Dennis WERNER. Human sexuality around the world. Unpublished manuscript, University of Santa [ page 1 ] Caterina, Florianopolis, Brazil, 1986 INTRODUCTION In a historic decision in July of 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Georgia sodomy laws punishing, with up to 20 years in prison, unorthodox sexual behavior between consenting adults in Human sexuality around the world private 1. In justifying the Court's decision, Chief Justice Burger argued that proscriptions against sodomy have very 'ancient roots,' and went on to point out the injunctions against homosexual activi- ties in Roman, English and American law 2. To anthropologists, familiar with the sexual customs in a much larger number of societies, including many societies more ancient than Rome, this justification [ page i ] sounds peculiarly hollow. While some societies may indeed be more restrictive of variant sexual prac- tices than the United States, others are much more acceptant. If Chief Justice Berger had only gone CONTENTS one step back in time to ancient Greece he would have discovered a Western culture where homo- sexuality, far from being proscribed, was actually considered a highly commendable activity. As we INTRODUCTION 1 shall see, many other societies studied by anthropologists also consider homosexuality, and many CROSS-CULTURAL VARIATION IN SEXUALITY 3 other variant sexual practices as well, to be quite normal and acceptable. THEORIES ABOUT SEXUALITY 6 In part Chief Justice Berger's reluctance to consider cases other than Rome, England and the United States may have been due to a deliberate unwillingness to consider counterexamples to his SEX IN CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE 9 argument about historical precedent. In part it may also have been due to a genuine lack of public information about sexual practices around the world. Anthropologists are partially to blame for this. CHILDREN'S SEXUALITY IN OTHER CULTURES 10 While recent years have seen a number of excellent anthropological studies on human sexuality, there SEXUAL RELATIONS BETWEEN ADULTS AND CHILDREN 13 is still a certain reluctance on the part of many anthropologists to study this topic, which is often seen SEX BEFORE MARRIAGE 18 as a frivolous pursuit when compared with "more important" topics like food-getting techniques or religion. In the past, matters were much worse. In a well-known book published in the early sixties, SEX IN MARRIAGE AND OLD AGE 30 one anthropologist known to SEX IN MARRIAGE 31 [ p2 ] SEX AFTER MARRIAGE AND IN OLD AGE 40 this author wrote extensively about some of the sexual practices of the society he studied, but was afraid to mention others considered too taboo for Americans, including anthropologists. As a result of SEXUAL ATTRACTIVENESS AND SEXUAL STIMULATION 46 these problems there are very few anthropological field studies devoted to sexual behavior. Most of SEXUAL ATTRACTIVENESS 46 our information comes from short statements, often only a paragraph or two, made in the course of a SEXUAL STIMULATION 58 more general account of a society's customs. Systematic studies of actual sexual behavior in other societies comparable to the Kinsey studies in the U.S. are very rare. HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONS 72 The lack of more reliable information about sex in other societies is especially regrettable when we MALE HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONS 72 consider that many of the most heated public debates in the United States involve sexual issues like TRANSVESTISM AND EXCLUSIVE HOMOSEXUALITY 81 homosexuality, prostitution, pornography, rape, or children's exposure to sex. The making of wise FEMALE HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONS 85 decisions about these issues would surely be helped by a more thorough knowledge of how other societies deal with these questions. There may have been a time in U.S. history when it was a major revelation simply to show that a small society somewhere in the world considered as normal a sexual OTHER SEXUAL MATTERS 91 practice that Americans abhorred. Today, the public is sophisticated enough to know that what is RAPE 91 good for one society may not be good for another. So anthropologists need to do more than just PROSTITUTION 94 describe the different sexual practices found around the world. They must explain why cultures have INCEST 98 these different customs. It is these explanations (if they are valid!) that can help us to understand PARAPHILIAS (BESTIALITY, NECROPHILIA, SADO-MASOCHISM) 101 sexuality in our own culture and to make better decisions about sexual issues. As we shall see, some anthropological explanations are fairly successful in distinguishing the socie- VIEWS ON THE BIOLOGY OF SEX 106 ties that have a given sexual practice from those that do not. Other explanations are not at all suc- cessful, and should probably be rejected as unsatisfactory. Most explanations, however, have never CONCLUSION 116 really been "put to the test" so we do not yet know whether they could actually account for the cross- cultural variation in sexuality. At the end of each section of the book I tried to clarify what, we don't NOTES TO CHAPTERS 120 know about human sexuality at least as much as what we do know in the hopes that this will inspire others to engage in more systematic research. 