Untangling Darwinian Confusion around Lust, Love, and Attachment in the Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Mads Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Urban Ecology ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Henrik Ibsen ◽  
August Strindberg ◽  
Pair Bonding ◽  
Free Love ◽  
Literary Movement ◽  
Divorce Rates

Abstract The myth of true, lifelong love promoted low divorce rates among farmers who depended on each other for survival. In the urban ecology after industrialization, it became increas­ingly clear that long-term monogamy goes against human nature. In the Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough, a late-1800s literary movement, Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, and others clashed in a battle over modern mating morality. Each interpreted Darwin to fit their own agenda, suggesting naturalistic understandings of “free love” and “true mar­riage,” some of which were laughable while others landed authors in prison. Evolutionary theory from our present era suggests that human mate choice is guided by three brain systems: erotic lust, romantic love, and feelings of deep attachment; our species thus evolved for serial pair-bonding with extra-pair copulation. Using these and other evolutionary insights, this article evaluates narratives from the Modern Breakthrough, which laid the foundation for today’s gender-equal and sexually liberal Nordic societies.

Marriage Registration among Palestinians and Syrians in Jordan

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-380
Author(s):  
Dina Zbeidy
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
The State ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Syrian Refugees ◽  
Development Organizations ◽  
Early Registration ◽  
Divorce Rates ◽  
Insight Into

Based on long-term fieldwork in Jordan, this paper discusses two marriage registration practices that have become topics of public debate and locus for intervention projects of development organizations: the early registration of marriages among Palestinian camp residents, and the non-registration of marriages among Syrian refugees. This paper shows how the narratives around marriage registration play a role in the production of identity and senses of belonging and provides insight into the overlaps and gaps between the discourses of development organizations and the concerns of those involved in these practices. In the Palestinian case, the early registration of marriage provides the couple with a limited but important space to get acquainted before the wedding. Women’s organizations and NGOs, however, often blame this practice for the increase in divorce rates before consummation. In the Syrian case, organizations focus on the negative legal and social consequences of not registering a marriage with the state, while conversations with Syrians reveal the obstacles they face while navigating the Jordanian legal system and their need to legitimize their non-registration of marriages.

scholarly journals The Roles of Altruism, Heroism, and Physical Attractiveness in Female Mate Choice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lacey Margana ◽  
Manpal Singh Bhogal ◽  
James Edward Bartlett ◽  
Daniel Farrelly
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Romantic Partner ◽  
Prosocial Behaviour ◽  
Choice Data ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Mating Signal

The role of prosocial behaviour in female mate choice has been extensively explored, focusing on the desirability of altruism in potential mates, as well as altruism being a mating signal. However, little research has focused on the desirability of heroism and altruism in potential partners. Furthermore, the synergistic effect of attractiveness on the desirability of prosocial traits has only recently been explored, and to our knowledge, has not explored in relation to the desirability of heroism in a romantic partner. We explored the effect of prosociality and attractiveness on female desirability ratings (n=198), and whether desirability was influenced by whether women were seeking a short-term or long-term relationship. We find that women are attracted to men who display heroism and altruism, and this preference is higher when the male is attractive compared to unattractive. Furthermore, preferences for prosocial traits were higher when seeking a long-term compared to a short-term partner. Our findings add to the literature on prosocial behaviour and mate choice. Data and materials [https://osf.io/a76p8/?view_only=95408822fa9f447bb93ba37ad7bae84b].

scholarly journals Mate Attentiveness, Seasonal Timing of Breeding and Long-term Pair Bonding in the House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)

Behaviour ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 141 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Hill ◽  
Kevin McGraw
Keyword(s):  
Pair Bond ◽  
Egg Laying ◽  
Carpodacus Mexicanus ◽  
Timing Of Breeding ◽  
Pair Bonding ◽  
House Finches ◽  
Breeding Date ◽  
Pair Bonds ◽  
Term Pair

AbstractIn seasonally breeding birds, natural selection favors individuals that begin breeding earlier in a year because they produce more or higher quality offspring than those that begin breeding later. Among the factors that influence the timing of breeding, which include the age, health, competitive ability, or mate quality of individuals, is the longevity of the pair bond, with birds that remain mated across years initiating breeding earlier in the season than newly formed pairs. The behavioural interactions between pair members that may facilitate long-term pair bonding and early breeding onset have infrequently been studied, however. Here we report the relationship between male-female affiliative behaviour, pair-bond duration, and breeding date in house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus), a short-lived, socially monogamous passerine species in which the duration of pair bonds is highly variable within and among seasons. Finches that initiated breeding earliest in the season were those that had bred with one another in previous years. Early breeding males from returning pairs maintained significantly closer contact with their mate during the first egg-laying period of the year than did males from late-breeding, newly formed pairs. Similarly, early-breeding females from returning pairs followed their mate more closely in nest-vicinity flights during the fertile period than females from late-breeding, newly formed pairs. These results suggest that attributes of and interactions between both pair members may help to maintain stable breeding pairs and influence the timing of breeding in seasonally nesting, short-lived songbirds. Rather than advertising for or seeking extra-pair fertilization opportunities, high-quality pairs of finches may invest heavily in their mate to secure the pair bond and ensure high intrapair reproductive success.

