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Much of the evolutionary literature on mate choice presumes that individual mate preferences function to increase individual fitness, and this assumption has been confirmed in several experimental studies with animals. However, human mate choice, in many cultures, is heavily controlled by parents via arranged marriages, rather than the selection of the marrying individuals. Several studies have demonstrated that parents and offspring do not exhibit identical preferences for an in-law or spouse, respectively. If parental choice thwarts offspring's evolved mate preferences from being expressed, then arranged marriages should reduce fitness. Using data from the Chitwan Valley Family Study, I examined whether having an arranged marriage, as compared to a non-arranged marriage, is associated with differences in total births, offspring survival to age 15, or interbirth intervals in Nepal, a culture with a rich history of arranged marriage. I find that there are no differences in any reproductive outcomes between arranged, co-selected, and self-selected marriages. These results indicate that individuals in arranged and non-arranged marriages may achieve similar fitness outcomes via different pathways, which may be unique to human mating systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of eHumanista is the property of Professor Antonio Cortijo-Ocana and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In self-arranged marriages, individuals choose their partners themselves, whereas in arranged and jointly-arranged marriages the decision is taken by parents and kin or jointly with the couples. Although the majority of Indian marriages are arranged, among younger cohorts, self-arranged marriages are increasing. Using the IHDS 2011–2012 data, we adopt a multivariate multilevel approach to explore the association of self--arranged marriage with various socioeconomic, cultural, and regional factors. We find that the likelihood of self-arranged marriages increases with higher educated parents, especially parents-in-law; among higher and lower castes exhibiting a U-shaped association with caste hierarchy; and by living in less conservative regions. Findings imply that although marriage norms are transforming in India, it is not uniform, and sociocultural barriers are prevalent, thus, slowing down the pace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the themes of queer love, friendship, and Indo-Caribbean womanhood in Shani Mootoo's novels "Polar Vortex," "Valmiki's Daughter," and "Cereus Blooms at Night." It explores how Caribbean queer identities are influenced by historical contexts such as slavery, indenture, and postcolonial nation formation. The article also examines the portrayal of Indo-Caribbean, same-sex-loving women in Mootoo's works and how they challenge heteropatriarchal norms. It highlights the ways in which gender and sexuality in Caribbean contexts are shaped by histories of indenture, colonialism, race relations, and class aspirations. The novels depict the marginalization of Caribbean queer identities within supposedly progressive societies and explore the complexities of diasporic experiences. [Extracted from the article]

Bernadine Marie Hernández's book, "Border Bodies: Racialized Sexuality, Sexual Capital, and Violence in the Nineteenth-Century Borderlands," explores the concept of sexual capital and its role in the exploitation of poor Mexican women living in the southwestern borderlands during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Hernández argues that sexual capital, which refers to the accumulation of capital through sexual violence, worked alongside racialization to oppress these women. The book examines various forms of sexual capital, including prostitution, household labor, lynching, marriage arrangements, and debt bondage. Hernández's work sheds light on the intersection of race, gender, and power in the borderlands and raises important questions about women's sexual freedom and violence in the context of U.S. imperialism and border control. [Extracted from the article]

The Reproductive Compensation (RC) hypothesis and the Differential Allocation (DA) hypothesis predict that parents who mate under constraint will either increase or decrease, respectively, their reproductive effort and investment in offspring. One possible type of mate choice constraint in humans is arranged marriage in which parents or others choose mates. To test the RC and DA hypotheses in humans, we examine whether there are differences in parental investment between women in arranged marriages and those in self-choice marriages using data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey (n = 8393). Marriage type does not significantly correlate with parental investment except for fertility outcomes where women in self-choice marriages had more live births, living children, and greater marital fertility than woman in arranged marriages. Our findings better support the DA hypothesis than the RC hypothesis. We conclude that, like many other species, free mate choice is associated with increased reproductive success in this sample of humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines perception and implications of bride-wealth among the Sukuma of Tanzania. The data, which were basically the Sukuma views and the discourse of their songs were collected using interviews and observations. The analysis and interpretation of the study findings was informed by the social construction theory of reality. Two specific questions; guided the study: What knowledge do the Sukuma have about the role and practice of bride-wealth? How do the Sukuma oral arts communicate the social practices of bride-wealth in the community? The integration of songs with people's views facilitates understanding of the context in which bride-wealth is practiced and transmitted from one generation to another. It also highlights the efficacy of oral arts, specifically songs reflecting social reality. The study reveals that the cultural practice of paying the bride-wealth in the Sukuma, on the one hand, makes the married woman a man's product as it ties all the movement of her life; on the other hand, it threatens men's identity, especially those who cannot manage to pay it in full. Generally, the study demonstrates how oral arts provide knowledge on power relations resulting from the inherent social practices of marriage. This knowledge contributes to the understanding of gender status quo in African countries which is one the ongoing debates globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Polygamous marriages are common in many Africa countries. This study aimed to document psychosexual and psychosocial problems of Somali women engaged in monogamous or polygamous marriages. Methods: This cross-sectional study included 607 consecutive women who had presented between June 7 and October 1, 2022, to the Department of Gynaecology of Mogadishu Somali Turkey Training and Research Hospital in Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia. Data included maternal age, type of marriage (polygamy, monogamy, and arranged marriage), wives' education, husbands' education, husband income, residence area (rural or urban), number of marriages, living in houses (same or different), number of co-wives, and age of marriage. The participants were asked to complete three questionnaires: The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE), and the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18). Results: Of 607 women, 435 (71.7%) had monogamous marriages and 172 (28.3%) had polygamous marriages. The mean age was 29.0 ± 7.2 years (range 16–46). In polygamous marriages, the mean number of wives a husband had was 2.4 ± 0.7 women (range 2– 4). The overall incidences of sexual dysfunction, low self-esteem and arranged marriage were 59.8%, 79.4% and 64.4%, respectively. Wives in polygamous marriages differed from those in monogamous marriages with significantly higher rate of illiterateness (41.9% vs. 27.4%, p = 0.004). Increases in husband income corresponded to higher rates of polygamous marriage. Women in polygamous marriages had significantly lower scores in the desire, arousal, orgasm, and satisfaction sub-domains. Sexual dysfunction, with a significantly increased rate among women in polygamous marriages. Polygamous marriages were associated with significantly higher levels of anxiety, and depression, and a significantly higher total BSI score (p = 0.010, p = 0.004, and p = 0.020, respectively). Women in both groups had similar levels of low self-esteem (p > 0.05). In univariate analysis, polygamous marriage was in significant inverse associations with the total FSFI score and subdomain scores of desire, arousal, orgasm, satisfaction, and sexual dysfunction and in significant associations with the BSI total score and subdomain scores of anxiety and depression (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that women in polygamous marriages experience considerably higher psychosexual and psychosocial adverse effects as compared with their monogamous counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Netflix's 2020 release Indian Matchmaking drew a massive backlash particularly from South Asian and diasporic audiences who felt it normalized the experiences associated with arranged marriages. Audiences took to the internet to express how much they loved hating the show but at the same time also continued to obsessively watch despite their reservations. My paper takes up this paradox of simultaneously loving and hating a media product. By drawing from interviews with the showrunner, members of the production team and a close reading of the show's texts and paratexts, I argue that "hatewatching" or "cringe-binge" as a mode of spectatorship only seems an oppositional form of viewing or an act of resistance to the reification of dominant hegemonic values. Far from being a function of spectatorial agency, I demonstrate how the platforms utilize "hatewatching" as a lucrative form of viewership and consumer habit to cultivate stickiness for their content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polygamy is allowed in almost two third of all the human societies around the world under religious or cultural contexts where a man has more than one wife at the same time. The accurate data about the existence of polygamy is not available for any country in the world. Polygamy is legally practiced in Pakistan as well but not much appreciated culturally. As the previous studies have found polygamy causes various economic, physical and emotional problems for women and children living under, it becomes important to study the functioning of polygamous families. The present study is conducted with qualitative research methodology opting phenomenological research design by interviewing fifteen individuals, 5 husbands and 10 wives, currently living under polygamy in Kasur city of Pakistan. The study found first wife's infertility or inability to produce male child a leading cause of polygamy here in Pakistan and better functioning of polygamous families where second marriage was also arranged and both wives were living in the same house. In cases where second marriage is out of love through the court of law the first wife and other family members did not accept the second wife, not even allowed her to enter the home in most cases. In almost all cases the polygamous husbands give preferential treatment to second wife because of being younger than the first wife, being more beautiful and attractive or producing male child etc. First wife is neglected and developed a sense of deprivation in case of being infertile or unable to produce a male child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, forced marriage as a manifestation of violence against women has entered the public agenda in European Union countries. This is partly due to higher numbers of migrants from regions where it is a regular practice. This paper aims to show the different ways violence manifests itself in forced marriage, both symbolically and practically – in terms of experiences – based on a qualitative sample of women with a range of migration backgrounds residing in Catalonia. The intersectional gender approach of the analysis enables the interaction to be considered of various factors when it comes to understanding contexts of risk and violence, as well as exit strategies from forced marriage.

The marriage is one of the most significant transition periods in human life when the process of girls and boys joining in social life as a new family begins. The fact that the family forms the basis of the social structure has given a universal value to the marriage event that establishes this union. In every society, marriage occurs according to certain rules of the type of culture to which it belongs. For this reason, the customs, traditions, and customs applied during the marriage process constitute the marriage culture of that society. In this study, it has been examined on traditional marriage styles to be seen in Turkish culture geography. Common traditional marriage types which listed as arranged marriage, marriage by kidnapping, marriage through cradle marriage, berder marriage, taygeldi marriage, marriage with sister-in-law, polygamous marriage, otura kalma marriage, marriage with brother-in-law, marriage of siblings' children. Epics and folk tales are valuable resources in terms of providing information about the traditions, customs, family structure, lifestyles, world views and elements that make up the culture of societies. While examining marriage types; examples are given from the epics of the Turkish world, especially the Stories of Dede Korkut, the Epic of Manas, and the Epic of Köroğlu. The family, which forms the basis of the social structure and is born through marriage, bears a great responsibility in instilling and transmitting kinship, solidarity and cultural values to new generations. The integrity of Turkish culture also manifests itself in the institution of marriage. Despite the historical, geographical, social and cultural changes experienced by the Turkish world, the common cultural values that were formed centuries ago still continue today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We utilize a natural experiment, an education reform increasing compulsory schooling from 5 to 8 years in Turkey, to obtain endogeneity‐robust estimates of the effect of male education on the incidence of domestic violence against women. We find that husband's education lowers the probability of physical, emotional, and economic violence. Schooling lowers also the likelihood of having an arranged marriage and makes men less inclined to engage in various socially unacceptable behaviors. We show that these findings are very robust to alternative regression specifications and restricted sample estimation. Finally, we argue that assortative mating implies that the educational outcomes of the two spouses are correlated. Our findings are robust to accounting for the husbands' and wives' education jointly. Moreover, when we separate the two effects, we show that the favorable effect of education can be attributed causally to men's education rather than to the education of their wives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Using pooled data from the 2010, 2012, and 2014 China Family Panel Studies, this paper elucidates the internal heterogeneity among non‐arranged marriages by examining changing patterns and determinants of mate selection in China from 1950 to 2014. Background: Previous research has documented a decline in arranged marriages and a rise in self‐initiated marriages in the Asian context. Methods: This study uses two measures to capture the nuanced nature of mate selection, namely, arranged versus non‐arranged marriages among all couples, and introduced versus self‐initiated marriages among non‐arranged couples. Results: While arranged marriages declined rapidly and were replaced mostly by introduced marriages before 1980, after 1980, self‐initiated marriages began to increase. Urbanization and better education led to more non‐arranged marriages, particularly through self‐initiated means. The influence of county‐level per capita GDP on mate selection is quadratic. Conclusion: The two‐stage transitions in mate selection reflect the importance of accounting for both structural and ideational factors in explaining these changes. Implications: We challenge the assumed unilinear change from arranged marriages to self‐initiated marriages along the processes of economic development. The intensified economic pressures may have driven some young adults back to introduced, even arranged, marriages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first document is a book review of "Poetry in the Sagas of Icelanders." The reviewer praises the book for its comprehensive coverage of skaldic poetry in Old Norse-Icelandic literature, providing critical editions of around 700 stanzas. The book is described as a herculean feat of scholarship and is recommended for researchers working on the Íslendingasögur. The second document is a review of a collection of articles on hagiography in late antique and medieval times. The collection explores the narration of power and authority in hagiography across different cultures and languages. The articles discuss various aspects of the relationship between secular rulers and holy men, examining how authority is used to shape or resist power. [Extracted from the article]

