THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY OFFICE OF NEWS AND INFORMATION 3003 N. Charles Street, Suite 100 Baltimore, Maryland 21218-3843 Phone: (410) 516-7160 / Fax (410) 516-5251
February 4, 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA
CONTACT: Leslie Rice [email protected]
VALENTINE'S DAY ADVISORY: JOHNS HOPKINS ANTHROPOLOGIST STUDIES LOVE
Is romance universal or culturally conditioned? Are we all capable of falling in love?
With Valentine's Day around the corner, the nation will once again spend a day focused on matters of the heart.
If you are looking for an interesting source for an article about romantic love, Johns Hopkins University anthropologist Sonia Ryang has been studying notions of love across cultures and is teaching a course again this semester called "The Anthropology of Love."
Anthropology has a rich tradition in the study of family relationships, courtships and kinships. But what anthropologists have typically been shy to address, says Ryang, is the study of romantic love. By looking at the works of anthropologists and social historians, Ryang's course addresses theories on "falling in love."
Is the fixation in our nation with falling in love the by-product of living in an increasingly technical and often lonely society? Or is falling in love an innate quality of the human spirit, which exists whether in a primitive society, a politically oppressive regime or an unyieldingly harsh living climate?
Ryang doesn't attempt to answer these questions entirely but examines them from an anthropological perspective.
Sonia Ryang is a graduate of University of Cambridge and University of Tokyo. She is the author of numerous articles and essays on subjects including ethnicity in Japan, Koreans living in Japan and gender and immigration issues. She is the author of "Women, Culture, Colonialism: Essays in History and Anthropology" and "North Koreans in Japan: Language, Ideology and Identity."
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