152 ETHNOLOGY 1. accounts depicting personal anguish and longing: 2. the use of love songs or folklore that highlight the motivations behind romantic involvement: 3. elopement due to mutual affection; 4. native accounts affirming the existence of passionate love and 5. the ethnographer's affirmation that romantic love is present. On the basis of the above indicators, each of the 166 societies were coded and labelled as either (a) love present or(b) love absent. The presence of any one of these indicators was taken as evidence of the presence of romantic love. Each researcher photocopied the page (s)on which he found indicators of romantic love At a later date the researchers independently recoded each others original coding to insure reliability. Unresolved disagreements (n=l)were dropped from the RESULTS TABLE 1: Culture Area and Romantic Love tic Lov Circum-Medit 22(95.7%) 1(4.3%) Sub-Saharan Africa 20(769%) 6(23.1%) East Eurasia 32(94.1%) (5.9%) Insular Pacific 27(93.1%) 2(6.9%) North ameri 24(828%) 5(17.2%) South Central america 22(84.6%) 4(154% DISCUSSION o provide a more revealing illustration of our findings, three ethnographic examples that are highly representative of the entire sample set are presented below ht the intensity, commitment, pathos and romantic idealization of the other. The examples illustrate through indigenous representations of romantic love (see #I and #2), and provide a case in which an ethnographer clearly distinguished between passionate love and lust(see #3) (1)Nisa, a Kung woman, who lived in a hunting and gathering society in the Kalihari desert, clearly differentiated between passionate and companionship love by drawing a distinction between a husband and a lover. Nisa notes that the former relationship is"rich, warm and secure. The [latter] is passionate and exciting although often fleeting and undependable"(Shostak 1981: 267). Nisa adds that when two people come together their hearts are on fire and their passion is very great. After a while, the fire cools and thats how it stays"( Shostak 1981: 269) (2) John Turi(1931), in his autobiography commented on some of the behavioral manifestations of infatuation that befelled many Lapp herders during152 ETHNOLOGY 1. accounts depicting personal anguish and longing; 2. the use of love songs or folklore that highlight the motivations behind romantic involvement; 3. elopement due to mutual affection; 4. native accounts affirming the existence of passionate love; and 5. the ethnographer's affirmation that romantic love is present. On the basis of the above indicators, each of the 166 societies were coded and labelled as either (a) love present or (b) love absent. The presence of any one of these indicators was taken as evidence of the presence of romantic love. Each researcher photocopied the page(s) on which he found indicators of romantic love. At a later date, the researchers independently recoded each other's original coding to insure reliability. Unresolved disagreements (n=l) were dropped from the sample. RESULTS TABLE 1: Culture Area and Romantic Love Romantic Love + - Circum-Medit. 22 (95.7%) 1 (4.3%) Sub-Saharan Africa 20 (76.9%) 6 (23.1%) East Eurasia 32 (94.1%) 1 (5.9%) Insular Pacific 27 (93.1%) 2 (6.9%) North America 24 (82.8%) 5 (17.2%) South & Central America 22 (84.6%) 4 (15.4%) DISCUSSION To provide a more revealing illustration of our findings, three ethnographic examples that are highly representative of the entire sample set are presented below to highlight the intensity, commitment, pathos, and romantic idealization of the other. The examples illustrate through indigenous representations of romantic love (see #1 and #2), and provide a case in which an ethnographer clearly distinguished between passionate love and lust (see #3). (1) Nisa, a Kung woman, who lived in a hunting and gathering society in the Kalihari desert, clearly differentiated between passionate and companionship love by drawing a distinction between a husband and a lover. Nisa notes that the former relationship is "rich, warm and secure. The [latter] is passionate and exciting, although often fleeting and undependable" (Shostak 1981:267). Nisa adds that "when two people come together their hearts are on fire and their passion is very great. After a while, the fire cools and that's how it stays" (Shostak 1981:269). (2) John Turi (1931), in his autobiography, commented on some of the behavioral manifestations of infatuation that befelled many Lapp herders during