Accepted Panels

Whereas the South Asian region is most often associated with so-called 'arranged marriages' as a dominant form of intimate heterosexual relationship, it is also recognized that so-called 'love marriages' – based on emotions of love above anything else – are on the rise. My paper is inscribed into scholarship which problematizes this clear-cut dualism, but most importantly, it focuses on the many meanings given to love between heterosexual partners among the metropolitan Indian middle class. Analysing narratives and practices, I aim to answer a question about particular and universal elements of love in a given context. In this endeavour, my goal is not to categorize and assess emotions, but rather to understand the myriad reasons why emotions are categorized and assessed in a particular way. The relevance of my paper for anthropological sciences lies in an attempt to find a balance between universal and regional perspectives in this unique research theme, to explore possibilities for an anthropological theory of emotions which would emphasize global mechanisms influencing local phenomena but without losing cultural specificities.