Why the study of anthropology keeps avoiding the discussion and study of the notion of love or falling in love

Question

I am a third year Uni student major in Anthropology. Only last semester my Uni begins the subject course named Sexing the Self. Over the last three years I keep asking this question to my lecturers and tutors. Their answer is alway either avoiding to answer my question or point blank saying that this matter is not an acdamic or schoolar subject or it is a personal matter. I don't think so. This area needs to be study scientistificaly. What do all of you think?

Answer 1

Love is culturally defined. There cannot be a comprehensive course about it you can only talk about it in relative terms as it pertains to specific cultures. And it is very difficult to divorce your own notions of love when you are trying to analyze someone else's notions of love. There are NO hard and fast, scientific ways to observe "love". The closest we come is by observing self-sacrificial behavior, bonds between mothers and their children, and kinship bonds in general. Actually, that is really good advice for you...study kinship!! this will provide you with more insight on the subject of love but don't expect any ultimate answers.

Answer 2

It has been studied to some extent. Try looking at some biology and pheromone studies as well as the company studies of perfume companies and also look at 'sperm wars'.

Love has also been studied in addictionology as well as in Art History to some extent. Your job as an Anthropologist is to look at all of these studies and synthesize a workable hypothesis that can be tested. Then you can create a model and see if the data collected fits into it!. This is what research is all about!

I also studied Anthropology and have degrees in anthropology, Biology and Chemistry as well as Medicine. The information is out there. The beauty of Anthropology is that you can draw on so many sources and still be relevant

GOOD LUCK!

Answer 3

third year student too, Anthro as well, lol ppl who have done the field research, the recordings, they cannot fall inlove...there is no constant nor no time to let that happen. Love cannot be studied my dear, its too volatile a subject...but would be cool to find out how different cultures express love

Answer 4

A new book by James Kalat and Michelle Shiota called emotion addresses this subject and a lot more, they are psychologist. It is published by wadsworth.

Answer 5

The place to find love and falling in love studied academically is in psychology. See books by for example Abraham Maslow or Erich Fromm. What is colloquially called 'falling in love' is an aspect of human sexual behavior. Such behavior is studied thoroughly and theoretically by the branch of psychology "behavioral psychologists".