Mate Selection Across Cultures

Raeann R. Hamon is Professor of Family Science and Gerontology in the Department of Human Development and Family Science at Messiah College, Pennsylvania. She holds one of two Scholar Chair Awards at Messiah College. Dr. Hamon received her Ph.D. in Family and Child Development and Graduate Certificate in Gerontology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She has numerous publications and presentations on topics such as filial responsibility, family relationships in later life, parents' experience of adult children's divorce, intergenerational service-learning, Bahamian folklore, and Bahamian family life. She recently co-edited Mate Selection Across Cultures (Sage, 2003) and served as an associate editor for the four-volume International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family (Macmillan Reference, 2003) and as a guest editor for a special double issue of the Journal of Teaching in Marriage and Family: Innovations in Family Science (Haworth, 2004), which was devoted to the topic of teaching about international families. A Certified Family Life Educator, she is an enthusiastic teacher of courses like Marital Relationships, Dynamics of Family Interaction, Sociology of Aging, and Foundations of Marriage and Family. She is President of the Association of Councils and a member of the Executive Board for the National Council on Family Relations, where she is also an active member of the International Section. Bron Ingoldsby is Associate Professor in the School of Family Life at Brigham Young University. He received his Ph.D. in Child and Family Development from the University of Georgia. A leader in the area of cross-cultural family research, he is the author of numerous professional publications, including (with Raeann Hamon) Mate Selection Across Cultures. His current work focuses on family change among the Hutterian Brethren, and marriage in Latin America. He is a popular instructor of Cross Cultural Family classes at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. He was honored as the 2002 recipient of the Jan Trost Award for Outstanding Contributions to Comparative Family Studies by the National Council on Family Relations. He has served twice on the NCFR board as the chair of the International and Religion & Family Life sections.

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)

"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 "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