Pride and Prejudice (1813) is transposed onto an Indian-origin Muslim community in modern-day Toronto in Uzma Jamaluddin's Ayesha at Last (2019), and the novel is as much about being Muslim in the West as it is about being an Austen adaptation. These creative departures from the Austen hypotext contribute to the novel's positive reception, which can be gauged from the 4.4 stars rating by 1184 users on Amazon. Ronald Robertson (1995) argues that "diversity sells," and this article examines Amazon user reviews to demonstrate how Jalaluddin's Muslim glocalization of Pride and Prejudice makes her novel a success and reveals the market for such diverse stories. She makes a commendable effort to make space for practicing Muslim protagonists in the Austen oeuvre and succeeds in providing realistic depictions of many aspects of the Muslim community. However, the novel's unfortunate surrender to Western stereotypes of the "terrorist" Muslim male to appeal to the implicit white reader ultimately undermines its authenticity and does not fully represent the breadth of Muslim experience, thereby demonstrating that continued effort is required to overhaul the publishing industry's employee and audience base to enable the inclusion of more equitably drawn minority characters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of social media use has been phenomenal, particularly during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, Facebook has also seen its share of users rise at a meteoric rate. At the same time, the academy is producing a growing body of literature concerning the use of online methods for primary data collection. Yet, despite the increase in the use of the internet as a research tool, very little still exists on the use of social media to recruit research participants, particularly those deemed "socially invisible". This paper addresses this gap. Another research project explored the experiences of South Asian women who had departed the social norms of arranged marriage to form an intimate relationship with a partner of choice and who then experienced forms of gender-related violence (GRV). The project encountered difficulties in recruiting participants from this marginalised and often invisible group in UK society, who are often too frightened or ashamed to come forward. This study demonstrates how to use Facebook ethically and methodologically, highlighting some of the methods used to overcome the challenges that were presented. The research was undertaken before the COVID-19 pandemic (which prompted a widespread use of social media in social science research). We argue that, despite the ethical challenges, the advantages of using social media to recruit participants when researching a highly sensitive topic such as GRV with 'invisible groups' was highly beneficial. We therefore suggest that social media should be an integral part of the research recruitment process, alongside non-digital methods, so that other 'invisible groups' are not created comprising those who cannot access technology. We share the lessons learned for the benefit of researchers using a similar approach today when recruiting research participants from invisible and marginalised groups. The authors caveat their recommendation of using social media with suggesting that those who do not have high levels of experience of data collection with such cohorts instead consider working with gatekeepers to facilitate the recruitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, forced marriage as a manifestation of violence against women has entered the public agenda in European Union countries. This is partly due to higher numbers of migrants from regions where it is a regular practice. This paper aims to show the different ways violence manifests itself in forced marriage, both symbolically and practically - in terms of experiences - based on a qualitative sample of women with a range of migration backgrounds residing in Catalonia. The intersectional gender approach of the analysis enables the interaction to be considered of various factors when it comes to understanding contexts of risk and violence, as well as exit strategies from forced marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how marriage animates the racial logic of the security state. While the pursuit of romantic love culminating in a wedding is considered to be a universal good, arranged marriages are viewed as a dangerous anachronism which threaten the state's authority. By revealing the animating force of arranged marriage in the UK immigration regime and the War on Terror, we can see the central role of love marriage within the principles of choice, autonomy and individuality around which the liberal subject organises their moral economy. The legalisation of gay marriage – constructed as a kind of love marriagepar excellence – becomes the means through which the nation state can uphold this moral economy and be renewed and reinvigorated in the process. By putting gay marriage in dialogue with arranged marriage, the gendered and racial configuration of the UK as a security state becomes visible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This autoethnography is about the author's arranged marriage to a Jewish, Soviet scientist, a transaction meant to release him and his family from their home country at a time when leaving for Jews was nearly impossible. Arranged marriages offered possibility but brought subjective complexities over the ethical and even safety concerns to those involved. Drawing from the author's journals, this story foregrounds subjective connection to these ethical concerns. While this story is the author's (and Misha's, a pseudonym), it captures the human story of finding humanity in those we disagree with, those we find difficult, those we want to reject, including maybe especially ourselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to elaborate triviality and seriousness portrayed in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1898). The play was considered Wilde’s masterpiece, and it highlights the life in the Victorian era. The play portrays the marriage life also the importance of wealth, land, and beauty. This paper employs textual and historical approaches. The findings revealed that the play exemplifies triviality by treating serious things like trivial objects and vice versa. Marriage was seen as insignificant by the male characters in the play. Lane saw it as the reason for the champagne downgrading and a bargaining part for Algernon and Jack to have their goals. Meanwhile, unimportant thing like the name was treated as if it was life matter. Cecily and Gwendolen saw a particular name as the main requirement for choosing a husband. This paper concludes that Oscar Wilde made use of such a technique on purpose to make fun of the Victorian way of life.

