idea and an ideal of multicultural society! Yet, in my opinion, the best form of equality is equity. Equity, as providing equal opportunities for people of different cultures, can help achieve the goal of polyculturalism better than the simple equality of equal distribution.

Equal rights must not entail equal needs and obligations. People have the freedom “to be or not to be”—to give and take certain roles. Individual freedom of rights is not the same as a personal commitment to give and take on roles.

Offering people from different cultures equal opportunities and possibilities could be more beneficial for polyculturalism than simply pushing cultural minorities into positions and giving them priority over the cultural majority. In social justice, we should distinguish between social equity and social equality.

In a truly multicultural society, individuals of other cultures should be appreciated not because of their culture, race, ethnicity, gender, or age, but regardless of their culture, race, ethnicity, gender, or age, because of who they are.

Unfortunately, cultural stereotypes still play a role in forming cultural stereotypes. Many individuals in modern societies, as well as in the past, are multicultural persons.