1 "A Government in the Bedroom," Newsweek July 14, 1986, page 36. http://www.denniswerner.com.br/dennis.htm 2 ."Bowkers v. Hardwick," U.S. Supreme Court Reports 92 L.Ed 2d, no.1 August 27, 1986, pages 148 ff. Human sexuality around the world.doc 04/05/13 à 12:05 1 [ p3 ] stimulate them 14. The Trukese even believe that menstruation is impossible until a girl has first had 15 One valuable resource for research on these questions is the Human Relations Area Files sexual intercourse . As adolescents, and even in middle age, men sing love songs and write elabo- 16 [ http://www.yale.edu/hraf/ ]. Most major university libraries possess at least a partial copy of the rate love letters to their sweethearts, flattering them and expressing undying devotion . To further Human Relations Area Files in their microfilm room, and it would be worth a trip to become ac- entice potential sexual partners, the men sometimes make pornographic inscriptions on trees and use 17 quainted with the files. The files consist of books and articles written by anthropologists, missionaries obscene gestures to attract a women out of a crowd in order to engage in sexual intercourse . 18 and other travellers about some 300 different societies around the world. All of the pages in these Trukese women tatoo the upper inside of their thighs to make themselves sexually attractive . Since manuscripts have been indexed and filed according to topic. (The index numbers referring to sexual a vagina "with more things in it" is considered more desirable, they also pull on the labia to stretch activities are 830 to 839.) To find information, simply pull out the microfiche for the society and index them, and sometimes they perforate the labia in order to insert objects that tinkle when they walk 19 category you want, and read the marked pages. With over four million pages filed away, the Human with their legs apart .19 (Women sometimes insult each other by accusing their adversaries of hav- Relations Area Files are a treasure house of information. Because most anthropological information on ing a vagina with nothing in it. At this point both women strip off their skirts and those present pass 20 sex is tucked away in paragraphs hidden in the middle of ordinary books about a society, using the judgment on the validity of the accusations. ) At night, boys use specially made, and Human Relations Area Files is the best way to find this information. In fact, most of the materials for this book derive either directly or indirectly from the files. [ p5 ] CROSS-CULTURAL VARIATION IN SEXUALITY individualized "love staffs" to push under the huts and up to the beds of their girlfriends. If the girl Ever since the first organisms to reproduce sexually evolved some two billion years ago, sex has grabs the staff, this serves as an invitation for the boy to enter. If she pushes it away, this means "go 21 been a basic aspect of life on earth, as important to survival (at least across generations) as food. Yet away ." If sex partners are unavailable, men think nothing of masturbating in public. They simply the biological underpinnings for sex do not mean that sex is everywhere the same. Among humans, turn their backs to the group. Women and girls also masturbate, sometimes while showing their geni- 22 23 the variations in sexual practices, sexual urges and sexual ideology, are as great as for any other form tals to other girls . Men sometimes stimulate themselves watching the women bathe , and the 24 of human behavior. Some societies are extraordinarily prudish about sexual contacts of any kind; women like to fill their vaginas with coconut meat and have dogs perform cunnilingus on them . others extremely permissive of all kinds of sexual practices. In some areas of rural Ireland, considered For the Trukese, intercourse between a man and a woman often lasts hours, the man trying to re- by several scholars to be one of the most sexually restricted places on earth, children are protected strain his climax, while giving the woman multiple orgasms 25. Some of their sexual activities would from references to any kind of sexual activity. It is even improper to mention pregnancy in their pres- make many an American sailor blush. The most popular position is for the man to sit with his legs ence 3, and girls are not told about menstruation, which is an unexpected traumatic experience for stretched out, while the woman faces him, seated on the ground or lying back.