The Cultural Construction of Sexuality

Introduction; 1: Questions of identity; 2: ‘Facts of life' or the eroticization of women's oppression? Sexology and the social construction of heterosexuality; 3: Reason, desire, and male sexuality; 4: A note on gender iconography: the vagina; 5: Social and cognitive aspects of female sexuality in Jamaica; 6: Honour and shame: the control of women's sexuality and group identity in Naples; 7: Beyond the Samoan controversy in anthropology: a history of sexuality in the eastern interior of Fiji 1; 8: ‘Selling her kiosk': Kikuyu notions of sexuality and sex for sale in Mathare Valley, Kenya 1; 9: Rank, gender, and homosexuality: Mombasa as a key to understanding sexual options; 10: Celibacy as a solution? Mahatma Gandhi and Brahmacharya 1

Illustrates the argument that sexuality is not a `thing in itself' but a concept that can only be understood with reference to economic, political and social factors.