Abstract Based on 2010 China Family Panel Studies, we use Ordered Probit, Instrumental Variables, and Conditional Mixed Process to analyze the effect of different ways of love on after‐marriage well‐being. The findings are: (i) Compared with arranged marriage, free love can significantly increase the well‐being of married residents. (ii) In heterogeneity analysis, the promotion effect of free love on well‐being is more obvious among the couples 2 years after marriage, residents with positive personal values, the post‐80s, and rural areas. (iii) In mechanism analysis, married residents who met through free love will significantly enhance their ability to get along with others, increase their intimacy with their spouses, improve family harmony, and reduce their emphasis on family succession, thus further enhancing their well‐being.

The article considers Wilgefortis, a medieval saint who disrupts the sex/gender binary as an embodiment of gender fluidity, as one example of Transing in pre and post-Enligthenment thinking. Topics include ways in which the materiality of gender is destabilized in the premodern era, the growing of beard by Wilgefortis just to avoid an arranged marriage and the significance of Wilgefortis images to transsexuals of 21st century.

The article examines the twin themes of arranged marriage and the East-West cultural tension through Kavita Daswani's chick lit novel "The Village Bride of Beverly Hills" which is set within the Indian diaspora in California. Topics include the hybrid identity created by the protagonist in the novel, a neoliberal choice feminism demonstrated in the work, and a discussion of the binary distinction regarding Indian tradition and Western and American culture established in the novel.

The paper examines the limits of state interference in proscribing cultural norms by considering gender discrimination, right of people to leave their community free of penalties, denying women appropriate education, and forced or arranged marriages for girls and young women. The discussion opens by reflecting on the discriminatory practices of the Pueblo tribes against their women and analysing an American court case, Santa Clara v. Martinez. It is argued that the severity of rights violations within the minority group, the insufficient dispute-resolution-mechanisms, and the inability of individuals to leave the community if they so desire without penalty justify state intervention to uphold the dissenters' basic rights. Next, a Canadian case, Hofer v. Hofer, illustrates the problematics of denying reasonable exit right to members who may wish to leave their community. Subsequently, the discussion turns to the issue of arranged and forced marriages of girls and young women. While the latter is coercive the former is not. While forced marriages should be denounced as unjust, arranged marriages can be accepted. Finally, the paper considers denying education to women, arguing that such a denial is unjust and discriminatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Alternativas: Cuadernos de Trabajo Social is the property of Alternativas: Cuadernos de Trabajo Social and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The essentialized nature of the assumption that practitioners of arranged marriage have given up on choice and love as cornerstones of a modern and progressive way of living also generates a discourse where arranged marriages are routinely conflated with forced marriages (Anitha & Gill, [2]). Pande shows the collective and individual value of arranged marriage practices in the lives of first and second-generation British-Indians, and in doing so, produces a British-Indian discourse wherein arranged marriage practitioners articulately differentiate themselves from the so-called "backward other" in the diaspora who practice forced marriage (37). [Extracted from the article]

Mate preferences probably evolved to increase fitness; however, studies using arranged and non-arranged marriage as proxies for limited and free mate choice (respectively) do not find any reproductive differences. We explore why arranged and non-arranged marriages are an imperfect proxy for limited and free-choice matings and what fitness effects different marriage types could produce. Data from focus group discussions with men and women in Nepal show that there are three spouse choice categories with differing levels of parental influence over mate choice, reinforcing that arranged and non-arranged are not dichotomous. Discussions also show that parents and offspring, especially sons, may be more aligned in in-law/mate preferences than expected, demonstrating the need to establish clear domains of parent–offspring disagreement over spouse choice in the community before investigating fitness. Several social and financial benefits that are only available to arranged couples in this community were detected, and these benefits could compensate for any costs of not choosing a spouse independently. These benefits of arranged marriage are more salient for women than for men. These discussions indicate that predictions about the effects of spouse choice on fitness outcomes may differ for men and women and depend on community-specific socioeconomic benefits.

