Romance on a Global Stage

Pen Pals, Virtual Ethnography, and "Mail Order" Marriages
1. Auflage 2003
ISBN: 978-0-520-23870-1
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, 293 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 154 mm x 228 mm, Gewicht: 426 g

By the year 2000 more than 350 Internet agencies were plying the email-order marriage trade, and the business of matching up mostly Western men with women from Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America had become an example of globalization writ large. This provocative work opens a window onto the complex motivations and experiences of the people behind the stereotypes and misconceptions that have exploded along with the practice of transnational courtship and marriage. Combining extensive Internet ethnography and face-to-face fieldwork, Romance on a Global Stage looks at the intimate realities of Filipinas, Chinese women, and U.S. men corresponding in hopes of finding a suitable marriage partner.

Through the experiences of those engaged in pen pal relationships—their stories of love, romance, migration, and long-distance dating—this book conveys the richness and dignity of women's and men's choices without reducing these correspondents to calculating opportunists or naive romantics. Attentive to the structural, cultural, and personal factors that prompt women and men to seek marriage partners abroad, Romance on a Global Stage questions the dichotomies so frequently drawn between structure and agency, and between global and local levels of analysis.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Constable, Nicole

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Sozialethnologie: Familie, Gender, Soziale Gruppen
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Ethnographie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Familiensoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Physische Anthropologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Kultursoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie von Migranten und Minderheiten
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments

Introduction
1. Making Introductions
2. Ethnography in Imagined Virtual Communities
3. Feminism and Myths of "Mail-Order" Marriages
4. Fairy Tales, Family Values, and the Global Politics of Romance
5. Political Economy and Cultural Logics of Desire
6. Women’s Agency and the Gendered Geography of Marriage
7. Tales of Waiting: History, Immigration, and the State
8. Conclusion: Marriage, Migration, and Transnational Families

Notes
References Cited
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Nicole Constable is Professor of Anthropology and Research Professor at the University Center for International Studies, University of Pittsburgh. She is the editor of Guest People (1996) and author of Maid to Order in Hong Kong (1997), and Christian Souls and Chinese Spirits (California, 1994).