Sex and the Anthropologist

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Sex and the Anthropologist

• Sexuality in the field was treated as a joke,
  brushed aside with funny anecdotes about how to
  avoid romantic encounters or embarrassment
  (Ashkenazi and Markowitz 1999 1).
• every fieldwork situation will include numerous
  circumstances in which sexual relations between
  anthropologists and individuals in the field
  would be unethical and exploitative (Kullick
  1995 22).

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Sexuality and anthropology

• Marriage, kinship, exchange, power relations, etc
• Malinowski The sexual life of savages 1929
• Mead Coming of Age in Samoa A Psychological
  Study of Primitive Youth for Western
  Civilization 1928, Sex and Temperament in Three
  Primitive Societies 1935, Male and Female A
  Study of the Sexes in a Changing World 1949

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anthropology was reluctant to direct attention to
their own sexuality

• Depersonalized objective behavior
• The ethnographer free of pre-conceived notions
  empty vessel, ethnocentric epoche
• Self-negation of subjectivity
• Objectivity at all time asexual anthropologist

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Historical and institutional contexts

• USA emphasis on scientific objectivism required
  to record cultures
• UK functionalist emphasis on ontology as opposed
  to epistemology
• Passive anthropologist was required free from
  subjective interference and contamination

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This notion that the ethnographer was a detached
gatherer of facts imposed constraints on the
importance of personal behaviour and desires of
both the locals and the anthropologist relations
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12.19.17. Got up at 7. Yesterday, under the
mosquito net, dirty thoughts Mrs.. (H.P) Mrs.
C. and even Mrs. W. I thought that even if E.
R. M. had been here, this would not have
satisfied me. Dirty thoughts about C. R. The
doctrine of this man that youre doing a woman a
favour if you deflower her(1967 156).
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Can ignoring the importance of sex in field
research be theoretically and methodologically
problematic?
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• Silence could obstruct the process of
  understanding the theoretical, methodological and
  personal consequences of sexual encounters, and
  desires, in the field

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(Ashkenazi and Markowitz) Sexuality issues have
become important because

• Research on women, sex roles, gender ideology and
  sexuality became important subject matter of
  anthropology.
• The recognition of the centrality of subjectivity
  in understanding cultural meanings including
  sexual behaviour.
• By recognising subjectivity we have also
  recognised the imbalance of power in personal
  relationships

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It becomes clear that

• People do not accept the notion that the
  anthropologists in the field is mentally and
  cultural asexual
• Silencing of sexuality became a reflection of
  other types of silencing shaping people into a
  mould
• Illuminates the politics of anthropology

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Lack of attention of sexual matters involving
researchers and informants reflects not only on
societal avoidance of public discussion of issues
surrounding sexual relations but also it reflects
on the history of anthropology
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Sexual drives have powerful influences on social
behaviour (Winkelman 1999)

• Sexual intimacy can help you manage your drives
  in particular contexts
• Understand mores about sexual behaviour
• Problems loosing objectivity going native
• Escape challenges in the new culture
• Find a safe identity
• Rapid language learning

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By considering sexuality we learn that

• Sexual relationships can play an important role
  in helping anthropologist adapt to and learn
  about another culture
• With time the priorities of the discipline are
  changing
• The main issue in anthropological understandings
  is experience sexuality differ from culture to
  culture, from context to context and from person
  to person

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Why is the discussion of sexuality and the
anthropologists still considered risky?

• Fear of exposing people to activities still
  considered taboo
• Writing on a genre that blurs the boundaries
  between ethnography and autobiography invites
  criticism of self indulging, navel gazing, and
  lack of credibility
• May endanger carefully cultivated relationships
  with informants

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Discussion questions

• Do sexual matters in field research have an
  impact in all types of anthropological
  understandings?
• What kind of an impact does sexuality have in
  anthropology today?

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