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Authenticity is valued today as an absolute good. It is sought in art, music, commodities, experiences, and persons. It can also be claimed by nations, ethnicities, religions, and races. All forms of authenticity are validated by reference to shared origins or shared content. Collective authenticity is inculcated by symbolic representations and proven by collective celebrations. Disputes over who has the right to be part of the authentic collective can lead to exclusion and violence, while the affirmation of alternative forms of collective authenticity offers solace for those excluded.

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Is romantic love a particularly Western and modern phenomenon, as many social theorists argue, or a universal experience, as sociobiologists claim? This article argues that both these approaches err in taking sexual attraction as the essential characteristic of romance, whereas historical and personal accounts stress idealization of a particular other. Romantic love is properly defined as an experience of transcendence and is elaborated in cultural configurations of three basic types. The first is in hierarchical and internally competitive societies where marriage is a political matter and romantic relations are always adulterous and often non-sexual; the second is in individualistic, fragmented and fluid societies where love and marriage go together; the third is in highly structured disharmonic societies where romantic ties between youth are severed by arranged marriages.

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