Romantic Love and Family Organization: A Case for Romantic Love as a Biosocial Universal

Evolutionary Psychology

Victor de Munck¹ 

关键词: romantic love;    family organization;    female status;    cultural universal;    social conditions;    reproduction;    postmarital residence;   

DOI  :  10.1177/1474704916674211

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Sage Journals

【 摘 要 】

We propose that romantic love is a biosocial phenomenon that may well be a universal and that its cultural aspects are a product of social conditions. This position is unique because romantic love is promoted as a cultural rather than social universal. We argue that culture, social, and psychological phenomena are too frequently conflated and their core definitional features underdefined by researchers. Culture refers to learned practices that have collectively shared meanings to the members of a society. Under social conditions in which romantic love does not confer reproductive and health advantages to a mother and child, it will often be suppressed, undeveloped, and rejected as a cultural component. Through a cross-cultural study, we show that female status and family organization are important features that help in regulating the sociocultural importance of romantic love as a basis for marriage.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC