Chapter14LoveandRelationships.ppt

King, Human Sexuality Today, 5/e ? 2005 by Prentice Hall Chapter 14Love and Relationships For use with text, Human Sexuality Today, 5th edition. Bruce M. King Slides by Callista Lee History of romantic love “Love means: I want you to be.” St. Augustine Romantic love includes idealization of another. The loved one is imagined to be perfect, even in his or her faults. Even in cultures where marriages are arranged and romantic love is officially prohibited examples are found, although never with one’s spouse! It is secret and conducted at great risk. Love is a basic, primitive human emotion. Romantic marriages Western cultures (and only relatively recently) have been pretty much alone in supporting the concept of romantic love being a good reason to marry. Men returning from the Crusades engaged in a nonsexual “courtly love” of married ladies whom they worshipped from afar much as the Virgin Mary was worshipped for her purity. This emotionally intense love was not expressed within marriage. Romantic love was not linked with marriage until the 16th or 17th century. Love and marriage in the U.S. Romantic love was not considered a good reason to enter into a marriage until the 1800s. Mid 1960s, 1/3 men and ? women indicated that being “in love” was not necessary for marriage, but by 1976 85% said that being “in love” was a necessity for marriage. The big change, especially for women, was better economic status; financial independence allowed people to make choices based on love. Love and marriage cross-culturally Although romantic marriages are most often found in Western, industrialized (individualistic) cultures, romantic love and marriage has also been found in several hunting/gathering societies in Africa and America. Polygyny is more common in societies with strong fraternal interests (with dowries given at marriage) or where there is warfare for the capture of women and land for expansion is plentiful. Japanese arranged marriages begin with little love, but wi