The dichotomy between emotion and rationality has been one of the most enduring of sociological theory. This article attempts to bypass this dichotomy by examining how emotion and rationality are conjoined in the practice of the choice of a mate. We posit the fundamental role of culture in determining the nature of this intertwinement. We explore the culturally embedded intertwining of emotion and rationality through the notion of modal configuration. Modal configuration includes five key features: reflexivity, techniques, modal emphasis, modal overlap, and modal sequencing. We apply this framework to the topic of partner selection. Comparing primary and secondary sources on pre-modern partner selection and on internet dating, we show that emotion and rationality were intertwined in both periods but that what differs between them is precisely the emotion-rationality modality.The distinction and opposition between rationality and emotion have been the touchstone of Western philosophical conceptions of human nature, and have obliquely penetrated sociological theory. As Neil Smelser pointed out in his 1997 ASA presidential address, in sociology, the conceptual gap between rational choice theory and anti-rationalist trends (cultural studies, postmodernism, neo-Marxism, critical theory, and some schools of phenomenology and feminism), has led to "a polarization between various kinds of rationality and a reactive anti-rationality" (Smelser 1998, p. 3). Both sides of this debate-rational choice theory and the so-called anti-rationalist trends-have tended to portray rationality and emotion as mutually exclusive categories of action, thus perpetuating and further reinforcing the dichotomy.In the last two decades however, this dichotomy has grown increasingly difficult to sustain. The challenge has come from several fronts. Reviving a Humean approach to reason, neuropsychologist Antonio Damasio argued in a groundbreaking work that emotion and reason are contiguous with each other and that effective rational decision-making is actually predicated on emotional processes, thus making Theor Soc (2009) 38:401-422