Same Sex, Different Cultures: Exploring Gay And Lesbian Lives [Paperback]

Gilbert H Herdt (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0813331641 | ISBN-13: 978-0813331645 | Publication Date: April 24, 1998

Because homoerotic relations can be found in so many cultures, Gilbert Herdt argues that we should think of these relations as part of the human condition. This new cross-cultural study of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals around the world, Same Sex, Different Cultures provides a unique perspective on maturing and living within societies, both historical and contemporary, that not only acknowledge but also incorporate same-gender desires and relations.Examining what it means to organize “sex” in a society that lacks a category for “sex,” or to love someone of the same gender when society does not have a “homosexual” or “gay/lesbian” role, Herdt provides provocative new insights in our understanding of gay and lesbians lives. Accurate in both its scientific conceptions and wealth of cultural and historical material, examples range from the ancient Greeks and feudal China and Japan to the developing countries of Africa, India, Mexico, Brazil, and Thailand, from a New Guinea society to contemporary U.S. culture, including Native Americans. For all of these peoples, homoerotic relations emerge as part of culture—and not separate from history or society.In many of these groups, loving or engaging in sexual relations is found to be the very basis of the local cultural theory of “human nature” and the mythological basis for the cosmos and the creation of society. The mistake of modern Western culture, Gilbert contends, is to continue the legalization of prejudice against lesbians and gays.In this light, the book addresses the issue of “universal” versus particular practices and reveals positive role models that embrace all aspects of human sexuality. Finally, it offers knowledge of the existence of persons who have loved and have been intimate sexually and romantically with the same gender in other lands through divergent cultural practices and social roles.The most important lesson to learn from this cross-cultural and historical study of homosexuality is that there is room for many at the table of humankind.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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

From Library Journal

This ambitious volume tries but misses. Seeking to give a worldwide overview of his topic, Herdt (Children of Horizons, LJ 7/93) succeeds only in providing a cursory introduction to the gay and lesbian culture in the United States. No new information is provided, just a rehashing of much of what was published a decade ago. Herdt gives "developing countries" short shrift and covers well-documented cultures like Greece and some in Asia a mere four pages each, though he is to be commended for including age- and role-structured homoerotic relations in the few areas of the world he decides to cover. Lesbians will be especially disappointed. Serious readers would do better with more substantive works like Bret Hinsch's Passions of the Cut Sleeve: The Male Homosexual in China (LJ 9/1/91). Public libraries will want, but research collections may want to pass on this one.?Kevin M. Roddy, Univ. of Hawaii at Hilo Lib.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press (April 24, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813331641
• ISBN-13: 978-0813331645
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #981,057 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars As you like it., May 13, 2000

By 

SEBASTIANVS "libra64" (TOKYO Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Same Sex, Different Cultures: Exploring Gay And Lesbian Lives (Paperback)

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.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Challenging and insightful, January 1, 2001

By 

John Rice (Milwaukee, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Same Sex, Different Cultures: Exploring Gay And Lesbian Lives (Paperback)

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.