Traditional, indigenous, non-western, pre-colonial sexuality
and gender
and
What happens to them in the European imperialist period
and
The modern and post-modern setting?
EWS 407
May 23, 2002, 1-2:50
3:108, Cal Poly
An Anthropological Look at Same-Sex Love
When I went to Senegal - goor-jigeen; ceet
Nigeria - woman-woman marriage among Hausa
- global perspective on homosexuality
- considerable literature now; when I was in grad school in the
'70s, almost none
- important distinction between
DESIRE (personal feeling)
BEHAVIOR (individual and group acts)
IDENTITY (political/social/cultural affiliation)
- all of which informed by culture, experience, and heredity (social
constructivist perspective - can't understand persons outside
of communities)
- research perspective: the two most difficult topics: Money and
Sex
- research problem: local cultural rights vs. universal human
rights
language, definition, culture
- problem with terms like 'traditional', 'indigenous', 'family'(co-opted
by fundamentalists)
- in anthropology, tradition refers to a long-standing cultural
practice, such as Greek boy love or the extended family household
in many places, not to any institution of the past (e.g., 1950s
TV imaginary nuclear family) that people want to elevate; indigenous
refers to a custom, belief, product, etc., of a native or original
people, not just anything believed to be primordial or primitive
(usually fantasy, such as "killer ape man")
So, what's out there?
gender variation, third sex (two spirit)
hijras
xanith
berdache/amazon
goor-jigeen, jigeen-goor
Albanian virgins, woman-woman marriage
ritual role reversal; ritual/festival license
transgender prostitutes/mistresses
female/male impersonators (performers)
sexual behavior variation (i.e., non-heterosexual)
Lesotho mummy/baby
bathhouses, harems in the ME (hidden or re-coded)
initiation ritual
age-stratified relationships (e.g., Mediterranean pattern)
dominator/homosexual
age-graded relationships
sexual license granted social groups (e.g., low caste or high
caste)
sensuality in the absence of erectile tissue: FGM; eunuchs
All this and more present prior to contact with European colonial administration, economic incorporation and cultural domination. Oppression(s) and taboos present, too, of course. Traditional, indigenous doesn't mean nirvana. Control of children and their sexuality is a primal issue.
homosexualities still exist, but heading toward Western model
- no homosexuality in Africa? labelling or veracity problem
- traditional forms of homosexuality now in jeopardy in developing
countries (disappeared in industrialized ones), due to association
of gay identity with Western colonial experience (bad), even though
gay identity is a modern construct and to repressive nature of
independent governments (post-colonial)
- formerly open-minded environments such as Middle East became
hostile ones
modernity: pulling apart of the social gestalt/community; disembedding,
fragmentation
- colonization, imperialist Europe, contact with Asia, Pacific,
Africa, ME, Americas, even indigenous people of Europe
- mission civilisatrice
- economic empire
- urbanization, politicization
mixed blessings of the enlightenment - secularization, freedom
from faith-based everything, science
- no values rhetoric around economic exploitation, political violence,
but plenty of it around gender and sexuality; laissez-faire for
mercantilism and industrialism, repression for social and cultural
variation
- most important thing for capitalism is to get people to work
and buy things (and throw 'em away), so some freedom allowed,
especially if it's commodifiable, as sex readily is
- 'culture wars' and conservative ideology distract workers and
the poor from the realities of capitalism, scapegoating gays,
women, people of color
- role differentiation, wage labor, high mobility create identity
politics
authoritarian government goes with repression and discrimination
of all sorts
- even nice people in authoritarian, stratified settings don't
want to lose control
- worst thing for them is to lose control of their children; protective
of institutions like marriage (privilege)
- formation of sub-cultures
some religions encourage that feeling/need of control and privilege
post-colonial culture contact problems for queer theory/queer
activism
1) media - who speaks for and about us?
2) U.S. companies (gender segregation in Saudi, execution by "the
wall" method in Afghanistan)
3) retaining diversity in our community (e.g., butch/femme, traditional
age pairing, non-political sex … )
4) constructing queer perspective within cross-cultural diversity
(non-Eurocentric)
5) homophobia from Left (some Marxist-Leninist puritans) and Right
Some Interesting Works in the Field of Cross-Cultural Sexual Diversity
Abraham, Keshia Nicole, Patricia McFadden, et al., Reflections
on Gender Issues in Africa. New York: SAPES Books, 2002.
Bawer, Bruce, Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity.
New York: Three Rivers Press, 1997.
Blackwood, Evelyn, "Breaking the Mirror: The Construction
of Lesbianism and the Anthropological Discourse on Homosexuality,"
Journal of Homosexuality 11(3/4):1-17, 1985.
Boswell, John, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality.
Chicago: University of Chicago, 1980.
Campbell, Jan, Arguing with the Phallus. Feminist, Queer and Postcolonial
Theory: A Psychoanalytic Contribution. New York: St. Martin's
Press, 2000.
Constantine-Simms, Delroy, ed., The Greatest Taboo : Homosexuality
in Black Communities. Los Angeles : Alyson Books, 2001.
Duberman, Martin, Martha Vicinus and George Chauncey, Jr., eds.,
Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay & Lesbian Past. New
York: Meridian, 1989.
Eder, Franz X., Lesley Hall, and Gert Hekma, Sexual Cultures in
Europe. Vol. II: Themes in Sexuality. Manchester: Manchester University
Press, 1999.
Faderman, Lillian, To Believe in Women: What Lesbians have done
for America - a History. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1999.
Foucault, Michel, The History of Sexuality. New York: Random House,
1978.
Fox, Robin, "Human Nature and Human Rights," The National
Interest Winter 2002.
Garber, Marjorie, Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural
Anxiety. New York: Routledge, 1991.
Gay, Judith, "'Mummies and Babies' and Friends and Lovers
in Lesotho," Journal of Homosexuality 11(3/4):97-116, 1985.
Guattari, Felix, "Becoming-Woman," Hatred of Capitalism/A
Semiotext(e) Reader, ed. Chris Kraus and Sylvere Lotringer. Los
Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2001.
Herdt, Gilbert, Sambia Sexual Culture. Chicago: University of
Chicago, 1999.
Money, John, Gendermaps : Social Constructionism, Feminism, and
Sexosophical History. New York: Continuum, 1995.
Murray, Stephen O., Homosexualities. Chicago: University of Chicago,
2000.
Murray, Stephen O. and Will Roscoe, Islamic Homosexualities. New
York: New York University Press, 1997.
Murray, Stephen O. and Will Roscoe, eds., Boy-Wives and Female-Husbands.
Studies in African Homosexualities. New York: Zed, 2001.
Nanda, Serena, Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India. Belmont:
Wadsworth, 1990.
Roscoe, Will, ed., Changing Ones. Third and Fourth Genders in
Native North America. New York: St. Martin's, 1998.
Roscoe, Will, The Zuni Man-Woman. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press, 1991.
Taylor, Timothy, The Pre-history of Sex: Four Million Years of
Human Sexual Culture. New York: Bantam, 1997.
Vanita, Ruth and Saleem Kidwai, eds., Same-Sex Love in India.
New York: St. Martin's, 2000.
Werbner, Richard and Terence Ranger, Postcolonial Identities in
Africa. Zed Books.
Weston, Kath, Long Slow Burn. Sexuality and Social Science. New
York: Routledge, 1998.
Wikan, Uni. "Man becomes woman: Transsexualism in Oman as
a key to gender roles," Man 12:304-19, 1977.
Williams, Walter L., The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity
in American Indian Culture. Boston: Beacon, 1986.
Young, Antonia, Women Who Become Men. Albanian Sworn Virgins.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.