Non-reproductive sex practices in Asia have historically been a
source of fascination, prurient or otherwise, for Westerners, who
being either Catholic or Protestant, were often struck by what they
perceived as the widespread promiscuity and licentiousness of
native inhabitants. Graphic descriptions, and pious denunciations,
of sodomy, bestiality, transvestitism, and incest, abound in
Western travel narratives, missionary accounts, and ethnographies.
But what constituted indigenous sexual morality, and how was this
influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, and
Christianity over time and place? What sex practices were tolerated
or even encouraged by society, community, and religious ritual, and
what acts were considered undesirable, transgressive and worthy of
punishment?
Sexual Diversity in Asia, c. 600-1950 is the first book to
foreground same- sex acts and pleasure seeking in the histories of
India, China, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia.
Drawing on a range of indigenous and foreign sources, the
contributors, all renowned experts in their fields, shed light on
indigenous notions of gender and the body, social hierarchies,
fundamental ideas concerning morality and immorality, and episodes
of seduction. The book illuminates - in striking case studies
attitudes toward non-procreative sex acts, and representations and
experiences of same-sex pleasure seeking in the histories of
Asia.
This path-breaking book is an important contribution to the
study of gender and sexuality in Asian cultures and will also
interest students and scholars of world history.
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