Sex, Sexuality, and the Anthropologist

Sex, Sexuality, and the Anthropologist PDF

Author: Fran Markowitz

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780252067471

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Sex in the field--the dilemma of whether to cover up or display sexual identities and desires during the course of anthropological fieldwork--is one of the best-kept secrets in the discipline. Contending that the conventional pose of a genderless, asexual, ethnographic researcher is impossible to sustain, this volume brings sex and sexuality into the open as essential components of ethnographic study that must be overtly recognized and proactively addressed. Sex, Sexuality, and the Anthropologist recounts the real-life experiences of anthropologists who are forced to acknowledge that their hosts in the field view them as gendered beings in a social context, not as asexual, objective observers. Far from controlling the research environment and defining the terms of interviewer-informant relationships, these researchers find they must engage in a process of negotiating their position--including their sexual position--within the communities they study. Ranging from public baths in Austria to lesbian bars in Taiwan and from Mexico to Nigeria to Finland to Japan, Sex, Sexuality, and the Anthropologist raises critical questions about ethnographers' reflexivity, subjectivity, and detachment, confronting the challenge of a holistic approach to the anthropological enterprise.

The Anthropology of Sex

The Anthropology of Sex PDF

Author: Hastings Donnan

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-05-31

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1000183211

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Sex scholarship has a long history in anthropology, from the studies of voyeuristic Victorian gentlemen ethnographers, to more recent analyses of gay sex, transsexualism, and the newly visible forms of contemporary sexuality in the West. The Anthropology of Sex draws on the comparative field research of anthropologists to examine the relationship between sex as identity, practice and experience. Sexual cultures vary enormously and, while often the topic of tabloid titillation, they are more rarely subjected to strict cultural analysis. The Anthropology of Sex is the first work to critically synthesise over a century of comparative expertise, knowledge and understanding of diverse sexual forms. - Explores sexuality from diversity to perversity and asks how diverse sexual practices are linked. - Probes the cultural and comparative context of contemporary sexual practice and belief. - Examines the shaping of sex by global and globalizing forces. The Anthropology of Sex will be key reading for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in anthropology and related disciplines.

Taboo

Taboo PDF

Author: Don Kulick

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2003-09-02

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1134880928

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A look at sexuality in anthropological fieldwork. The author looks at how the anthropologists sexual identity in their 'home' society affects the kind of sexuality they are allowed to express in other cultures.

Sex

Sex PDF

Author: Richard Joseph Martin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-05-27

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 1000181103

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Focusing on the unacknowledged, personal and often unconscious dimension, Sex explores the intersection between sex and ethnography. Anthropological writing tends to focus on the influence of status markers such as position, gender, ethnicity, and age on fieldwork. By contrast, far less attention has been paid to how sex, sexuality, eroticism, desire, attraction, and rejection affect ethnographic research. In the book, anthropologists reflect on their own encounters with sex during fieldwork, revealing how attraction and desire influence the choice of fieldwork subjects, field sites and friendships. They also examine the resulting impact on fieldwork findings and the generation of knowledge. Based on fieldwork in Germany, Denmark, Greece, the USA, Brazil, South Africa, Singapore, Turkey, Israel, Morocco, and India, the contributors go beyond the common heterosexuality/homosexuality divide to address topics which include celibacy, polyamory and sadomasochism. This long overdue text provides perspectives from a new generation of anthropologists and brings the debate into the 21st century. Examining challenging and controversial issues in contemporary fieldwork, this is essential reading for students in anthropology, gender and sexuality studies, sociology, research methods, and ethics courses.

Sex

Sex PDF

Author: Richard Joseph Martin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-05-27

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 1000184285

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Focusing on the unacknowledged, personal and often unconscious dimension, Sex explores the intersection between sex and ethnography. Anthropological writing tends to focus on the influence of status markers such as position, gender, ethnicity, and age on fieldwork. By contrast, far less attention has been paid to how sex, sexuality, eroticism, desire, attraction, and rejection affect ethnographic research. In the book, anthropologists reflect on their own encounters with sex during fieldwork, revealing how attraction and desire influence the choice of fieldwork subjects, field sites and friendships. They also examine the resulting impact on fieldwork findings and the generation of knowledge. Based on fieldwork in Germany, Denmark, Greece, the USA, Brazil, South Africa, Singapore, Turkey, Israel, Morocco, and India, the contributors go beyond the common heterosexuality/homosexuality divide to address topics which include celibacy, polyamory and sadomasochism. This long overdue text provides perspectives from a new generation of anthropologists and brings the debate into the 21st century. Examining challenging and controversial issues in contemporary fieldwork, this is essential reading for students in anthropology, gender and sexuality studies, sociology, research methods, and ethics courses.

