14 Aug 2016

Why a Matchmaker?

For centuries, the matchmaker enjoyed the honored, if occasionally ridiculed, position of ensuring ethnic identity and compatibility. Groups that wanted this assurance regularly employed the services of a matchmaker, who earned a  percentage of the dowries.

Today, the modern version of the matchmaker is found on dating and compatibility websites .  Dating websites can match individual backgrounds and traits so accurately that two people brought together for a date can be assured of “common interests” at the very least.   In any event, it is only the dating that can be arranged, not the marriage.  So matchmaking of a sort has not disappeared; it has merely changed its appearance and emphasis, as is the case with any custom that expresses enduring human needs.