Fixed Vows, Fluid Times: Partner Selection in Rural Estonia, 1834‒1917

Prospective marriage partners select each other based on a range of social, physical, and psychological traits. Over centuries, individuals have shown a tendency to form homogamous unions, marrying those who share similar social and cultural backgrounds. Most individuals prefer partners from their own social class, aiming to maintain their social status and seeking someone who aligns with their cultural values and tastes, though many would not mind marrying someone from an economically higher class (Bourdieu, 1984; Kalmijn, 1998; Maas & Van Leeuwen, 2005). Parents, communities and Church also encourage homogamous unions. Because heterogeneity and homogeneity operate across multiple dimensions, such as age, ethnicity, language, geography, socioeconomic background, and religion, relationships often combine both heterogeneous and homogeneous elements. Moreover, different characteristics may be traded off against one another within the matching process (Homans, 1958; Dribe & Lundh, 2009; Metzlar et al., 2023).