Success in marriage markets has lasting impacts on women's wellbeing. By arranging marriages, parents exert financial and social powers to influence spouse characteristics and ensure optimal marriages. While arranging marriages is a major focus of parental investment, marriage decisions are also a source of conflict between parents and daughters in which parents often have more power. The process of market integration may alter parental investment strategies, however, increasing children's bargaining power and reducing parents’ influence over children's marriage decisions. We use data from a market integrating region of Bangladesh to (a) describe temporal changes in marriage types, (b) identify which women enter arranged marriages and (c) determine how market integration affects patterns of arranged marriage. Most women's marriages were arranged, with love marriages more recent. We found few predictors of who entered arranged vs. love marriages, and family-level market integration did not predict marriage type at the individual level. However, based on descriptive findings, and findings relating women's and fathers’ education to groom characteristics, we argue that at the society-level market integration has opened a novel path in which daughters use their own status, gained via parental investments, to facilitate good marriages under conditions of reduced parental assistance or control.

Objectives: To measure the effect of arranged marriages on criminal convictions among male ethnic minority youth in Denmark. Methods: To identify the effect, we rely on administrative data from before and after a national policy reform in 2002 that restricted ethnic minority youths' access to their most prevalent type of marriage until both spouses were at least 24 years of age. We use difference-in-differences estimation and meticulously analyze potential time trends in the data. Results: Although the reform substantially decreased marriage rates in both the short (24 percent decrease at age 24) and longer (10 percent at age 30) run, this reform effect produced no response in criminal conviction risks in neither short nor long run. Conclusion: Criminologists discuss whether social institutions, such as marriage, influence desistance from crime or whether the association is driven by unobserved heterogeneity. Several empirical strategies have been proposed to settle the discussion. Our contribution to this line of research is an alternative empirical strategy that relies on a natural experiment. Our study focuses only on one specific type of marriage in one context and focuses on criminal convictions rather than behavior per se—which are important limitations. Still, results uniformly reject the hypothesis that the marriages in our study influenced criminal convictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The structure of multilateral financial partnerships has many relationship challenges, which need to be solved to positively impact sustainable human development. There is a lack of understanding in the development relationship between the so-called developed and developing countries, and development economics theories and research, which guide policies, knowledge, and funding to nations in need. Amid widespread pleas for change to the structure, Belize is a country, which remains in an economic development crisis 41 years after joining the World Bank Group. This original paper, uniquely positions "World Bank" as a brand, and adds to missing empirical research on Belize and development economics with a mixed-methods, brand relationship approach. The researchers perform a survey of 20 years of Belize government personnel dialogues about the Bank, and apply Fournier's (1998) brand relationship theories as tools to measure their perceptions of the Bank as well as get a deeper understanding of the relationship. This investigative research finds that Belize perceives it has an "arranged marriage" type brand relationship with the Bank: it is not a sustainable development partner. This brand relationship also negatively affects the way government personnel see themselves and their abilities. The World Bank Group must innovate its development economics methods and practices, assert its social mission, and meet the development needs of its members by first building genuine brand bonds with them. Debtor member countries must re-define their worth, join together, and design their own paths to sustainable development. All countries are developing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Academic Social Science Studies is the property of Journal of Academic Social Science Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, I draw upon the empirical literatures on arranged marriages among South Asian Muslim immigrants in the U.S. and U.K. in order to (a) provide a multidimensional model of the marital formation process that challenges the binary between arranged and love marriage and to (b) propose how trust operates as a general mechanism to explain both micro‐level personal, interpersonal, and institutional motivations and negotiations around different marriage models