The Heart Is Unknown Country: Love in the Changing Economy of Northeast Brazil

Based on interviews with men and women in Northeast Brazil who talked about their often complicated love lives with wit and passion, this book is a study of how people form conjugal relationships, and of the impact of socioeconomic change on courtship, marriage, cohabitation, and infidelity. Rapid urbanization and expansion of the cash economy have transformed the nature of marriage in this region from a largely economic relationship into a largely emotional one. Both sexes talk about prostitution, concubinage and promiscuity, as well as their definitions of love. Parents give their views on marriage and child rearing, their relations with their own parents, lovers, spouses and friends, and their views on virginity and sexual propriety. The informants are forthright and articulate about their motivations and experiences, demonstrating that men and women view conjugal relationships very differently, and enabling the author to specify and explore these differences in unusually interesting ways.