The Institutions of Love: Seduction, Love, Marriage. Anthropological Studies

Do traditional societies know love? The debate is still open between certain currents in the social sciences (sociology, anthropology) which hold that only the West knows what love is, and the position defended by literature and psychology that takes an opposite viewpoint.
Between these two tendencies, this work presents the multiple compromises adopted by several Asian (China, Korea, Japan, Nepal and India) and Indian Ocean (Madagascar) societies to navigate through individual expressions of love inspired by occidental practice, and the social norms that exert such profound control over them. Ethnographic research into todays’ practices show how these compromises emerge through certain “institutions of Love”, that usually lead to marriage. These institutions manifest themselves in three areas: the choice of partner, expressions of amorous emotions, and marriage rituals. If members of these societies now make “romantic love” one of their values, they still have to adjust it to familial traditions. In this context, amorous feelings, far from being an expression of individual emotion, are socially constructed and contribute to social order.