Seeking info on courtship customs.

[Sunny dewbae]

Hello, I am working on a short story in which one of my characters goes to meet a potential partner. She has magic abilities and there is cultural pressure for her to have children who may inherit some of her abilities thus strengthening the empire. She is meeting a son of a famous general. Before I start writing about their first meeting I would like to learn about courtship practices from different cultures. Does anyone have some resources that they can share? books, articles, etc

 

[Eleanor Konik]

Here's a pretty cursory overview of Courtship "in the west" that you might find useful: The 4000 Year History of Courtship by Thomas Umstattd Jr.

Many indigenous American cultures did things differently, of course: Trial Marriage in the Andes on JSTOR (jstor is free during the pandemic, you just have to sign in)

This article about marriage in Africa gets at the very heart of what courtship and partnership even means: Marriage in Africa

If you narrow down the scope of your question a little I can probably help more