Sex : ethnographic encounters / edited by Richard Joseph Martin and Dieter Haller.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Martin, Richard Joseph, editor.

Haller, Dieter, editor.

Series:

Encounters--experience and anthropological knowledge

Encounters: experience and anthropological knowledge

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sex.

Anthropology.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 204 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London, UK ; New York, NY : Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.

Summary:

Focusing on the unacknowledged, personal and often unconscious dimension, Sex explores the intersection between sex and ethnography. Anthropological writing tends to focus on the influence of status markers such as position, gender, ethnicity, and age on fieldwork. By contrast, far less attention has been paid to how sex, sexuality, eroticism, desire, attraction, and rejection affect ethnographic research. In the book, anthropologists reflect on their own encounters with sex during fieldwork, revealing how attraction and desire influence the choice of fieldwork subjects, field sites and friendships. They also examine the resulting impact on fieldwork findings and the generation of knowledge. Based on fieldwork in Germany, Denmark, Greece, the USA, Brazil, South Africa, Singapore, Turkey, Israel, Morocco, and India, the contributors go beyond the common heterosexuality/homosexuality divide to address topics which include celibacy, polyamory and sadomasochism. This long overdue text provides perspectives from a new generation of anthropologists and brings the debate into the 21st century. Examining challenging and controversial issues in contemporary fieldwork, this is essential reading for students in anthropology, gender and sexuality studies, sociology, research methods, and ethics courses.

Contents:

Part 1 Institutions

1 Towards an Intimately "Impure" Ethnography: Considering the Limits of Non-Participant Observation p. 3 / Timothy M. Hall

2 When Bodies Talk: Indulging Ethnography p. 15 / Sebastian Mohr

3 "She Goes with the Refugees": Desire and Power Amid the Politics of Asylum in Greece p. 27 / Heath Cabot

Part 2 Interpellations

4 A Camel Walks into a Brothel: Passing Anxieties in the Sexual Economies of Brazil p. 47 / Gregory Mitchell

5 The Anthropologist's New Clothes: Ethnographic Exposure and BDSM p. 59 / Richard Joseph Martin

6 Dating a Gypsy Punk Musician: Cultural Appropriation and Ethnographic Fieldwork Among Brazilian Romanies p. 73 / Diana Budur

Part 3 Intimacies

7 In Bed with My Informant (and Her Lover/s): Navigating Intimacy and Ethics in Singapore p. 87 / Adlina Maulod

8 All Acts of Love and Pleasure are My Rituals: Fieldwork and Erotic Subjectivity in an American NeoPagan Community p. 101 / Susan Harper

9 Invulnerable Men and Dangerous Women: Encountering HIV Risk Perception in Urban South Africa p. 115 / Hans Reihling

10 Public Vegetarianism and Public Menstruation: Staging Chastity Among Jains in Gujarat p. 127 / Andrea Luithle-Hardenberg

Part 4 Incommensurabilities

11 The Naked Fear: Desire and Identity in Morocco p. 145 / Dieter Haller

12 Faux Amis: On the Morals of Not Being Gay in Istanbul p. 157 / Samuel Williams

13 Im/possibilities in the Field: Lessons from Jerusalem p. 169 / Robert Phillips

14 Guide to Further Reading p. 179 / William L. Leap.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

ISBN:

9781474294713

1474294715

9781474294706

1474294707

OCLC:

993420937

Publisher Number:

99978707416