The Anthropology of Sex

Description

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.

Hastings Donnan is Professor of Social Anthropology at Queen's University Belfast. Fiona Magowan is Lecturer in Anthropology at the Queen's University Belfast.

"This excellent book brings together cutting edge theory with a wide range of ethnographic evidence. It is a fascinating account of sexuality and all its many facets, raising issues of power, pleasure, taboo and more. An intriguing and engrossing read." - Heather Montgomery, Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies, The Open University "This volume not only brings sex - finally - into the centre of a discipline concerned with the different ways that people deal with the basics of human life, it is also a perfect combination of cross-cultural comparison and fieldwork examples at its best." - Dieter Haller, Chair for Social Anthropology, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum