No culture is ever completely successful or satisfied with its synthesis of romantic love, companionship, and sexual desire. Whether the setting is a busy metropolis or a quiet farming village, a tension always exists between a community's sexual habits and customs and what it believes to be the proper context for love. Even in Western societies, we prefer sexual passion to romance and companionship, and no study of any culture has shown that individuals regard passion and affection equally.
The pursuit of love and sex has generated an infinite number of ambiguities and contradictions, yet every community hopes to find a resolution to this conflict either by joining, dividing, or stressing one act over the other. In this follow-up to Romantic Passion: A Universal Experience?, William R. Jankowiak examines how different cultures rationalize the expression of passionate and comfort love and physical sex. He begins by mapping out the intricacies of the love/sex conundrum and the psychological dilemma of reconciling these competing forces. He then follows with essays on sex, love, and intimacy among Central African foragers and farmers; the love dyad in Lithuania; intimacy among the Lahu of Southwestern China; the interplay of love, sex, and marriage in the High Himalayas; verbalized experiences of love and sexuality in Indonesia; love work as it relates to sex work among prostitutes; intimacies and estrangements in the marital and extramarital relationships of Huli men; infidelity and masculinity in Southwestern Nigeria; and the ritual of sex and the rejuvenation of the love bond among married couples in the United States.
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1. Desiring Sex, Longing for Love: A Tripartite Conundrum
- 2. A Biocultural Approach to Sex, Love, and Intimacy in Central African Foragers and Farmers
- 3. Self, Other, and the Love Dyad in Lithuania: Romantic Love as Fantasy and Reality (Or, When Culture Does and Doesn’t Matter)
- 4. “With One Word and One Strength”: Intimacy Among the Lahu of Southwest China
- 5. Interplay of Love, Sex, and Marriage in a Polyandrous Society in the High Himalayas of India
- 6. Voiced Intimacies: Verbalized Experiences of Love and Sexuality in an Indonesian Society
- 7. Love Work in Sex Work (and After): Performing at Love
- 8. “She Liked It Best When She Was on Top”: Intimacies and Estrangements in Huli Men’s Marital and Extramarital Relationships
- 9. Intimacy, Infidelity, and Masculinity in Southeastern Nigeria
- 10. “I Have His Heart, Swinging Is Just Sex”: The Ritualization of Sex and the Rejuvenation of the Love Bond in an American Spouse Exchange Community
- Appendix
- Contributors
- Index
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