ANTH 1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Revised Version, Trobriand Islands, Lady Gaga
Document Summary
The complex range of desires, beliefs, and behaviors that are related to erotic physical contact, intimacy, and pleasure. The cultural arena within which people debate ideas about what kinds of physical desires and behaviors are morally right, appropriate, and natural. There is an underlying idea that sexuality is simply a natural behavior: after all, humans have to reproduce. However, humans take sexuality far beyond simple intercourse for the purpose of reproduction. We are socialized and enculturated into our societies ideas about sexuality as we grow up. Our cultural institutions tell us what is right and proper (schools, churches, government) Elvis presley: his dancing and its influence over thoughts on sexuality. Cultural sexual behaviors: cultural variation in sexual behaviors, habitual responses of different people to different parts of the body, cultures vary in what is considered erotic. The trobriand islanders inspected each other for lice to express fondness (like holding hands) French consider hugs to be very intimate.
