The Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies

The Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies
James Neill | 2009-01-05 00:00:00 | McFarland | 478 | History
This groundbreaking work draws on a vast range of research into human sexuality to demonstrate that homosexuality is not a phenomenon limited to a small minority of society, but is an aspect of a complex sexual harmony that the human race inherited from its animal ancestors. Through a survey of the patterns of sexual expression found among animals and among societies around the world, and an examination of the functional role homosexual behavior has played among animal species and human societies alike, the author arrives at some provocative conclusions: that a homosexual or bisexual phase is a normal part of sexual development, that same-sex relations play an important balancing role in regulating human reproduction, that many societies have institutionalized homosexual traditions in the past, and that the harsh condemnation of homosexuality in Western society is a relatively recent phenomenon, unique among world societies throughout history. This well researched and meticulously documented book is the first that integrates into a coherent picture the startling revelations about human sexuality coming from the recent work of sexual researchers, psychologists, anthropologists and historians. The view that emerges, of an ambisexual human species whose complex sexual harmony is being thwarted by the imposition of an artificial understanding of nature, represents a new way of thinking about sex.
Reviews
I found this book to be very easy to read and helpful in understanding both homosexuality and human nature. I was raised in a religious setting where it was believed that homosexuality was an evil spirit that was to be cast out through united prayer.

Being raised in a foreign country that accepted homosexuality as natural as hetrosexuality confused me, and I found this book helpful in understand the way sexuality was viewed in Japan.

The argument in this book was englightening as it was very conviencing as to how human nature changed over the course of history while the biological urges did not.

This book, in my opinion, is helpful to those who do not fully understand homosexuality, and encourages a new outlook concerning human nature in general.

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