This discourse will take you on a culturally diverse voyage to investigate different techniques people have designed to choose mates.

This discourse will take you on a culturally diverse voyage to investigate different techniques people have designed to choose mates. At first, these Indian advertisements may look weird to us, yet precisely how unique would they say they are? By building up a more worldwide point of view on marriage and family, we gain a consciousness of and thankfulness for the rich assortment of techniques people have made to address fundamental social needs.

Your Assignment

• Analyze the Indian wedding ads (found in the web link below) using the concepts of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.
• Post a minimum of four-hundred words
• Respond to at least two of your classmates' postings. 

Instructions

1. Study the Indian Wedding Ads from the Calcutta Telegraph July 1998 being sure to:

• Start reading from the Background Notes/Historical Context section
• Keep the Key in front of you so you can understand the terms in the ads

1. Identify at least eight criteria Indians consider when selecting a spouse,
2. Identify six criteria people in the U.S. use to select a spouse. Provide data and cite sources. You have probably done your own fieldwork, but try free match-making websites.
3. How do Indians go about choosing a mate? How do people in the U.S. select a mate?
4. Similarities: What kinds of U.S. values (pp. 51-53) seem to underlie the criteria used in Indian spouse selection? Differences: Compare this with the criteria used in U.S. spouse selection. Upon closer inspection, do we have more in common than first appeared?
5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of these two different sets of criteria used to select partners?