"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.

This comprehensive, twelve volume reference work reflects the interdisciplinary influences on evolutionary psychology and serves as a major resource for its history, scientific contributors and theories. It draws on biology, cognitive science, anthropology, psychology, economics, computer science and paleoarchaeology to provide a multifaceted picture of behavioral adaptation in humans and how it adds to our academic and clinical understanding. Edited by a noted figure in evolutionary psychology, with many seminal and renowned contributors, this encyclopedia offers the full breadth of an area that is the forefront of behavioral thinking and investigation.

Parents often disagree with their children over their choice of partner. Although the reasons may vary the outcome is very often one of conflict – a conflict peculiar to the human species. For the first time in one volume, Sexual Selection under Parental Choice employs an evolutionary perspective to understand this conflict and explore its implications. Covering recent developments in the field of evolutionary psychology, Menelaos Apostolou reveals the extent of parental attempts to control the mating decisions of their offspring and investigates the qualities parents seek in prospective in-laws. Children’s attempt to escape this control can lead to practices such as foot-binding and clitoridectomy or, in postindustrial societies, more subtle forms of coercion and manipulation. Apostolou demonstrates that much of human mating behavior has been shaped by parental choice and that parents have a significant influence in sexual selection: the traits they favour in their children’s mates are selected and increase in frequency in the population. Sexual Selection under Parental Choice will be ideal reading for researchers and advanced students of evolutionary, developmental and social psychology, as well as other related disciplines such as social anthropology, sociology and the biological sciences.

From the Publisher: 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.

A “drop-dead shocker” (Washington Post Book World) that uses evolutionary psychology to explain human mating and the mysteries of love If we all want love, why is there so much conflict in our most cherished relationships? To answer this question, we must look into our evolutionary past, argues prominent psychologist David M. Buss. Based one of the largest studies of human mating ever undertaken, encompassing more than 10,000 people of all ages from thirty-seven cultures worldwide, The Evolution of Desire is the first work to present a unified theory of human mating behavior. Drawing on a wide range of examples of mating behavior — from lovebugs to elephant seals, from the Yanomamö tribe of Venezuela to online dating apps — Buss reveals what women want, what men want, and why their desires radically differ. Love has a central place in human sexual psychology, but conflict, competition, and manipulation also pervade human mating — something we must confront in order to control our own mating destiny. Updated to reflect the very latest scientific research on human mating, this definitive edition of this classic work of evolutionary psychology explains the powerful forces that shape our most intimate desires.

The contributors to this volume share the assumption that popular narrative, when viewed with an evolutionary lens, offers an incisive index into human nature. In theory, narrative art could take a near infinity of possible forms. In actual practice, however, particular motifs, plot patterns, stereotypical figures, and artistic devices persistently resurface, indicating specific predilections frequently at odds with our actual living conditions. Our studies explore various media and genres to gauge the impact of our evolutionary inheritance, in interdependence with the respective cultural environments, on our aesthetic appreciation. As they suggest, research into mass culture is not only indispensable for evolutionary criticism but may also contribute to our understanding of prehistoric selection pressures that still influence modern preferences in popular narrative. Contributions by David Andrews, James Carney, Mathias Clasen, Brett Cooke, Tamás Dávid-Barrett, Tom Dolack, Kathryn Duncan, Isabel Behncke Izquierdo, Joe Keener, Alex C. Parrish, Todd K. Platts, Anna Rotkirch, Judith P. Saunders, Michelle Scalise Sugiyama, Dirk Vanderbeke, and Sophia Wege.

A ground breaking study of the ways that intimate relationships are similar around the world, and the ways they are different.