SEXUALITIES IN ANTRHOPOLOGY

• Substantial editorial introductions set each Part in context of the field, providing readers helpful background and explanatory notes.

• Presents a comprehensive collection of key historical and current readings in the social anthropology of sexuality
• Includes literature on both heterosexualities and same-sex sexualities
• Explores the key works and major debates of prominent scholars in the field, such as Mead, Malinowski, Newton, Herdt, and others
• Introduces readers to major theoretical developments (“essentialist” and “constructionist” positions)

Harriet Lyons is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of Waterloo, Ontario.

Introduction: Problems in Writing About Sex in Anthropology. 

1. The Bubble, the Burn, and the Simmer: Locating Sexuality in Social Science (Kath Weston).

Part I Sex, Race and Gender in Anthropological History.

2. Which Bodies Matter? Feminism, Poststructuralism, Race and the Curious Theoretical Odyssey of Hottentot Venus (Zine Magubane).

Part II Primitive Promiscuity and Matriarchal Theory (“Oversexed Savages”).

3. Origin of the Family (Frederick Engels).

Part III Against Primitive Promiscuity (Fear of Sex). 

4. The Reconstruction of “Primitive Sexuality” at the Fin de Siècle (Andrew Lyons and Harriet Lyons).

5. The Sexual Instinct in Savages (Havelock Ellis).

6. The Mystic Rose: Selections (Ernest Crawley).

Part IV Early Work on Homosexualities. 

7. Pederasty (Richard Burton).

8 Homosexual Love (Edward Westermarck).

9 Hermaphrodism Among Gods and Mortals (Edward Carpenter).

10 The Zuñi La'mana (Elsie Clews Parsons).

Part V Heterosexual Freedoms (Elsewhere).

11 Prenuptial Intercourse Between the Sexes (Bronislaw Malinowski).

12 Formal Sex Relations (Margaret Mead).

13 Premarital Pregnancy and Native Opinion: A Note on Social Change (Isaac Schapera).

Part VI Sexual Repression: A Test Case.

14. Sex and Repression in an Irish Folk Community (John Messenger).

Part VII Virgin Birth. 

15 Ignorance of Physiological Paternity (Bronislaw Malinowski).

16 Tradition, Experience, and Belief (Ashley Montagu).

17 Virgin Birth (Edmund Leach).

Part VIII The Attack on Margaret Mead.

18 Sex and Hoax in Samoa: Was Margaret Mead Misled or Did She Mislead on Samoa? (Derek Freeman).

19 Sexual Morality in Samoa and Its Historical Transformations (Penelope Schoeffel).

20 Virginity and the History of Sex in Samoa (Paul Shankman).

Part IX Genital Cutting.

21 Genital Cutting: The Past and Present of a Polythetic Category (Harriet D. Lyons).

Part X Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender.

22. 'Role Models' (Esther Newton).

23. Notes and Queries on Sexual Excitement in Sambia Culture (Gilbert Herdt).

24. Causing a Commotion: Public Scandal as Resistance Among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes (Don Kulick).

25. Between Religion and Desire, Being Muslim and GAY in Indonesia (Tom Boellstorff).

26. The Semiotics of Transgendered Sexual Identity in the Thai Print Media (Megan Sinnott).

27. The Categories Themselves (David Valentine).

Part XI Heterosexuality Today.

28. A Good Spouse is Hard to Find: Marriage, Spouse Exchange, and Infatuation Among the Copper Inuit (Pamela R. Stern and Richard G, Condon).

29. Love and the Risk of HIV (Daniel Jordan Smith).

30. Beyond Pain, Towards Pleasure in the Study of Sexuality in Africa (Rachel Spronk).

Index.