ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors show how the Euro-American tradition has developed a strong ideal of marital love, but the nature and meaning of that love is not always easy to interpret. They are concerned with the relatively restricted ties of kinship and lack of corporate descent groups in Euro-American societies. The authors also show that in some respects, the Euro-American tradition of kinship and gender is not unique; in fact, it has shared many important features with the Asian tradition. They discuss how parallel-cousin marriage, or endogamy within a kin group, works to keep property intact and under the control of the kin group as it moves over the generations. Other of the church's moves appear to have been aimed not at increasing heirlessness as such but at loosening the hold of kin groups on property—that is by finding ways to prevent property from staying within kin groups over the generations.
