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In recent decades, arranged marriages have become less common in many parts of Asia. This paper explores people's schemas surrounding just such a marital change in one Indian village using semi- structured interviews (N = 30) and ethnographic fieldwork. Respondents categorize marriages into two main types: arranged marriages and elopements, also called love marriages. Arranged marriages were common in the past, while elopements are now dominant. Both types of marriages have characteristics that are perceived positively and the ideal marriage is a hybrid of the two. Respondents ascribe the rise of love marriages to educational expansion, technological change, and foreign influence. Many also see it as an inevitable part of a larger process of socioeconomic change. These schémas are strongly shaped by global influences, but also reflect multiple layers of local beliefs and cultures. The schemas also demonstrate a complex integration of both structural and ideational factors in accounting for marital change.
Key Words: Asian families, intergenerational relationships, marriage, social context
In recent decades, family behaviors have undergone many changes. One such change is a decline in arranged marriages and a complementary rise in "love marriages" or, more accurately, self-choice marriages in Asia. Arranged marriages, in which parents chose their children's spouses, were widespread in many Asian countries in the past. But in recent decades, young people have increasingly taken a larger role in choosing their own spouses (Applbaum, 1995; Niraula, 1994; Pimentel, 2000; Rindfuss & Morgan, 1983; Thornton & Lin, 1994). For example, in rural Indonesia the percentage of women who had marriages arranged by their parents declined from 67% among women born in 1935-1943 to 39% among women born in 1953-1965 (Malhotra, 1 99 1 ). Similarly, in Chitwan Valley, Nepal, none of the 1936-1945 marriage cohort participated in the selection of her spouse, while just over half of the 1986-1995 marriage cohort participated in choosing their spouses (Axinn, Ghimire, & Barber, 2008).
Understanding how and why such changes take place, as well as their consequences, is an important area of sociological research. Recent work points to the role of ideational elements in family change (Johnson-Hanks, Bachrach, Morgan, & Köhler, 2011; Thornton, 2005). Ideational elements - also known as schémas (Johnson-Hanks et al.) or models of and for reality (Fricke, 1997a;...