Full Description
"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 University
"I believe that this is a much needed book. . . . Faculty in family studies, personal relationships and other fields are working to. . . diversify their courses, and this book has the potential to be a true asset in such endeavors."
-- Sally A. Lloyd, Miami University
Mate 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 enterprise of mate selection and look at the similarities and differences of human bonds around the globe.
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 cultures
Mate 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.
Contents
Introduction - Raeann R. Hamon (Messiah College) & Bron B. Ingoldsby (Brigham Young University)
Section 1: North America
1. The Mate Selection Process in the United States of America - Bron B. Ingoldsby (Brigham Young University)
Section 2: The Caribbean and South America
2. "It's Better in the Bahamas:" From Relationship Initiation to Marriage - Raeann R. Hamon (Messiah College)
3. Mate Selection Preferences and Practices in Ecuador and Latin America - Paul L. Schvaneveldt (Weber State University)
4. Mate Selection in Trinidad and Tobago: A Multireligious, Multicultural Perspective - Winston Seegobin (Messiah College) & Kristen M. Tarquin (University of Buffalo)
Section 3: Africa
5. Tradition and Change in Family and Marital Processes: Selecting a Marital Partner in Ghana - Baffour K. Takyi (University of Akron)
6. Connecting Generations: Paths to Maasai and Kamba Marriage in Kenya - Stephan M. Wilson (University of Nevada, Reno), Lucy W. Ngige (Kenyatta University, Nairobi), & Linda J. Trollinger (University of Kentucky)
Section 4: The Middle East
7. Love, Courtship, and Marriage from a Cross-Cultural Perspective: The Upper Middle Class Egyptian Example - Bahira Sherif-Trask (University of Delaware)
8. Couple Formation in Israeli Jewish Society - Shulamit N. Ritblatt (San Diego State University)
9. Marriage in Turkey - Nuran Hortacsu (Middle East Technical University)
Section 5: Europe
10. Couple Formation Practices in Spain - J. Roberto Reyes (Messiah College)
11. The Development of Intimate Relationships in the Netherlands - Manfred van Dulmen (University of Minnesota)
Section 6: Asia
12. Mate Selection in Contemporary India: Love Marriages vs. Arranged Marriages - Nilufer P. Medora (California State University, Long Beach)
13. The Transition of Courtship, Mate Selection, and Marriage in China - Yan R. Xia (University of Nebraska, Lincoln) & Zhi G. Zhou (Hebei University, China)
14. Japan and Multiplicity of Paths to Couple Formation - Colleen I. Murray(University of Nevada, Reno) & Naoko Kimura (University of Nevada, Reno)