Anthropology and Sexual Morality

Anthropology and Sexual Morality PDF

Author: Carles Salazar

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 1785334840

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The history of sexual morality in Ireland has been traditionally associated with repression. In the last two decades, however, repression seems to have given way to its exact opposite. But where did this “repression” originate? And how can we account for this sudden and sweeping transformation in sexual mores? Based on solid ethnographic and historical analysis of sexual morality in rural Ireland, augmented by comparative data from Papua New Guinea, and being informed by from Freud’s emblematic concept of repression, the author draws new conclusions that not only apply to the specific case of his Irish material but shed new light on the specific nature of an anthropological approach to the study of human societies.

Human Sexual Behavior

Human Sexual Behavior PDF

Author: Central States Anthropological Society (U.S.)

Publisher: New York : Basic Books

Published: 1971-02-03

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13:

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"Surprisingly -- in this era of proliferating interest in sex research -- the comparative study of human sexual behavior, in all its variation and diversity, has received insufficient attention. Here, eight eminently qualified scholars -- seven anthropologists and one sociologist -- provide a detailed look at the sexual practices, attitudes, and mores of representative societies from one side of the world to the other, and from their observations, the editors formulate a number of hypotheses about human sexual behavior in general. As shown in this volume, human sexual behavior runs the gamut from extreme social inhibition to extreme permissiveness. The great variety of sexual practices, coital techniques, sexual taboos, attitudes towards "perversions," and other aspects of sexuality described in this book attests not only to the malleability of the human personality, but also -- as seen from the perspectives of anthropology -- to the frightening power of society to govern the expression of a basic human drive. This volume, characterized by the scholarship of other volumes from the Kinsey Institute, promises to be a landmark in the anthropological study of sex."--Jacket.

Irregular Connections

Irregular Connections PDF

Author: Andrew P. Lyons

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2004-12-01

Total Pages: 437

ISBN-13: 080320437X

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Irregular Connections traces the anthropological study of sex from the eighteenth century to the present, focusing primarily on social and cultural anthropology and the work done by researchers in North America and Great Britain. Andrew P. and Harriet D. Lyons argue that the sexuality of those whom anthropologists studied has been conscripted into Western discourses about sex, including debates about prostitution, homosexuality, divorce, premarital relations, and hierarchies of gender, class, and race. Because sex is the most private of activities and often carries a high emotional charge, it is peculiarly difficult to investigate. At times, such as the late 1920s and the last decade of the twentieth century, sexuality has been a central concern of anthropologists and focal in their theoretical formulations. At other times the study of sexuality has been marginalized. The anthropology of sex has sometimes been one of the main faces that anthropology presented to the public, often causing resentment within the discipline. Andrew P. Lyons is an associate professor of anthropology at Wilfrid Laurier University. Harriet D. Lyons is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Waterloo.

Culture, Biology, and Sexuality

Culture, Biology, and Sexuality PDF

Author: David N. Suggs

Publisher: University of Georgia Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 0820320595

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As the anthropological study of sex becomes more focused within the discipline, this volume offers a cross-section of current research that examines the biological and cultural interface of sexuality. Through articles dealing with the difficulties in obtaining observational data and the relationship between biological and cultural influences, the contributors seek to understand why anthropology has not been better able to integrate behavioral and ideological approaches. Contributions range from methodological concerns such as the proposal for more holistic studies and the problem of relying strictly on people’s reports of their sexual behavior, to substantive issues such as cultural implications of biological research and how different cultures distinguish between romantic love and erotic sex. Integrating a wide range of viewpoints, the volume demonstrates that the study of sexuality is becoming more relevant to anthropology and provides a touchstone for scholars confronted with an increasingly bewildering array of approaches to this topic.