Anthropology of Sexuality I: History and Ethnography

elective courses
elective courses
general courses

Participation in the course requires proficiency in English sufficient for reading of academic texts.

Classroom

The goal of Anthropology of Sexuality I: History and Ethnography is to familiarize students with issues of cultural and social construction of sexuality in its various manifestations (such as norms of sexual behaviour or partner selection, intersections between sexual and gender identities, or sexual contexts of social organisation), using examples from historical and contemporary cultures. A secondary goal is to show the difficulties and opportunities that arise when this subject is brought up in research. This course is also meant to serve as an introduction to the subsequent course Anthropology of Sexuality II: Politics, Feminism, Queer which will introduce students to more theoretical and less accessible writing in contemporary field of study of sexuality.

Anthropology of Sexuality I is meant to be based mostly on working with specific, historical and anthropological examples of sexual cultures. After a short, theoretical introduction, each class will consist on working on a text devoted to a specific issue. Aside from introducing students to the particular sexual culture, it serves a double goal. It allows for a regular and cyclical demonstration of cultural construction of sexuality on many different layers of society, as well as allows for introducing "by the way way" various theoretical contexts (for example in how analysis of antique Greek homosexuality is also preparation for future discussions on queer critiques of the idea of sexual orientation). Keeping to specific and characteristic examples is also meant to make classes more engaging for students, more than just being introduced to "dry" theoretical texts would be.

Finally, the course is also meant to show students how to move beyond hetero- and cis- normative narratives on human sexuality and its history.

Preliminary course plan:

1. Introduction. The first few classes will be devoted to introducing basic terms from the field of anthropology of sexuality (primarily the distinction between constructivism and essentialism as well as between sex and gender), as well as for familiarizing students with the aims of the anthropological study of sexuality.

2. Antiquity. Sample questions: marriage and position of women in ancient Greece and Rome, homosexualism in the classical era, influence of early Christianity on sexual norms of the West.

3. Middle Ages. Sample questions: construction of sex and gender in early Medieval Europe, sexual violence and slavery in the Middle Ages, the shifting role of marriage in the Western culture during at the break of the millennium, eroticism of the chivalric culture and courtly romance.

4. Early modern era. Sample questions: changes in sexual mores in the early modern era, folk sexual cultures, libertarianism as a culture of sexual resistance, sexuality, race gender and violence in the colonial order.

5. 19th century. Sample questions: medicalisation of the sexual body in 19th century medicine, evolutionism and psychiatry as new ways of understanding sexual difference, early ethnography and sex, invention of homosexuality and invention of heterosexuality.

6. Towards current day. Sample questions: sexual revolution and its limits, homosexual cultures before gay liberation movement, the question of transsexuality in mid 20th century.

Boswell, J. , Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, Vintage Books: New York 1995.

Crane, E. F., Witches, Wife Beaters, and Whores. Common Law and Common Folk in Early America. Cornell University Press: Ithaca 2011.

Donham, D. L., Wyzwalanie Republiki Południowej Afryki. Unowocześnianie seksu pomiędzy mężczyznami Soweto, w: Antropologia seksualności. Teoria, etnografia, zastosowanie, red. A Kościańska, przeł. M. Petryk, WUW, Warszawa 2012.

Duby, G., Rycerz, kobieta i ksiądz. Małżeństwo w feudalnej Francji, przeł. Hanna Geremek, PIW: Warszawa 1986.

Elias, N., Przemiany obyczajów w cywilizacji Zachodu, tłum. Tadeusz Zabłudowski, PIW: Warszawa 1980.

Glover, C. J., Maiden Warriors and Other Sons, “The Journal of English and Germanic Philology”, Vol. 85, No. 1, 1986.

Halberstam, J., Female Masculinity, Duke University Press: Durham and London 1998.

Historia ciała t. 2: Od rewolucji do I WŚ, red: A. Corbin, przeł. rzeł. Krystyna Belaid i Tomasz Stróżyński. Słowo/obraz terytoria: Gdańsk 2013.

Illouz, E., Dlaczego miłość rani. Studium socjologiczne, Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej: Warszawa 2016.

Karras, R. M., Seksualność w średniowiecznej Europie, przeł. Arkadiusz Bogaj, PIW: Warszawa 2012.

Katz, J. N., The Invention of Heterosexuality, The University of Chicago Press: Chicago and London 2007.

Kennedy, E. L., Davis, M., Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold. A History of a Lesbian Community, Routledge: New York and London 2014.

Kościańska, A., Płeć, przyjemność, przemoc. Kształtowanie wiedzy eksperckiej o seksualności w Polsce, WUW: Warszawa 2014.

Lyons, A. P., Lyons, H. D., Irregular Connections: A History of Anthropology and Sexuality, University of Nebraska Press: Lincoln and London 2004.

Muchembled, R., Orgazm i Zachód: historia rozkoszy od XVI wieku do dziś, tłum. Maria Baran i Magdalena Madej, Wydawnictwo Aletheia: Warszawa 2013.

Pomeroy, S., Spartan Women, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002.

Pomeroy, S., The Murder of Regilia. A Case of Domestic Violence in Antiquity, Harvard University Press, Cambridge 2007.

Rubin, G., Rozmyślając o seksie. Zapiski w sprawie radykalnej teorii polityki seksualności, przeł. Joanna Mizielińska, “Lewą Nogą” nr. 16, 2004.

Stryker, S., Transgender History. The Roots of Today’s Revolution, Seal Press: New York 2017.

Vigarello, G., Historia gwałtu od XVI do XX wieku, tłum. Anna Leyk, Wydawnictwo Aletheia: Warszawa 2010.

Weeks, G., Wynalezienie seksualności, w: Antropologia seksualności. Teoria, etnografia, zastosowanie, red. A Kościańska, przeł. M. Petryk, WUW, Warszawa 2012.

Wyatt, D. , Slaves and Warriors in Medieval Britain and Ireland, 800–1200, Brill: Leiden 2009.

Having finished the course, a student will:

-have a basic working knowledge of the codependence of culture and sexuality

-be able to point to ideological foundations of various notions of sexuality and sex research, and also to appraise their influence on the shaping of the public discourse

-be able to critically participate in the public debate on the transformations of sexuality and the aspects of culture that are associated with it

Activity during class and oral test at the end of the course.

During the semester, studentds are allowed 2 absences.