Love Apocalypse

Alex J. Nelson is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Indianapolis. His research explores the ethnology of romantic love, erotic entrepreneurship in commercial sexual economies, and the transformation of love, marriage, and gender relations in South Korea, where he has been conducting ethnographic field research since 2013.Victor C. de Munck is a professor of anthropology at Vilnius University in the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies. He has conducted field work in Sri Lanka, Macedonia, Lithuania, Russia, and the US He is the author of Romantic Love in America (2019) and coauthor of Cultural Models (2014).William Jankowiak is a professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has authored more than 124 articles/book chapters and nine books (five edited). His research is conducted primarily in Northern China and in the US. His most recent book is Illicit Monogamy: Inside a Fundamentalist Mormon Community (2023).

• Series Foreword by Péter Berta ixIntroduction: Global Concerns About Marriage andFertility Decline 1ALEX J. NELSON, VICTOR C. DE MUNCK,AND WILLIAM JANKOWIAKPART ONETransformations of Intimacy:Individualization and Declinesin Marriage and Fertility1 Gendered Obstacles of Love and Fertility inContemporaryCuba 23HEIDI HÄRKÖNEN2 Love's Fallout: Fertility Decline and the Individualizationof Intimacy in South Korea43ALEX J. NELSON3 China's IndependentWomenand the Decline in Fertility 66WILLIAM JANKOWIAK AND SHELLY VOLSCHE4 Individual Choice? On the Rise of Love and the Declineof Fertility in Urban Middle-ClassIndia 87ANNA ROMANOWICZ5 From Courtship to Contingent Intimacies in Lithuania:Love Nomads and Porous Dyads 109VICTOR C. DE MUNCK AND INES TORRASPART TWOIntimate Innovations: Emerging Adaptationsto the Individualization of Intimacy6 Women'sHouseholdingin the Rural Andes:Othermothering, Chosen Families, and DemographicTransition 133MARY ELENA WILHOIT7 Becoming Childless in Reunified Berlin: Narratives ofLow Fertility and Emergent Intimacies in Berlin 155MEGHANA JOSHI8 Choosing a World of Two: Childfree Intimacies inContemporaryUrban China 177BIRGIT HERRMANN9 Seeking a Spouse at the End of the World: "MarriageHunting" and Neoliberal Capitalism in Japan 196ERIKA R. ALPERTNotes on Contributors 217Index 000

"Drawing on rich ethnographic research from diverse global contexts, Love Apocalypse reveals how transformations in intimacy are driving declines in marriage and fertility while giving rise to new forms of family life. This timely collection offers fresh insights into cultural and socioeconomic forces shaping fertility decline and shifting configurations of intimate relations." - Lihong Shi, author of Choosing Daughters: Family Change in Rural China"An excellent collection of case studies from a variety of world areas. The distinction of this volume is that it offers a broad sweep of variables in considering marriage delays and fertility challenges in societies around the world and brings the issue of delayed/non-marriage, declining fertility, and new intimacies up to date. Convincingly argued and thought-provoking, Love Apocalypse offers timely insights into these pressing issues." - Nancy Smith-Hefner, coeditor of Waithood: Gender, Education, and Global Delays