An overjoyed bride and groom at their wedding in Varese, Italy.

In India, marriages have traditionally been arranged, usually by the bride and grooms romance was a ,estern idea, developed in the parents, but today love marriages appear to be %iddle Ages.& -on.,estern societies, they on the rise, often in defiance of parents wishes. thought, were too occupied with social and ' family relationships for romance. Today, scientists &' The victory of romantic love is celebrated in Bollywood films. owever, most Indians still believe that romance has e/isted in human brains believe arranged marriages are more li!ely to in all societies since prehistoric( times. In one succeed than love marriages. In one survey study, for e/ample, men and women from of Indian college students, "# percent said 0urope, 1apan, and the 2hilippines were as!ed to *) fill out a survey to measure their e/periences of () they would marry someone with all the right $ualities even if they werent in love with the passionate love. All three groups said that they person. %arriage is considered too important felt passion with the same e/treme intensity. a step to leave to chance. But though romantic love may be universal, its cultural e/pression is not. To the 3ulbe people of northern 4ameroon, men who spend too much time with their wives are insulted5 and *' loo!ed down on. Those who fall deeply in love * Anthropology is the scientific study of people, society, and culture. & The %iddle Ages was the period in 0uropean history between 5"# A . 6. are thought to have fallen under a dangerous and about *')) A . 6. spell. 3or the 3ulbe, to be controlled by love is ( 2rehistoric people and things e/isted at a time before information was &) seen as shameful. written down.
+ome anthropologists* once thought that
5

If someone insults you, they say or do something that is rude or offensive.

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A young Indian couple embrace in their home.

3inding the 8ight 2erson

+ome psychiatrists,' (' such as Thomas 7ewis from the 9niversity of 4alifornia, hypothesi:e that romantic love is rooted in e/periences of physical closeness in childhood;for e/ample, how we felt in our mothers arms. These feelings of A young couple in matching shirts in +hanghai, 4hina. comfort and 5)affection are written on our brain, Their shirts read, <>ur love will . . . go on forever.= and as adults our constant inclination is to find them again. According to this theory, we love e found that women preferred the smell of whom we love not so much because of the a T.shirt worn by a man who was the most future we hope to build, but rather because of genetically different from her. This genetic the past we 5' hope to live again. The person who difference means that it is li!ely that the mans <feels right= has a certain loo!, smell, sound, ") immune system possesses something hers or touch that activates very deep memories. does not. By choosing him as the father of 0volutionary psychologists e/plain, however, her children, she increases the chance that her that survival s!ills are inherent in our choice children will be healthy. of a mate. According to this hypothesis, we are attracted ')to people who loo! healthy;for e/ample, a woman with a ") percent waist. "' Is It All 1ust 4hemicals@ to.hip ratio is attractive because she can li!ely bear children successfully. A man with rugged According to other researchers, love may be features probably has a strong immune system# caused by chemicals in the body. 6onatella %ara::iti, a professor at the 9niversity of and therefore '' is more li!ely to give his partner 2isa in Italy, has studied the biochemistryA of healthy children. lovesic!ness.? aving been in love twice herself >n the other hand, perhaps our choice of a A) and felt its overwhelming power, %ara::iti mate is a simple matter of following our noses. became interested in e/ploring the similarities 4laus ,ede!ind of the 9niversity of 7ausanne between love and obsessive.compulsive disorder B>46C.* ) in +wit:erland conducted an interesting e/periment with sweaty" T.shirts. e as!ed 5? women to #) smell T.shirts previously worn by a variety of unidentified men. e then as!ed the 2sychiatry is the branch of ' medicine concerned with the treatment women to rate which T.shirts smelled the best of mental illness. # bodys immune system protects it from diseases of all !inds. The and which the worst.
" +weat is the salty, colorless li$uid that comes through your s!in when

#'

you are hot, sic!, or afraid. A study of the chemical processes that occur Biochemistry is the
?A lovesic! person e/periences overwhelming feelings of love. *) If someone has obsessive.compulsive disorder, they cannot stop

in living things.

26 Unit 2 Love and Attraction

doing a particular thing, such as washing their hands.

A group photo of %arion and 0mily Drillots family. The couple, from >hio, 9.+.A., have been married for 'A years. They have &) children and "" grandchildren.

A' %ara::iti e/amined the blood of &5 people who had fallen deeply in love within the past si/ months, and measured their levels of serotonin. +erotonin is a powerful chemical in the brain and body that is connected with our ?) moods, emotions, and desires. +he found that their levels of serotonin were 5) percent lower than normal people;the same results she found from people with >46. er conclusion was that love and mental illness may be ?' difficult to tell apart. Another scientist, anthropologist elen 3isher, from 8utgers 9niversity, 9.+.A., has been loo!ing at love with the aid of an %8I machine.** +he recruited subjects who were

**' brea! up after about four years because thats

3isher has suggested that relationships fre$uently

about how long it ta!es to raise a child through infancy.*& 2assion, that wild feeling, turns out to be practical after all. A couple not only needs to bring a child into this worldE they also need a bond that continues long enough to raise a helpless human infant. *&)

%aintaining 7ove
0ventually, all couples find that their passion declines over time. 3or relationships that *&'get beyond the initial stage of passion to have a real chance of lasting, a chemical called o/ytocin may be the !ey. >/ytocin is a hormone our body produces that promotes mutual feelings of connection and bonding. It is produced when we hug our long.term *()husbands and wives or our children. In long. term relationships that wor!, o/ytocin is believed to be abundant in both partners. According to elen 3isher, couples who want their relationships to last should ma!e an effort *(' to !eep a close physical relationship. Through fre$uent physical contact, they can trigger the production of more o/ytocin;and in this way feel closer to each other.

*))<madly in love,= and once they were inside

*)'

**)

the %8I machine, she showed them two photographs, one neutral, the other of their loved one. ,hat 3isher saw fascinated her. ,hen each subject loo!ed at his or her loved one, the parts of the brain lin!ed to reward and pleasure <lit up.= 7ove <lights up= these areas using a chemical called dopamine. 6opamine creates intense energy, e/hilaration, focused attention, and motivation to win rewards. 6opamine levels do eventually drop, though, and studies around the world confirm that a decrease in passion is the norm.

** An

%8I machine allows medical staff to get a picture of the soft parts

inside a patients body using a powerful magnetic field. * &Infancy is the period of your life when you are a baby or very young child.

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