The Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies

Front Cover
McFarland, Jan 14, 2009 - Social Science - 478 pages

This groundbreaking work draws on a vast range of research into human sexuality to demonstrate that homosexuality is not a phenomenon limited to a small minority of society, but is an aspect of a complex sexual harmony that the human race inherited from its animal ancestors. Through a survey of the patterns of sexual expression found among animals and among societies around the world, and an examination of the functional role homosexual behavior has played among animal species and human societies alike, the author arrives at some provocative conclusions: that a homosexual or bisexual phase is a normal part of sexual development, that same-sex relations play an important balancing role in regulating human reproduction, that many societies have institutionalized homosexual traditions in the past, and that the harsh condemnation of homosexuality in Western society is a relatively recent phenomenon, unique among world societies throughout history.

This well researched and meticulously documented book is the first that integrates into a coherent picture the startling revelations about human sexuality coming from the recent work of sexual researchers, psychologists, anthropologists and historians. The view that emerges, of an ambisexual human species whose complex sexual harmony is being thwarted by the imposition of an artificial understanding of nature, represents a new way of thinking about sex.

 

Contents

The Heterosexual Myth
5
THE INHERITANCE OF NATURE
11
SameSex Behavior Among Indigenous Peoples
26
The Ambisexual Harmony of Human Sexuality
57
AMBISEXUAL TRADITIONS IN WORLD CIVILIZATIONS
79
Homosexual Customs of the Early IndoEuropeans
115
The Age of Heroes LoveInspired Valor
130
Educational Homosexuality in Classical Greece
144
A Thousand Years of Noble Love in Japan
269
Homosexual Love in the World of Islam
298
SEXUAL NEUROSIS IN WESTERN SOCIETY
319
The Propagation of Neurosis
359
Authoritarian Religion versus Human Ambisexuality
389
Sexual Neurosis in Modern Society
426
Chapter Notes
439
Bibliography
457

Homosexual Customs in
186
The Christianized Empire and
209
The Ancient Traditions of SameSex Love in China
234

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About the author (2009)

Independent writer James Neill has spent 12 years researching the role of homosexuality in society and in nature. A consultant in the information services industry, he worked previously in news and public affairs in Washington, D.C. as a writer and editor.

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