as well as macro‐level shifts in marital practices over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unregistered marriage ('sirri marriage') is widespread in Indonesian society, and this social phenomenon can be considered a form of disharmony in society. Even though sirri marriages have a negative impact, especially for women and children, they are still commonly found in Indonesia, including in Situbondo Regency, East Java. This study used a phenomenological approach. The research subjects were fifteen teenage girls who were married by unregistered marriage in Situbondo Regency. The research was conducted through interviews and observations. The data were analyzed using qualitative techniques. The results demonstrated that unregistered marriage was interpreted as an effort to avoid sin, as certainty in a relationship, and as an economic solution. Unregistered marriages, with the perception of cultural and religious legitimacy, which are often early marriages, have implications for the development of the family. One of the consequences of an early marriage is that the young couple is still totally dependent on their parents. These early unregistered marriages force children to drop out of school and become underage workers. Unregistered marriages also lead to divorce, and divorce rates are soaring. Divorce occurs because the young couple is not ready to manage conflicts in the household due to immaturity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taaşşuk-ı Talât ve Fitnat, one of the first examples of the novel genre in the Turkish literature, is a novel that is frequently discussed in the Tanzimat period, in which two young people in love are driven to depression and death by the effects of old traditions and customs. The consequences of the arranged marriage which emerged as a social problem of the eras and pressure that the families created on young people are the most fundamental points of the novel. The novel Taaşşuk-ı Talât ve Fitnat narrates middle class families. The novel harshly criticizing the arranged marriage is indeed a tradition and customs novel with deep soul analyses of people. The novel describes how old customs and traditions which are contrary to human personality, freedom and nature lead individuals and society to disaster. Therefore, it gives the message that certain values thought to be not changed can be questioned. The writer trying to reveal the mentality of the society with all the facts uses the sense of love and it is seen that "love" is fictionalized according to the rules of the era. In the novel Taaşşuk- ı Talât ve Fitnat, the values that constitute intrigue and provide conflict are listed with the “KORA scheme”. Thus, after giving information about the time, space, event structure, point of view and characters that form the structure of the novel, the ideal (thematic) values and counter values that are desired to be given in the background of the novel are presented in the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the book, the changing nature of the notion of consent is key in the transition from the relatively informal weddings typical prior to the sixteenth century to the codified ceremonies imposed by the I Tametsi i decree. At the same time, the Catholic response was to extend the role of canon law, as it did using the decrees of the Council of Trent, especially the I Tametsi i decree. [Extracted from the article]

Parental influence over mate choice and marriage is a norm across many cultures and throughout human history; however, more attention has been given to preferences of the mating individuals than to the preferences of parents selecting a son- or daughter-in-law. Using data collected in Nepal, a culture with a tradition of arranged marriages, we compare the preferences of unmarried adults and parents of unmarried adults using a budget allocation task in which respondents allocated two budgets (high and low) to design their ideal spouse or in-law from a set of 14 traits. To compare overall similarities and differences in allocations across all 14 traits, we calculated the Mahalanobis Distance for each dyad type (father-son, father-daughter, mother-son, and mother-daughter) for high and low budgets separately. Parents and offspring disagreed more in high budget allocations than in low budget allocations, indicating that they may agree more on the minimally necessary traits in a spouse/in-law. Parents and offspring showed the largest divergence in allocations over same caste/ethnicity (preferred more by parents) and physical attractiveness (preferred more by offspring), in line with previous comparisons of parent and offspring preferences. Differences in the preferences of parents and offspring were at least as large as differences in preferences between men and women in this sample, indicating that parent-offspring disagreement is substantial and should be given more consideration in the literature on mate choice. Additional research is needed to investigate how parents and offspring negotiate their preferences in arranged marriage contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]