Primordialism, Evolutionary Theory and Ethnic Violence in the Balkans: Opportunities and Constraints for Theory and Policy

2000 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank P. Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Ethnic Violence ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Selection ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Group Survival ◽  
Selection Mechanisms

The literature on evolutionary theory tends to address questions of ethnicity from two perspectives: (1) macro, or long–term selection processes associated with basic human preferences for individual or group survival, ethnic identity or kinship affiliations; and (2) intermediate selection mechanisms associated with the fitness and adaptability of specific cultures, religions or belief systems in different regions of the world. Comparatively less time has been spent addressing micro–evolutionary questions about the timing, escalation and duration of ethnic violence — that is, micro or short–term selection processes and fitness mechanisms that account for the escalation and/or duration of ethnic hatreds, violence or war at a particular time.

Henrik Johan Ibsen (1828–1906)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuliano D'Amico
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Henrik Ibsen ◽  
Woman Question ◽  
August Strindberg ◽  
Psychological Study ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Social ◽  
Verse Drama ◽  
European Theatre ◽  
Bernard Shaw

Henrik Ibsen is Norway’s most important writer and one of the most influential dramatists of the second half of the nineteenth century. His dramatic production has left a deep mark on Western culture, and his plays have revolutionized the European theatre, inspiring generations of playwrights and novelists such as George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, Luigi Pirandello, Anton Chekhov, and Eugene O’Neill. Together with Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, August Strindberg, and Jens Peter Jacobsen, Ibsen is considered one of the major exponents of the Scandinavian "Modern Breakthrough," as well as one of the early voices of European modernism. His early dramatic production mainly consists of historical plays, verse drama, and poetry; in the late 1870s, Ibsen started a cycle of 12 prose plays in a contemporary bourgeois setting, which combine a marked taste for realism with a turn to symbolism, especially in his later years. His discussion of "the woman question" and of the moral double standard of the European bourgeoisie, but also the psychological study of his characters and the search for identity they undertake, made Ibsen first a controversial figure, later a famous, praised, and rich author. In the twentieth century, Ibsen has become a classic of world literature and drama, and he is widely read, staged, and researched all over the globe. In particular, the social appeal of his plays is still dramatically felt in developing countries and in different post-colonial contexts.

Modern Breakthrough

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuliano D’Amico
Keyword(s):  
Literary History ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Social Realism ◽  
Henrik Ibsen ◽  
August Strindberg ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Realism And Naturalism

The Modern Breakthrough is a category of literary history first used in 1883 by the Danish critic Georg Brandes. Brandes used it to group together a series of Scandinavian authors of the preceding decade. More generally, the Modern Breakthrough came to identify the literary currents embedded in social realism and naturalism that grew in Scandinavia during the 1870s and the 1880s. Although closely related to European literary currents of the age, the Modern Breakthrough developed as a distinctly Scandinavian phenomenon. It also influenced other literatures through the works of key personalities such as Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, and Jens Peter Jacobsen. Authors of the Modern Breakthrough shared an interest in social problems such as the tension between the working classes and the capitalist bourgeoisie, the role of women in society, and the struggle between science and religion. In the second half of the 1880s, the Modern Breakthrough increasingly became influenced by symbolism and impressionism and gradually extinguished during the 1890s, threatened by decadent and avant-garde literature.

Rachilde (1860–1953)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Hawthorne
Keyword(s):  
Henrik Ibsen ◽  
August Strindberg ◽  
Prose Fiction ◽  
Paul Gauguin ◽  
French Writer

Known mainly for her prose fiction of the Decadent period, the French writer Rachilde contributed to modernist theater in a number of ways. She was an important figure in French symbolist theatres of the 1890s (particularly Paul Fort’s Théâtre d’art and Aurélien Lugné-Poe’s Théâtre de l’oeuvre). She had several of her own plays produced, and came into contact with artist groups such as the Nabis (Paul Gauguin designed the program for her 1891 play Madame La Mort). The Symbolists introduced Scandinavian dramatists such as Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg to French audiences, and Rachilde’s plays were exported to countries such as Denmark.

Education, Divorce, and Household Income Inequality in Hong Kong

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Chim Richard Wong
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Divorce Rates ◽  
The Government ◽  
Income Dispersion ◽  
Early Childhood Students

Education is the most important determinant of income dispersion among individuals and, indirectly, among households. Government policy should place human capital investment at the center of its strategy to reduce poverty and enhance inter- generational mobility. Rising divorce rates should be given far more attention as a growing source of poverty that impedes intergenerational mobility. Investing in the children of poor and broken families is the best policy to reduce long-term income inequality. Society should provide additional subsidies and support to students from these families as an investment in their human capital, especially during their early childhood. Students with ability should be offered scholarships to study in the best schools. The government does not have to fund everything, but it should take the lead to encourage private contributions for this purpose.

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