Landon Wise Photography, The Cultured Workshop
Love. Love is a universal emotion experienced by a majority of people, in various historical eras, and in all the world’s cultures, but manifests itself in different ways because culture has an impact on people’s conceptions of love and the way they feel, think, and behave in romantic relationships.
In this article I try my best at explaining romantic love from a cultural perspective. It seems that love is a universal and biologically based emotion. Cross-cultural and cross-language barriers do not matter for LOVE. The verbal and non-verbal communication makes it possible. People are so curious about how to say "I Love You" in other languages, it seems to be one of the very first things you ask someone of a new and different culture. Je t’aime (French), Ich liebe Dich German), Ti amo (Italian), "wo ai ni" (Chinese), Mahal kita (Tagalog). Diverse words express love in many languages. The following words are probably among the most well-known internationally: love (English), amor (Spanish), amour (French), amore (Italian), Liebe (German). These words may have various implicit connotations; they carry many different meanings and reflect plenty of forms and categories of love.
Cultural values and traditional behaviors influence the expressions and experiences of love.
Individualistic cultures such as the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, and the countries of Northern and Western Europe focus more on self-interest and the interest of one’s immediate family, personal autonomy and making your own decisions, individual initiative, and independence. Collectivist cultures such as China, India, many African and Latin American nations, Greece, southern Italy, and the Pacific Islands on the other hand, induce people to subordinate personal motivation to the group’s interests, being loyal to the group that in turn looks after their interests. They encourage interdependence and suggest that group decisions are more important than individual ones.
Love emotions are experienced by many people, in various historical periods, and in most cultures of the world. Yet, these feelings display diversity - cultures influence how people feel, think, and behave being in romantic love. Thus, love is universal, but still culturally specific.
Katy Trefry Photography, The Cultured Workshop
Does a passionate and energetic Latin lover love more intensely than a quiet and reserved Nordic lover? Or do they just express their emotions differently? People can express their love explicitly or implicitly. The passionate words, kind tone of voice, smiley facial expression, and special gestures are explicit and direct ways of love expression to a romantic partner. Actions and doing something good to a partner are implicit and indirect ways of love expression. American culture, for example, stresses the importance of verbal expression of love to another, so Americans many times say to each other how they love. “I love you” – are so typical words for them which they use on daily basis. Sometimes, however, people do not need to be straight in their expressions because some things can be implicitly interpreted and understood without words. In Filipino and Filipino American families, for example, the verbal expression of love is much more reserved for special occasions. They do not need to explicitly share their feelings for each other because it is known and understood. Perhaps Filipinos and Filipino Americans do not find it essential to express love in overt ways because it can be construed as excessive, showy, or too American. Instead they show their Mahal (Tagalog word for love) in indirect ways. They express their love indirectly, through doing. Romantic partners may reveal their love by sharing a laugh or listening to each other’s problems in nonjudgmental ways, or by working through hardships and keeping their promises to remain by each other’s sides. Then for Filipino, Filipino American, Indian, Chinese families, and other families with similar cultural values, love is rather in actions. Sometimes one might have to look more closely to notice it. Their love is not minimal or invisible, but instead, the love is omnipresent and understood, and there is no need to flaunt it.
Passionate love has existed throughout ages, yet, attitudes to passion and behaviors varied dramatically from one culture to another and from one temporal period to the next. In different times of history people interpreted love variously and embraced different attitudes toward romantic love; they ascribed different meanings to the concept of love and related words, feelings, and behaviors. The cases of Chinese and European history provide evident examples of diversity of love attitudes in historical perspective. Passionate love is an anthropological universal and its features primarily relate to evolutionary basics of mate selection that was important for people’s survival. Yet, romance is culture-specific and based on historical and cultural traditions. Culture is a major factor that transforms passionate love into romantic love. Cultural values and traditional behaviors influence the expressions and experiences of love and transfer passionate love as primarily based on a sexual attraction into romantic love as an idealized and culturally affected way of loving. Culturally influenced features are ones that pertain to cultural rituals of love and mating. Thus the cultural perspective is as much powerful as evolutionary heritage in understanding of love.
Cultural values and traditional behaviors influence the expressions and experiences of love
The basic conclusion I have come up with is that LOVE is it’s own language and can be expressed in so many different ways, that there never is a right way to love or show love. We all love differently and the more our world connects and mixes cultures, the more ways love will be shared and expressed.
So love the best way you know how and learn new ways of showing and expressing love this season. We all love differently, but we all must LOVE.
Timbrel Chyatee
Timbrel is an entrepreneur that is passionate about culture, empowerment and inspiring the world to live better. She is the founder of The Cultured Workshop a workshop focusing on educating individuals in culture and community. She is also the lead designer and founder of Lush Bazaar a sustainably made, into-fusion fashion label. Timbrel is an avid explorer, writer and connoisseur of teas. Her mission in life is simple, inspire one another to create a world of empowerment and acceptance for all. Follow more from Timbrel at: @Cultured.Workshop | @Timbrel.Chyatee | timbrelchyatee.com | culturedworkshop.com
