Cross-Cultural Human Sexuality
Spring 2003
TTH 1:30-2:45 PM
SH 368
Instructor: Julian M. Murchison
Office: SH 346
Office Hours: MW 1:30-3:30, or by appointment
Email: murchjm@millsaps.edu
Phone: Ext. 1437
Contents:
Course Description
Required Readings
Course Requirements
Class Policies
Class Schedule
Does everybody think about sex? How often? Why does sex seem to be such an important and pressing concern for many, if not all, human beings? Does “sex” mean the same thing for everybody? Many people argue that human sexual activity is a direct result of human evolution and the biological need for reproduction. However, many others point to the tremendous cultural diversity surrounding human sexual activity around the world and suggest that our shared biology does not provide a sufficient basis for understanding and explaining human sexuality. In this course, we will examine ethnographic evidence from various cultural settings as well as theories about human sexuality to evaluate competing answers about the nature and fundamental building blocks of human sexuality. We will discuss and analyze the specifics of human sexuality that vary from culture to culture and society to society. Consideration of culturally specific attributes of human sexuality will involve putting these attributes into a larger social and cultural context in order to understand their significance and relevance. We will also look to identify aspects of human sexuality that are shared across cultural and social groups and ask ourselves whether we can provide explanations for these shared aspects of human sexuality.
Texts:
Tanenbaum, Leora
2000 Slut! Growing up Female with a Bad Reputation. New York: Perennial.
Altman, Dennis
2001 Global Sex. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Markowitz, Fran and Michael Ashkenazi, eds.
1999 Sex, Sexuality, and the Anthropologist. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois.
Carrillo, Héctor
2002 The Night is Young: Sexuality in Mexico in the Time of AIDS. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Herdt, Gilbert H.
1999 Sambia Sexual Culture: Essays from the Field. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Gregor, Thomas
1990 Anxious Pleasures: The Sexual Lives of an Amazonian People. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Selected Articles (Reserve Readings):
Abramson, Paul and Steven D. Pinkerton
1995 “Introduction: Nature, Nurture, and In-Between.” In Sexual Nature, Sexual Culture. Paul R. Abramson and Steven D. Pinkerton, eds. Chicago: University of Chicago. pp. 1-16.
Pavelka, Mary S. McDonald
1995 “Sexual Nature: What Can We Learn from a Cross-Species Perspective?” In Sexual Nature, Sexual Culture, 17-36.
de Waal, Frans D. M.
1995 “Sex as an Alternative to Aggression in the Bonobo.” In Sexual Nature, Sexual Culture, 37-56.
Demasi, Sophia
2003 “I Just Want to be Normal: Initiation into Heterosexual Dating.” In Sexual Lives: A Reader on the Theories and Realities of Human Sexualities. Robert Heasley and Betsy Crane, eds. Boston: McGraw-Hill. pp. 108-119.
Ingraham, Chrys
2003 “Ritualizing Heterosexuality: Weddings as Performance.” In Sexual Lives, 235-245.
Sanday, Peggy Reeves
1990 Fraternity Gang Rape: Sex, Brotherhood, and Privilege on Campus. New York: New York University. Selections (1-37, 135-155).
Walkowitz, Judith
1996 “The Politics of Prostitution.” In Feminism and Sexuality: A Reader. Stevi Jackson and Sue Scott, eds. New York: Columbia University. pp. 288-296.
Dworkin, Andrea
1996 “Pornography.” In Feminism and Sexuality, 297-299.
Kappeler, Susanne
1996 “Subjects, Objects and Equal Opportunities.” In Feminism and Sexuality, 300-306.
Alexander, Priscilla
1996 “Prostitution: A Difficult Issue for Feminists.” In Feminism and Sexuality, 342-357.
Høigård, Cecilie and Liv Finstad
1996 “Prostitutes and Their Clients.” In Feminism and Sexuality, 358-366.
