Whether in Africa, Europe or America, in the pre-industrial age most marriages required the blessing of parents. Marriage was a social and functional institution which affected land inheritance and bolstered strategic alliances, especially in the upper strata of society. Even today this still holds true, and the idea that love and marriage should go together is one that has arisen only in recent times.
不論在非洲或在歐美，在工業時代前，大多婚姻都是以父母為命，婚姻是社會性、功能性的，關係土地的承繼與權勢串連，特別是上層人士，即使在今天亦仍如此，婚姻與戀愛的重疊是近代才興起的概念。