Let’s explore the birth of romantic love from an historical perspective and the dilemmas that aroused in the last 150 years. Love relationships in the western 21st Century - What changed in the last century?
Every country in the world knows that there is such a thing as romantic love, but in the most cultures and throughout history, that is not an emotion that was celebrated especially in conjunction with marriage.
In ancient India falling in love was considered as dangerous, antisocial and a challenge to the family. In ancient China, the traditional word for love, meant an “illness, a socially disapproved relationship”. In the European tradition, most of our conventions about romantic love are inherited from the originators of courtly love in southern France. But their idea of love was something that could not possibly exist within marriage.
Until the 18th Century the word “Love” was used much more often for neighbours, “keen” (to wail in grief for a dead person) and God, than it was used for spouses. It was not until the late 18th century that what we now think about the essence of love in marriage became respectable to encourage people to make their own choices....
Every country in the world knows that there is such a thing as romantic love, but in the most cultures and throughout history, that is not an emotion that was celebrated especially in conjunction with marriage.
In ancient India falling in love was considered as dangerous, antisocial and a challenge to the family. In ancient China, the traditional word for love, meant an “illness, a socially disapproved relationship”. In the European tradition, most of our conventions about romantic love are inherited from the originators of courtly love in southern France. But their idea of love was something that could not possibly exist within marriage.
Until the 18th Century the word “Love” was used much more often for neighbours, “keen” (to wail in grief for a dead person) and God, than it was used for spouses. It was not until the late 18th century that what we now think about the essence of love in marriage became respectable to encourage people to make their own choices....
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