Emotion of Love and Its Commercialization

Sexual love and marriage is a central theme in the lives and culture of human beings throughout the world. With very few exceptions, even the most diverse societies share the general concept of romantic love and the ritualistic importance of the monogamous union between man and woman (Ackerman, 1995). Certainly, major components of the complex emotions and physical urges that we associate with romantic love are purely biologically based. In this respect, we share sexual urges, ritualistic mating, courtship displays and pair bonding with (other) animals. In other respects, human intelligence and cultural diversity have given rise to a tremendous variety in societal beliefs about romantic love and marriage. In the United States, sex and love have been commercialized to such a degree that it is clearly the dominant overall marketing theme of the advertising industries. Many of the same evolutionary biological bases of...
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