Intercultural lovers experience many challenges in attempts to build bicultural marriages. In this article, we consider the key issues that arise in the dozens of bicultural marriages we have known through observation of interactions and interviews in Japan. We clarify … Continue reading
Category Archives: marriages in cultural contexts
Love and Loving in Middle-Class Pakistan
The article by Ammara Maqsood, Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at University College London, tells us the modern story of love in Pakistan and how modern urban women manage their desire for love in Pakistan. Traditional marriages in Pakistan are … Continue reading
“Friends with Benefits”: Single Men and Women in Relationships
Throughout the last couple of centuries, traditional ideals of romantic love have suggested people find their soul mate, marry the loved one, have children, and live happily ever after. The cultural beliefs in love marriages have long shaped people’s dreams … Continue reading
How Marriage Evolved Into Singlehood
In people’s minds, love and marriage relationships have been deeply associated with wellbeing and happiness. For a long time, many women and some men thought that marriage would bring them happiness in life. Yet, something unexpected occurred by the end … Continue reading
What Happened with Marriage in the Late 20th Century?
The middle of the 20th century, from the 1950s to the 1960s, was the “golden age of marriage” and the triumph of romantic love. Many modern societies have experienced the rise of the cultural ideologies of “love marriage” and “sexual … 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
The Golden Age of Love Marriage in Western Societies
Love marriage appears to be a valuable cultural value in many countries throughout Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as many other modernized societies around the world. However, it was not always true in history. In the … Continue reading
The Italian Value of Beauty and Love
Many cultural characteristics distinguish national beauty standards. In this and previous articles, I describe Italian beauty based on many sources from the last several centuries. Let us explore the archival legacy of love scholarship (Finck, 1887/2019). Here are some of … Continue reading
How Romantic Was the Ancient Aryan Love?
The term “Aryan culture” refers to the ancient cultural civilizations that existed many centuries ago. The word “Aryan” was often used interchangeably with “Indo-European” to mean Indo-Iranian languages. Here I will talk about Aryan love. Who Were the Aryans? In … Continue reading
Two African Societies with Matriarchal Cultures
Many of us are familiar with traditional patriarchal societies, which have been prevalent throughout the world for many centuries. In a patriarchal society, the father is the main owner of a property and the head of a household. Because of … Continue reading