Same Sex, Different Cultures: Exploring Gay And Lesbian Lives

Same Sex, Different Cultures: Exploring Gay And Lesbian Lives
Gilbert H Herdt | 1998-04-24 00:00:00 | Westview Press | 224 | History
In a definitive account of gay and lesbian practices across ancient and contemporary cultures, within tribal, developing, and modern societies, author Gilbert Herdt reveals a diversity of sexuality and sexual practices that erases the lines between gay and straight love. Herdt shows that what we view as specifically gay and lesbian practice is treated as a natural expression of human nature in many other cultures.
In this wide-ranging and readable book, Gilbert Herdt suggests that field anthropologists have gathered so little information about homoeroticism in non-Western cultures because they are asking the wrong questions--sometimes out of indifference or embarrassment, but often on the shortsighted assumption that same-sex relations will take the same forms that they do in the Western world. Drawing on research into sexual initiation rites and "sexual lifeways" from Africa to the American Southwest, Herdt convincingly demonstrates that many cultures "simply lack categories or general concepts that cover the meanings of the contemporary notion of the homosexual." The Sambia people of New Guinea, for instance, whom Herdt studied for several years, consider a lengthy period of male sexual interaction to be a vital (in fact, mandatory) initiation into manhood, but have no words for a life devoted to a same-sex partner. Although Herdt had explained his own life choices to them many times, his Sambian friends persisted in trying to arrange marriages for him, "feeling sorry" that he had no wife or children. Rich in anecdotes, Herdt's book provides fuel for ongoing dinner party disputes over the nature/nurture question and changing cultural constructions of homosexuality. --Regina Marler
Reviews
Gilbert Herdt is an anthropologist who has studied sexual lifeways in a number of cultures. In this book he explores how homosexual lifeways in different cultures are constructed. Outside of western civilization the idea of a homosexual orientation does not appear in the consciousness of these cultures. Yet there are activities that look to the western mindas being blatantly homosexual. The difference as Herdt tries to point out is that they constitute an integral part of a society. These lifeways are present for a time or during part of a male's life and have a specific social purpose.

Briefly he reviews how the western world develop a sense of an orientation and how western societies have reacted to it. Herdt concludes that one ought not to adapt the constructs of another world, nor should one impose western ideaas in another part of the world. He claims one should acknowledge them with a sense of wonder.

Herdt wants to open debate about homosexual orientation and its place in western society. He observes that a recent study disputes that 10% of men are gay. That study shows it is closer to 2.6%. He shows that surveys that focus on the 12 largest cities in the United States show a much larger percentage of men preferring other men as sexual partners. He points this out because he has been maintaining throughout the book that answers are not simplistic. And that differences need to be explored.

While one might wish for a more comprehensive study of the ideas presented in this volume, Heerdt does indeed open the debate.
Reviews
Although this is a very interesting and readable book, I prefer to read a more comprehensive researched volume.
We can hardly find the new knowledge in the book. In addition, ther are several mistakes or misunderstandings ; e.g. in p.72-73 the author wrote "flower boys of Silla is notable from the Yin dynasty Korea".
If you like to read one more book about "same sex" relationship, you may choose the item, as you like it.

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