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We’ve already hinted at one motivation for matchmaking—the belief that the people getting married are too young
to make a wise decision. 13 Even with older teens or people in their early 20s, a society might encourage
matchmaking in the belief that young people, blinded by the sexual attractiveness of a potential mate, cannot shrewdly
choose someone who could make a good lifelong partner after the beauty of youth fades away.
In the main, matchmaking has historically worked to preserve the integrity of certain social groups and prevent the
weakening of the group by intrusion from outsiders. 14 The Hindu caste system specifies distinct social roles for
people based on their ancestry, a system that would become hopelessly confused if young people married freely
between castes. Matchmaking, usually by the elder women of families looking to arrange a marriage, was a mechanism
for ensuring that caste boundaries were observed.
15 Countless religious websites and church organizations aim to keep Catholics, Muslims Muslim, Jews
Jewish, or Baptists Baptist by making it easier for them to meet and marry others of the same religion.
11 This is the impulse behind the age-old practice of matchmaking.
Sometimes the matchmaker represents the female side and looks at available males.
Few communities in highly-mobile societies could sustain an arranged-marriage system anymore.
Modern group-maintenance matchmaking still occurs in many cultures, but it usually has less to do with social
caste than with other affiliations, such as religion or ethnicity.
12 This principle once guided matchmaking within strict Hindu circles.
The belief was to preserve social boundaries as to seek commonalities of background in potential mates.
Sometimes the matchmaker represents the female side and looks at available males.
Especially in cultural traditions that encouraged marriages between 11- or 12-year-old children, this belief was
probably true.
13 This is the impulse behind the age-old practice of matchmaking.
Modern group-maintenance matchmaking still occurs in many cultures, but it usually has less to do with social
caste than with other affiliations, such as religion or ethnicity.
The selection practices of Internet matchmaking services do not always create happy customers.
Especially in cultural traditions that encouraged marriages between 11- or 12-year-old children, this belief was
probably true.
14 This principle once guided matchmaking within strict Hindu circles.
Sometimes the matchmaker represents the female side and looks at available males.
Internet-based matchmaking services have largely replaced earlier systems that depended on telephone contact
or face-to-face meetings.
Especially in cultural traditions that encouraged marriages between 11- or 12-year-old children, this belief was
probably true.
15 The selection practices of Internet matchmaking services do not always create happy customers.
Modern group-maintenance matchmaking still occurs in many cultures, but it usually has less to do with social
caste than with other affiliations, such as religion or ethnicity.
Sometimes the matchmaker represents the female side and looks at available males.
Especially in cultural traditions that encouraged marriages between 11- or 12-year-old children, this belief was
probably true.