ABSTRACT
Marriage has come in many shapes. Among the Akan people of contemporary Ghana, for example, a connoisseur has distinguished 24 typified heterosexual liaisons, according to varying kin involvement and knowledge, inter-family exchanges, rituals performed, and the social status of the partners (Vellenga 1983: 145). Ancient Hindu law distinguished eight forms of acquiring a wife, and listed them in a ranking of virtue, enamoration or falling in love being among the least virtuous, as number six (Mayne 1953: 121).1 While not very concerned with classifications, a significant focus in this study is certainly on variations, in space and in time.
