Courtship
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{{for|the episode of the television series Law & Order: Criminal Intent|Courtship (Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode)}}
{{Redirect|Suitor|the Canadian footballer|Glen Suitor}}
{{Close Relationships}}
'''Courtship''' is the traditional dating period before engagement and marriage. During a courtship, a couple dates to get to know each other and decide if there will be an engagement. Usually courtship is a public affair, done in public and with family approval.
It includes activities such as [[dating]] where couple go together for a [[dinner]], a [[movie]], [[dance]] parties, a [[picnic]], [[shopping]] or general "hanging out", along with other forms of activity. Acts such as meeting on the internet or [[virtual dating]], chatting on-line, sending [[text messages]] or [[picture messages]], conversing over the [[telephone]], writing each other [[letters]], and sending each other [[flowers]], [[songs]], and [[gifts]] constitute wooing.
== Courtship traditions ==
[[Image:Youth and suitors.jpg|thumb|left|170px|''Youth conversing with suitors''<br>from the ''Haft Awrang'' of [[Jami]], in the story ''A Father Advises his Son About Love.'']]
[[Image:44-aspetti di vita quotidiana, stagione calda,Taccuino Sanit.jpg|170px|thumb|Courting, [[tacuinum sanitatis]] casanatensis (XIV century)]]
While the date is fairly casual in most European cultures, in many traditional societies, courtship is a highly structured activity, with very specific formal rules.
In some societies, the parents or community propose potential partners, and then allow limited dating to determine whether the parties are suited. During the Middle Ages in Europe, it was traditional for royal families to receive a ship from a princess's fiance upon her [[betrothal]], and the ship would be displayed in the courtyard for one month prior to the marriage ceremony.
In [[Japan]], there is a type of courtship called [[Omiai]]. Parents will hire a matchmaker to provide pictures and [[résumé]]s of potential mates, and if the couple agrees, there will be a formal meeting with the matchmaker and often parents in attendance. The matchmaker and parents will often exert pressure on the couple to decide whether they want to marry or not after a few dates.
In more closed societies, courtship is virtually eliminated altogether by the practice of [[arranged marriage]]s, where partners are chosen for young people, typically by their parents. Very conservative cultures may view "dating" as nothing more than a synonym for "having [[premarital sex]]," which they prohibit, particularly for women.{{Fact|date=June 2007}} Forbidding experimental and serial courtship and sanctioning only arranged matches is partly a means of guarding the chastity of young people and partly a matter of furthering family interests, which in such cultures may be considered more important than individual romantic preferences.
Over recent decades though, the concept of arranged marriage has changed or simply been mixed with other forms of dating, including Eastern and Indian ones; potential couples have the opportunity to meet and date each other before one decides on whether to continue the relationship or not.
==Modern dating==
{{Main|Dating (activity)}}
Before the 1960s, dating as we know did not exist. {{Dubious|date=May 2008}} Those who dated did so with the intent of finding a future marriage partner. Today this is referred to as courting.
After the [[women's movement]], the [[men's movement]], the [[sexual revolution]], and other movements that have influenced modern Western culture, this "old-fashioned" form of dating waned in popularity, giving way to what became known as "hanging out" and "[[Casual sex|hooking up]]". {{Fact|date=June 2007}} Formal dating, where one person (usually the male) contacts another person (usually the female) to arrange a date became replaced with more casual encounters, including casual sexual encounters.
In recent years, a number of college newspapers have featured editorials where students decry the lack of "dating" on their campuses. This may be a result of a highly-publicized 2001 study and campaign sponsored by the conservative American women's group [[Independent Women's Forum]], which promotes "traditional" dating.<ref>[http://www.iwf.org/campuscorner/hookingup.asp Hooking Up, Hanging Out, and Hoping for Mr. Right: College Women on Dating and Mating Today] (Retrieved 18:35, [[12 January]] [[2007]])</ref>
===Commercial dating services===
Though most people meet their dates at social organizations, in their daily life, or are introduced through friends or relatives, commercial dating agencies emerged strongly, but discreetly, in the Western world after [[World War II]], mostly catering for the 25–44 age group. Newspaper and magazine [[personal ad]]s also became common.
