Anthropology and Sexual Morality A Theoretical Investigation [Paperback]

The history of sexual morality in Ireland has been traditionally associated with repression. In the last two decades, however, repression seems to have given way to its exact opposite. But where did this repression originate? And how can we account for this sudden and sweeping transformation in sexual mores? Based on solid ethnographic and historical analysis of sexual morality in rural Ireland, augmented by comparative data from Papua New Guinea, and being informed by from Freuds emblematic concept of repression, the author draws new conclusions that not only apply to the specific case of his Irish material but shed new light on the specific nature of an anthropological approach to the study of human societies.

Carles Salazaris lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Lleida. He gained his PhD degree at the University of Cambridge, and has carried out ethnographic fieldwork in Ireland and Catalonia. His main research has been focused on different aspects of Irish society and culture: rural economy, religious beliefs, family organization and history of sexual morality. He has also done research on the history of anthropology and on the cultural understanding of biomedicine and genetics among infertile couples in Barcelona. His latest publications include the bookA Sentimental Economy(Berghahn Books, 1996).

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART I: APPROACHES TO HUMAN SEXUALITY

Chapter 1.Sex in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea
Chapter 2.Freud and the Repressive Hypothesis
Chapter 3.Foucault: Sex as Culture

PART II: POWER, MEANING AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE: AN IRISH CASE-STUDY

Chapter 4.Irish Sexual Morality and Family Systems
Chapter 5.Functionalist Dilemmas
Chapter 6.The Peculiarities of Irish Demography
Chapter 7.Imaginil'