In this new article, I will aim to look at life for singles before the social networking site, where it all began. How did our ancestors come together? How did they find that special personal? When did looking for love, a friendship or relationships become our own choice? Where would we be without romance? What was courtship and marriage like for our distant ancestors?
Beginning with the ancient Greeks’ and the recognition of the need to describe more than one kind of love, inventing the word “eros” to describe carnal love, and “agape” to mean a spiritual love. Take a stroll back through romantic heritage with this timeline of romantic customs, dating rituals, and tokens of love and friendship and how they managed to connect with singles to date.
In ancient times, many of the first marriages were by capture, not by choice! When there was a scarcity of nubile women, men raided other villages looking for love and for wives.
Frequently the tribe from which a warrior stole a bride would come looking for her, and it was necessary for the warrior and his new wife to go into hiding to avoid being discovered. According to an old French custom, as the moon went through all its phases the couple drank a brew called metheglin, which was made from honey. Hence, we get the word, honeymoon – so nearly dating by proxy!
Love and friendship also involved the need for arranged marriages, primarily business relationships born out of the desire and/or need for property, monetary or political alliances this was how family’s treated the search for love. Dating became family arrangements and the search for power and money!
So from buying a woman dinner to opening a door for her, many of today’s courting rituals are rooted in medieval chivalry. Love, friendship and dating became embroiled in a family’s climb of the social network ladder.
During medieval times, the importance of love and friendship in relationships emerged as a reaction to arranged marriages, but was still not considered a prerequisite in matrimonial decisions. Suitors wooed their intended with serenades and flowery poetry, following the lead of lovelorn characters on stage and in verse. Chastity and honor were highly regarded virtues. In 1228, women first gained the right to propose marriage in Scotland, a legal right that then slowly spread through Europe.
Dating thought No1. Women from Amazonian tribes (Chorowti) expressed their love by spitting in their partners’ faces either as a sexual overture or as a greeting.