Day, Sophie and Helen Ward
1996 “The Praed Street Project: A Cohort of Prostitute Women in London.” In Feminism and Sexuality, 367-372.
Anarfi, John K.
1998 “Ghanaian Women and Prostitution in Cote d’Ivoire.” In Global Sex Workers: Rights, Resistance, and Redefinition. Kamala Kempadoo and Jo Doezema, eds. New York: Routledge. pp. 104-113.
Kempadoo, Kamala
1998 “The Migrant Tightrope: Experiences from the Caribbean.” In Global Sex Workers, 124-138.
Fusco, Coco
1998 “Hustling for Dollars: Jineterismo in Cuba.” In Global Sex Workers, 151-166.
Ebron, Paula
1997 “Traffic in Men.” In Gendered Encounters: Challenging Cultural Boundaries and Social Hierarchies in Africa. Maria Grosz-Ngate and Omari H. Kokole, eds. New York: Routledge. pp. 223-244.
Bowman, G.
1989 “Fucking Tourists: Sexual Relations and Tourism in Jerusalem’s Old City.” Critique of Anthropology 9(2):77-93.
1) Attendance and Participation (20%) – This class will depend on active participation on everyone’s part. Therefore, I expect you to come to class prepared to discuss the materials under consideration in an intelligent and anthropologically informed manner. Your attendance and participation grade will suffer if you have more than two unexcused absences. In order to earn a good attendance and participation grade, you must not only attend class but participate productively in class discussions. If you have any concerns about your class participation, feel free to talk to me about it at any point during the course of the semester.
2) Discussion Leadership (10%) – Each of you will be responsible for leading class discussion in pairs at several points during the course of the semester. In most cases, we will begin the class with these peer-led discussions. You should identify relevant topics, themes, and issues for discussion and aim to foster a discussion that engages the whole class in a useful manner. In order to facilitate an interesting and dynamic class discussion, you will need to do significant preparation prior to coming to class. Feel free to consult with me during your preparations for leading class discussion.
3) Midterm Exam (15%) – The midterm exam will be an open-book take-home exam. The exam will consist of approximately five short answer questions and one essay question. You will have 48 hours to complete the exam.
4) Short Essays (30%) – These short essays will be approximately 1,250-1,750 words in length. I will provide you with a list of possible topics from which you will choose one. These topics will concern the readings and related discussions from that section of the course.
5) Final Research Paper (25%) – For the final research paper, you will research a topic of your own choosing that falls under the broad heading of cross-cultural human sexuality. This paper should be based on extensive library research and represent a synthesis of different research findings and theoretical perspectives. In Week 6, you will be required to submit a paper proposal that details your proposed research topic and the initial sources that you plan to consult.
The dates provided on this syllabus for the submission of assignments are deadlines. You should submit all assignments by the beginning of the class meeting on the date due. You should also keep a hard copy of all assignments and save them on disk for your own records. Late submissions will only be accepted at the discretion of the instructor and, if accepted, will be penalized half of a letter grade (5%) for each day late. If legitimate, unavoidable circumstances require you to seek an extension, make sure you consult with me about an extension as early as possible before the deadline. No work will be accepted after the final exam date.
If you miss class, for whatever reason (i.e., excused or unexcused, including due to late registration), you are responsible for making up any work.
Reading will provide the basis for class discussion and examination of key topics and issues. You are responsible for doing all of the reading on time. Read ahead if you can. If a reading assignment is listed for a particular day, that reading assignment should be completed prior to the class meeting on that day. In order for reading to be useful, you must comprehend and engage with the material. Therefore, reading involves more than simply passing your eyes over the text; it involves taking notes and thinking critically about the words on the page.
If you have a question about a topic covered in the readings, class, or elsewhere, please do not hesitate to ask me about it. You are welcome to contact me over email or to come to see me in office hours, but I also encourage you to ask questions in class, where your classmates can benefit from your questions.
