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MATE SELECTION AND SOCIAL CONTEXT: EXOGAMY IN MIDWESTERN RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS
Abstract
Theory is developed which relates mate selection to the context in which it occurs. Context is held to be crucial not only because individual traits derive from contexts to which people belong, but also because there are attributes of contexts which enable or preclude mate selection. One such contextual trait controlling individual mate selection is that of eroticism, which is prominent in some contexts and totally absent in others. An empirical test of the theory is made using a sample of 1803 marriages taken from marriage registers of 40 Nebraska churches of Roman Catholic and Lutheran denominations between 1910 and 1982. It is hypothesized that churches, being non-erotic contexts would tend to be exogamous, in spite of propinquity and value homogamy which would predict high rates of endogamy. It is further hypothesized that age-graded programming in non-erotic contexts would intensify the decrease in the in-group endogamy, that older persons being less subject to erotic mate selection would be less exogamous within the non-erotic contexts, and that Catholic and Protestant contexts would differ significantly in their adjustment to the shortage of mates resulting from context exogamy. All hypotheses are supported by the evidence.
Subject Area
Families & family life|Personal relationships|Sociology
Recommended Citation
BRANCH, KENNETH J, "MATE SELECTION AND SOCIAL CONTEXT: EXOGAMY IN MIDWESTERN RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS" (1983). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8412295.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8412295