Mate Selection Across Cultures

A book like this is needed because we teach about couple formation as in some ways ‘universal’ and in other ways culturally bound. We have few resources for showing how various countries and cultures are the same and yet different….I am interested in giving students a broad view of relationships and families and this text would help me. --Susan Hendrick Texas Tech UniversityI believe that this is a much needed book in the fields of personal relationships family studies psychology and sociology…creasingly faculty in family studies personal relationships and other fields are working to globalize and diversify their courses and this book has the potential to be a true asset in such endeavors.-- Sally A. Lloyd Miami UniversityMate Selection Across Cultures explores one of the most basic human endeavors—couple formation—with particular attention to those relationships that lead to marriage. Which characteristics are most prized in a mate? How do variables like personal and cultural values religious beliefs and practices political and historical contexts socioeconomic standing and interpersonal attraction affect the pairing process? Editors Raeann R. Hamon and Bron B. Ingoldsby examine the fascinating enterprise of mate selection and look at the similarities and differences of human bonds around the globe and across many societies. Mate Selection Across Cultures provides a contemporary global perspective on the couple formation process in various regions of the world including countries such as Ecuador Kenya Israel and many more. This book is unique in that it explores the vast sub-cultural diversity and variation that exists within any one country and also reviews such concepts as modernization/traditionalism arranged marriage/free choice love/family practicality cohabitation/marriage and collectivism/individualism. In addition to exploring these dichotomies the editors delineate the partner selection process and investigate the practices customs traditions rituals and ceremonies associated with the formalization of these relationships.Features of this text:Expert contributors provide students with an insider view of the original research and of the existing literature on the individual countries and regions addressed Includes countries for which there is little or no published family scholarship Case studies vignettes and photos of courtship and wedding traditions across cultures enliven the text for readers Uniformity across chapters makes it easy for instructors and students to examine comparisons between and among different culturesMate Selection Across Cultures is an excellent text for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in marriage family and human relations in Family Studies Sociology Psychology Anthropology and related disciplines.