SEXUALITY IN MARRIAGE: CROSS-CULTURAL OBSERVATIONS

Apr
07
2009

Posted by: admin in Categories: Men's Health-Erectile Dysfunction.
Using Tags: Men’s Health

Anthropology has shared with the other social sciences a Victorian reticence to include investigation of sexual behavior among its interests in diverse cultural groups. Little more than a decade ago, an analysis (Marshall) of ten leading anthropology textbooks concluded that sexual behavior was accorded neither space nor attention in the basic formulations of anthropological knowledge. This lack of attention in the profession did not come from lack of either interest or knowledge; indeed, Suggs and Marshall noted that researchers might be interested in and know quite a bit about the sexual behavior of “their people,” without ever including such information in their scholarly books and articles. Scientists who violated the taboo on writing about sex risked their reputation, or at least the onus of being thought too interested in “pornography,” or too ready to violate the privacy of their subject groups. Stimulated by the work of Masters and Johnson, however, papers and monographs have begun to appear, and there is now a knowledge base sufficient to inform us of the diversity of sexual practices among earth’s people.

Patterns of sexual behavior among people do not arise independently or quixotically in some random fashion. Rather, they are part of society and culture, and reflect patterns of sex roles, beliefs about men and women, religious beliefs, notions of modesty and socialization practices, population and ecological factors, and other characteristics of a particular group. As Rostand said, in the joining of two human bodies, all society is the third presence.

An example of the interrelationship between sexual and nonsexual phenomena is an analysis by Friedl of sex roles in foraging and horticultural societies. She suggests that the universality of a degree of male dominance is the male monopoly on hunting game and their power to distribute it. If male hunting is minimal, and both sexes collect the plants which comprise most of the diet, women’s status is more equal to that of men. Women have the lowest status in groups whose main food is big game hunted entirely by the men. The importance of variations in patterns of male dominance is especially noted in marital sex relations. If woman has a more equal status, because of her role in providing a large share of the food, she has considerable autonomy in sexual matters. She may initiate sex and expect satisfaction. She may divorce, and her adultery is not more serious than is the husband’s. If her status is very low, the male being sole provider of all food, she may have no control over sexual relations in or out of marriage. Among the Eskimo, for example, who subsist on big game or sea mammals hunted by men only, the sexual services of women are considered a commodity that men can take at will, or give or exchange to another man. Pubertal girls are fair game for any man, and wives are freely exchanged among men who wish to make alliances with one another or to repay favors (Friedl).