CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ON ROMANTIC LOVE 153 courtship. He writes that"the mind is often a little wild, especially in those who ave that sort of blood The explanation of why some folk have such weak blood that it is rather easy to upset them is that some people are of such an amorous nature that at the time they can think of nothing else .. and some folk are still i ve afterwards, but it is not everyone who is in love afterwards (3)During the Sung Dynasty(928-1233) the most popular tale among both the literary and nonliterate population was that of the Jade Goddess. It is a tale about Chang Po who falls in love with a woman who is already engaged when he felt that"the greatest desire of his was beyond him"(Lin 1961: 75), he loses interest in work and lapses into a prolonged despair, a love -despair that closely resembles that which was being discussed in the romance poems of Europe at the same time Finally, he confronts the girl about his love and discovers she has similar feelings They elope. After awhile, however, suffering from poverty and isolation, they decide to return home. On the night they are to leave, Chang po draws the girl into his arms and says"since heaven and earth were created you were made for me and I will not let you go. It cannot be wrong to love you"(Lin 1961: 74). In several ways, this tale runs parallel to the tristan and Isolde folk -legend and variations in its clear-eyed delineation of romantic love(see Jankowiak 1992) Although at least one incident of passionate love was documented in 147 out of 166 cultures or more than 88.5 per cent; no evidence was found for its existence in 19(11.5 per cent)of the cultures. Of the nineteen cases in which romantic love was not found, for example, only one ethnographer(Holmberg 1969 )makes the distinction between romantic love and lust and then proceeds to deny the presence of romantic love. The other eighteen ethnographies note that sexual affairs do occur, but do not explore the motive for entering into these, and thus we are unable to determine if romantic love is one of the motives These cultures are coded"romantic love not present. Nonetheless, we believe that these negative cases arise from ethnographic oversight rather than any set of cultural norms that prevent an individual from experiencing romantic affection. There are two explanations that may account for the African cultural area as having the higher percentage of inconclusiveness. First, the absence of folklore For example we were able to find folklore material for only four out of the 26 African cultures More importantly, we were not able to find any folklore for the seven cultures lassified as inconclusive. Second, in many African cultures passionate affection is expressed in a variety of nonverbal idioms seldom studied by an earlier generation of ethnographers(James Bell, personal communication) It is important to note that not everyone within a culture falls in love. This seldom occurs even in the so-called romantic cultures(i.e, Euro-American cultures) that celebrate passionate entanglements in its literature, films, and mythology. By the same token, this should not undermine our finding that in almost every culture there are some individuals who often in the face of severe negative sanctions, do fall in love Romantic love may in fact be muted though never entirely repressed by other cultural variables. Because researchers have rarely studied the relative frequency ch a perso falls in and out of love. it is unclear if romantic love is experienced with less frequency in those cultures that deny or disapprove of the emotional experience. The relative frequency in which members of a community experience romantic love may very well depend upon that culture's social organization and ideological orientation. Thus a greater proportion of AmericansCROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE ON ROMANTIC LOVE 153 courtship. He writes that "the mind is often a little wild, especially in those who have that sort of blood. The explanation of why some folk have such weak blood that it is rather easy to upset them is that some people are of such an amorous nature that at the time they can think of nothing else ... And some folk are still in love afterwards, but it is not everyone who is in love afterwards." (3) During the Sung Dynasty (928-1233) the most popular tale among both the literary and nonliterate population was that of the Jade Goddess. It is a tale about Chang Po who falls in love with a woman who is already engaged. When he felt that "the greatest desire of his was beyond him" (Lin 1961:75), he loses interest in work and lapses into a prolonged despair, a love-despair that closely resembles that which was being discussed in the Romance poems of Europe at the same time. Finally, he confronts the girl about his love and discovers she has similar feelings. They elope. After awhile, however, suffering from poverty and isolation, they decide to return home. On the night they are to leave, Chang Po draws the girl into his arms and says "since heaven and earth were created you were made for me and I will not let you go. It cannot be wrong to love you" (Lin 1961:74). In several ways, this tale runs parallel to the Tristan and Isolde folk-legend and variations in its clear-eyed delineation of romantic love (see Jankowiak 1992). Although at least one incident of passionate love was documented in 147 out of 166 cultures or more than 88.5 per cent; no evidence was found for its existence in 19 (1 1.5 per cent) of the cultures. Of the nineteen cases in which romantic love was not found, for example, only one ethnographer (Holmberg 1969) makes the distinction between romantic love and lust and then proceeds to deny the presence of romantic love. The other eighteen ethnographies note that sexual affairs do occur, but do not explore the motive for entering into these, and thus we are unable to determine if romantic love is one of the motives. These cultures are coded "romantic love not present." Nonetheless, we believe that these negative cases arise from ethnographic oversight rather than any set of cultural norms that prevent an individual from experiencing romantic affection.' There are two explanations that may account for the African cultural area as having the higher percentage of inconclusiveness. First, the absence of folklore. For example, we were able to find folklore material for only four out of the 26 African cultures. More importantly, we were not able to find any folklore for the seven cultures classified as inconclusive. Second, in many African cultures passionate affection is expressed in a variety of nonverbal idioms seldom studied by an earlier generation of ethnographers (James Bell, personal communication). It is important to note that not everyone within a culture falls in love. This seldom occurs even in the so-called romantic cultures (i.e., Euro-American cultures) that celebrate passionate entanglements in its literature, films, and mythology. By the same token, this should not undermine our finding that in almost every culture there are some individuals who, often in the face of severe negative sanctions, do fall in love. Romantic love may in fact be muted, though never entirely repressed, by other cultural variables. Because researchers have rarely studied the relative frequency in which a person falls in and out of love, it is unclear if romantic love is experienced with less frequency in those cultures that deny or disapprove of the emotional experience. The relative frequency in which members of a community experience romantic love may very well depend upon that culture's social organization and ideological orientation. Thus a greater proportion of Americans