In the last five years, mate-finding and courtship have seen changes due to [[online dating service]]s. Telecommunications and computer technologies have developed rapidly since around 1995, allowing daters the use of home telephones with [[answering machine]]s, [[mobile phone]]s, and web-based systems to find prospective partners. "[[Pre-date]]s" can take place by telephone or online via instant messaging, e-mail, or even video communication. A disadvantage is that, with no initial personal interview by a traditional dating agency head, Internet daters are free to exaggerate or lie about their characteristics.
While the growing popularity of the [[Internet]] took some time, now one in five singles is said to look for love on the Web, which has led to a dramatic shift in dating patterns. Research in the [[United Kingdom]] suggests that [[as of 2004]] there were around 150 agencies there, and the market was growing at around 20 percent a year due to, first, the very low entry barriers to setting up a dating site, and secondly, the rising number of single people. However, even academic researchers find it impossible to find precise figures about crucial statistics, such as the [[ratio]] of active daters to the large number of inactive members whom the agency will often wrongly claim as potential partners, and the overall ratio of men to women in an agency's membership. Academic research on traditional pre-Internet agencies suggests that most agencies have far more men than women in their membership. {{Fact|date=February 2007}}
Traditionally, in many societies (including Western societies), men are expected to fill the role of the pursuer. However, the anonymity of the Internet (as well as other factors) has allowed women to take on that role online. A recent study indicated that "women pay to contact men as often as the reverse, which is quite different from behavior in telephone-based dating system[s]" (from [[Wired magazine|''Wired'' magazine]]).{{Fact|date=January 2008}}
The trend of singles making a Web connection continues to increase, as the percentage of North American singles who have tried Internet dating has grown from two percent in 1999 to over ten percent today (from [[Canadian Business]], February 2002). More than half of online consumers (53%) know someone who has started a friendship or relationship online, and three-quarters of 18-to-24-year-old online consumers (74%) say they do. There is also some academic evidence that the 18–25 age group has significantly taken up online dating. This growing trend is reflected in the surging popularity of online communities such as [[Faceparty]], [[Friendster]], [[Facebook]], [[MySpace]], and [[Nexopia]] sites which are not directly geared toward dating, but many users nonetheless use to find potential dates or research a new acquaintance to check for availability and compatibility.
[[Mobile dating]] websites, too, are gaining popularity.
==Courtship in the animal kingdom== <!-- This section is linked from [[Beak]] -->
{{main|Mating|Mating system}}
[[Image:Waterbergoriolesdownsized.jpg|thumb|170px|Male and female Black-headed Oriole in courtship ritual, in a [[riparian zone]] of central [[Waterberg Biosphere|Waterberg]], South Africa.]]
Many non-human animal species have mate-selection rituals also referred to as courtship. Animal courtship may involve complicated dances or touching; vocalizations; or displays of beauty or fighting prowess. Most animal courtship occurs out of sight of humans, so it is often the least documented of animal behaviors. One animal whose courtship rituals are well studied is the [[bowerbird]], whose male builds a "bower" of collected objects.
From the scientific point of view, courtship in the animal kingdom is the process in which the different species select their partners for reproduction purposes. Generally speaking, the male initiates the courtship and the female chooses to either mate or reject the male based on his "performance". As of this moment, the best scientific model that explains courtship behavior is [[The Selfish Gene]] model proposed by [[Richard Dawkins]] which states that an individual of a particular species will mate with individuals from the same species that display "good genes".
In this case, courtship is a display of "genes" carried by a particular organism looking forward to mix with the genes of another organism in order to preserve themselves onto the next generation, thereby ensuring the survival of the genes themselves.
==References==
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Dating]]
[[Category:Interpersonal relationships]]
[[Category:Mating]]
[[de:Partnerwahl]]
[[es:Cortejo]]
[[fr:Parade nuptiale (biologie)]]
[[hr:Svadbeni ples (biologija)]]
[[it:Corteggiamento]]
[[he:חיזור (ביולוגיה)]]
[[nl:Balts]]
[[fi:Seurustelu]]
[[zh:求偶]]
[[tl:Ligaw (mangingibig)]]