As students at Millsaps, you have all pledged to abide by the Millsaps Honor Code. I expect you to meet the high standards of academic honesty embodied in the Honor Code. Academic honesty is vital for our intellectual endeavors. Plagiarism and other forms of cheating are acts of dishonesty. If I find that a student has been academically dishonest, college policies require that I report the case to the academic dean for consideration by the Honor Council. Please take your responsibilities under the Honor Code very seriously. You should always submit your own original work for this class and cite all sources upon which you have drawn in developing papers and other projects. I will be unable to grade your work if you fail to provide proper citations. If you have questions about these issues, please see me.
If you are challenged with a learning disability, it is your responsibility to register with Student Services and to inform me of any allowances granted by the college. I will be happy to work with you to make sure that we arrange for the appropriate allowances.
Week 1 (1/13/03-1/17/03): Introduction
Tuesday (1/14): Syllabus
Thursday (1/16): Abramson and Pinkerton, 1-16; Pavelka, 17-36; de Waal, 37-56
Week 2 (1/20/03-1/24/03): Sexual Identities and Power
Tuesday (1/21): Tannenbaum, xiii-xix, 1-72
Thursday (1/23): Tannenbaum, 73-156
Week 3 (1/27/03-1/31/03): Sexual Identities and Power (cont.)
Tuesday (1/28): Tannenbaum, 157-240
Thursday (1/30): Demasi, 108-119; Ingraham, 235-245; Sanday, 1-37, 135-155
Week 4 (2/3/03-2/7/03): Sexual Freedom among the Mehinaku?
Tuesday (2/4): Gregor, 1-51
Thursday (2/6): Gregor, 52-130
Week 5 (2/10/03-2/14/03): Sex, Freud, and the Mehinaku
Tuesday (2/11): Gregor, 131-161
Thursday (2/13): Gregor, 162-210
*SHORT ESSAY #1 DUE*
Week 6 (2/17/03-2/21/03): Sexual Identities and Rituals among the Sambia
Tuesday (2/18): Herdt, 1-55
Thursday (2/20): Herdt, 56-128
Week 7 (2/24/03-2/28/03): Herdt and the Sambia (cont.)
Tuesday (2/25): Herdt, 129-221
Thursday (2/27): Herdt, 222-298
*MIDTERM EXAM*
Week 8 (3/3/03-3/7/03): Sexualities in Mexico
Tuesday (3/4): Carrillo, ix-xiii, 1-78
Thursday (3/6): Carrillo, 79-128
SPRING BREAK!
Week 9 (3/17/03-3/21/03): Sexualities in Mexico (cont.)
Tuesday (3/18): Carrillo, 129-208
Thursday (3/20): Carrillo, 209-310
Week 10 (3/24/03-3/28/03): Commerical Sex
Tuesday (3/25): Walkowitz, 288-296; Dworkin, 297-299; Kappeler, 300-306; Alexander, 342-357; Høigård and Finstad, 358-366; Day and Ward, 367-372
Thursday (3/27): Anarfi, 104-113; Kempadoo, 124-138; Fusco, 151-166
Week 11 (3/31/03-4/4/03): Political Economy, Tourism, and Sex
Tuesday (4/1): Ebron, 223-244; Bowman, 77-93
Thursday (4/3): Altman, ix-xii, 1-51
Week 12 (4/7/03-4/11/03): Political Economy and Sex
Tuesday (4/8): Altman, 52-121
Thursday (4/10): Altman, 122-164
*SHORT ESSAY #2 DUE*
Week 13 (4/14/03-4/18/03): Sex and the Anthropologist
Tuesday (4/15): Ashkenazi and Markowitz, 1-56
Thursday (4/17): Ashkenazi and Markowitz, 57-116
Week 14 (4/21/03-4/25/03): Sex and the Anthropologist
Tuesday (4/22): Ashkenazi and Markowitz, 117-160
Thursday (4/24): Ashkenazi and Markowitz, 161-206
*FINAL RESEARCH PAPER DUE*