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Exotics and Erotics: Human Cultural and Sexual Diversity
In the current, fast-paced information age, implicit and explicit images and messages relating to sex and sexuality abound. But sex and sexuality often are misconstrued and misunderstood by those who perceive them through the narrow lens of their own place and time. Middleton's fundamentally anthropological treatment explores universal human sexuality in conjunction with its local manifestations in specific cultural contexts. He distributes many case studies throughout to illustrate the exploration of such topics as the body, patterns of sexuality, sexual behavior, romantic passion, marriage, and kinship, among others. This lively, authoritative text fills unrealized gaps in knowledge by taking readers to new realms in understanding themselves and "others."
- GenresNonfiction
160 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 17, 2010
Fuck this book.
Last year when I cast my net in search of potential texts for the "Human Sexuality 101" class I teach at Rutgers, several people recommended Exotics and Erotics to me. It came into my periphery too late to check it out and add to the syllabus, but I decided I would check it out as potential reading for a future class.
It's short - only 120 pages, so I thought it might be a good alternative to a hardcover formal text book to cover some basic stuff. Well: I will stick to my plan of assigning short articles, especially stuff that's written in the first person about real experiences.
Where to begin?
Middleton is an anthropologist, and to make the point that sexuality is not natural and varies among cultures, he does this: he provides us with examples of sexual customs in African tribes. Thank for for explaining it all, oh beneficent white social scientist! Not only that, but as the basis for MANY examples in the book, he repeatedly refers to a book called "The Sex Lives of Savages" (which - trivia! - I actually own a copy of, due to my dad's sharp eye in scouting weird books in used book shops). That book was published in 1929.
Um, really? There hasn't been a better ethnography since 1929?
Let's skip ahead to the chapter on "Sexual Issues" and the definition of prostitution: "selling sexual services indiscriminately for payment." Awesome. This whole chapter is basically about bad things that men do to women: prostitution, pornography, sexual violence. That's pretty straightforward, right?
And for our final trick, let's look up trans in the index... oh, right. It isn't in there. No discussion of trans stuff at all.
The whole book is built around the consideration of a heterosexual, cisgender existence, with the added bonus of slathering on the author's moral compass, while also purporting to be (as the back cover says): "A comprehensive framework by which to organize facts and interpret sexual diversity in all times and places..."
I haven't felt this pissed off about a text in a while. This is a terrible representation of what the study and analysis of sexuality can be - but unfortunately, it's probably a pretty good representation of what the study of sexuality IS. Ugh. I just don't think it's possible to have one book that can successfully summarize a chunk of issues about sexuality. Or at least: this book fails miserably.
Last year when I cast my net in search of potential texts for the "Human Sexuality 101" class I teach at Rutgers, several people recommended Exotics and Erotics to me. It came into my periphery too late to check it out and add to the syllabus, but I decided I would check it out as potential reading for a future class.
It's short - only 120 pages, so I thought it might be a good alternative to a hardcover formal text book to cover some basic stuff. Well: I will stick to my plan of assigning short articles, especially stuff that's written in the first person about real experiences.
Where to begin?
Middleton is an anthropologist, and to make the point that sexuality is not natural and varies among cultures, he does this: he provides us with examples of sexual customs in African tribes. Thank for for explaining it all, oh beneficent white social scientist! Not only that, but as the basis for MANY examples in the book, he repeatedly refers to a book called "The Sex Lives of Savages" (which - trivia! - I actually own a copy of, due to my dad's sharp eye in scouting weird books in used book shops). That book was published in 1929.
Um, really? There hasn't been a better ethnography since 1929?
Let's skip ahead to the chapter on "Sexual Issues" and the definition of prostitution: "selling sexual services indiscriminately for payment." Awesome. This whole chapter is basically about bad things that men do to women: prostitution, pornography, sexual violence. That's pretty straightforward, right?
And for our final trick, let's look up trans in the index... oh, right. It isn't in there. No discussion of trans stuff at all.
The whole book is built around the consideration of a heterosexual, cisgender existence, with the added bonus of slathering on the author's moral compass, while also purporting to be (as the back cover says): "A comprehensive framework by which to organize facts and interpret sexual diversity in all times and places..."
I haven't felt this pissed off about a text in a while. This is a terrible representation of what the study and analysis of sexuality can be - but unfortunately, it's probably a pretty good representation of what the study of sexuality IS. Ugh. I just don't think it's possible to have one book that can successfully summarize a chunk of issues about sexuality. Or at least: this book fails miserably.
November 13, 2009
The book was informative, but hipocritical. The author makes a point of discussing the negative points of using sex to sell products, but look at the cover of his book!!!
April 29, 2009
I really liked the first chapter, but the second chapter was a little heavy on the this-is-the-basic-idea-behind-anthropology. Definitely interesting, even though I'm not sure if I agree with Malinowski (sp?) being referenced so much, since Weiner has proved his findings wrong (or at least outdated).
October 2, 2011
For a textbook, I actually loved this book. We get so used to our Americanized ways of sex and behavior that I found this book incredibly fascinating in how other cultures handle the nuances of sex and sexual behavior. Who knew?
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews