Matchmaking - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Matchmaking is any process of matching two people for the purpose of marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

or a sporting contest.

Practice

In some cultures, the role of the matchmaker was and is quite professionalized. The Ashkenazi Jewish shadchan

Shadchan

Shadchan is a Hebrew word for matchmaker.The word Shadchan often refers to Shadchonim or people who carry out Shidduchim as a profession within the Orthodox community. However, Shadchan can also be used to refer to anyone who introduces two single Jews to one another with the hope that they will...

, or the Hindu astrologer, were often thought to be essential advisors and also helped in finding right spouses as they had links and a relation of good faith with the families. In cultures where arranged marriage

Arranged marriage

An arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...

s were the rule, the astrologer

Astrologer

An astrologer practices one or more forms of astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a horoscope for the time of an event, such as a person's birth, and interprets celestial points and their placements at the time of the event to better understand someone, determine the auspiciousness of an...

often claimed that the stars sanctified matches that both parents approved of, making it quite difficult for the possibly-hesitant children to easily object - and also making it easy for the astrologer to collect his fee. Tarot divination has also been employed by some matchmakers.

Social dance

Social dance

Social dance is a major category or classification of danceforms or dance styles, where sociability and socializing are the primary focuses of the dancing...

, especially in frontier North America, the contra dance

Contra dance

Contra dance refers to several partnered folk dance styles in which couples dance in two facing lines...

and square dance

Square dance

Square dance is a folk dance with four couples arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, beginning with Couple 1 facing away from the music and going counter-clockwise until getting to Couple 4. Couples 1 and 3 are known as the head couples, while Couples 2 and 4 are the side couples...

, has also been employed in matchmaking, usually informally. However, when farming families were widely separated and kept all children on the farm working, marriage-age children could often only meet in church or in such mandated social events. Matchmakers, acting as formal chaperones or as self-employed 'busybodies' serving less clear social purposes, would attend such events and advise families of any burgeoning romances before they went too far.

The influence of such people in a culture that did not arrange marriages, and in which economic relationships (e.g. "being able to support a family", "good prospects") played a larger role in determining if a (male) suitor was acceptable, is difficult to determine. It may be fair to say only that they were able to speed up, or slow down, relationships that were already forming. In this sense they were probably not distinguishable from relatives, rivals, or others with an interest. Clergy

Clergy

Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....

probably played a key role in most Western cultures, as they continue to do in modern ones, especially where they are the most trusted mediators in the society. Matchmaking was certainly one of the peripheral functions of the village priest in Medieval Catholic society, as well as a Talmud

Talmud

The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....

ic duty of rabbi

Rabbi

In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...

s in traditional Jewish communities. Today, the shidduch

Shidduch

The Shidduch is a system of matchmaking in which Jewish singles are introduced to one another in Orthodox Jewish communities for the purpose of marriage....

is a system of matchmaking in which Jewish singles are introduced to one another in Orthodox Jewish

Orthodox Judaism

Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...

communities.

Matchmakers trade on the belief that romantic love

Romantic love

Romance is the pleasurable feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.In the context of romantic love relationships, romance usually implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person....

is something akin to a human right, and the modern net dating service is just one of many examples of a dating system where technology is invoked almost as a magic charm with the capacity to bring happiness. These services often rely on personality tests (but genetics

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

has even been proposed), aiming to maximize the identification of the best match.

The acceptance of dating systems, however, has created something of a resurgence in the role of the traditional professional matchmaker. Those who find dating systems or services useful but prefer human intelligence and personal touches can choose from a wide range of such services now available. According to Mark Brooks (an online personals and social networking expert), "you can actually find people who are compatible, and this is a major advance that is going to keep the industry alive for the upcoming 50 years". He also stated that matchmakers offer “a chance to connect” and “a chance to authenticate” prospects in ways the Web sites can’t.

In North America

There have been communities in The United States of America with matchmaking as recently as the 1960s. There is even a recently launched reality show called The Match Off
The Match Off
The Match Off is a national television series produced by . Hosted by Maria Sansone, the reality show airs on NBC after Saturday Night Live. The premise of the series is to have two professional matchmakers compete against each other to find the best date for a featured single person in each episode...

, in which two matchmakers compete to find the best date for a single person.

In Asia

In Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, the Social Development Unit

Social Development Unit

The Social Development Network , formerly known as "Social Development Unit" , is a governmental body under the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports which works closely with the community and commercial sectors to foster opportunities for singles to interact in social settings in...

(SDU), run by the city-state

City-state

A city-state is an independent or autonomous entity whose territory consists of a city which is not administered as a part of another local government.-Historical city-states:...

's government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

, offers a combination of professional counsel and dating system technology, like many commercial dating services. Thus the role of the matchmaker has become institutionalized, as a bureaucrat

Bureaucrat

A bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy and can comprise the administration of any organization of any size, though the term usually connotes someone within an institution of a government or corporation...

, and every citizen in Singapore has access to some subset of the matchmaking services that were once reserved for royalty

Royal family

A royal family is the extended family of a king or queen regnant. The term imperial family appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or "princely family" are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning...

or upper class

Upper class

In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...

es.

Matchmaking theories

A certain number of academics and practionners in sexology

Sexology

Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behavior, and function. The term does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sex, such as political analysis or social criticism....

(and marriage counseling) have tried to 'theorise' matchmaking in order to maximise its success. Matchmaking may for instance rely on personality test

Personality test

-Overview:There are many different types of personality tests. The most common type, the self-report inventory, involves the administration of many questions, or "items", to test-takers who respond by rating the degree to which each item reflects their behavior...

s trying to determine profiles that are more likely to be compatible with one another.

Academics include Pepper Schwartz

Pepper Schwartz

Pepper Schwartz, PhD, is an American sociologist and sexologist teaching at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, United States. She is the author or co-author of numerous books, magazines, website columns, and a television personality on the subject of sexuality.Schwartz is notable...

, Helen Fisher (anthropologist)

Helen Fisher (anthropologist)

Helen E. Fisher is a Canadian-American anthropologist and human behavior researcher. She is professor at Rutgers University. Fisher has studied romantic interpersonal attraction for over 30 years. Prior to becoming a research professor at Rutgers University, she was a research associate at the...

, Neil Clark Warren

Neil Clark Warren

In promoting his books he has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, including Focus on the Family, The 700 Club, Geraldo, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.-External links:*, eHarmony.com....

, Hugo Schmale, or Claus Wedekind (matchmaking based on genetics