Moving well beyond the bedroom door
Friday, 31 August 2007
Royce Mahawatte
Homosexuality is often seen as coming from elsewhere. The Greeks appear to have invented it; foreigners brought it to the west, or, conversely, they took it to indigenous people. The aristocracy could not help partaking of it and thinkers and moralists could not help but theorise about it. In the 16th century, Protestant reformers took satirical verse on the "sodomitical papacy" as irrefutable evidence of Italian depravities. Homosexuality is a love that bears many names and incarnations. It is so much more than just a sex act.
Gay Life and Culture takes on an ambitious task. Drawing on the "many paths of historical research" that have come into their own in recent decades, this collection of essays provides a sweeping narrative, but also includes many of the nuances and complexities that the subject needs. Edited by Robert Aldrich, it is both a scholarly and a lusciously presented popular work, taking the shifting, often conflicting ways in which homosexuality has been experienced, and placing them against wider historical trends.
The chapter on Greek and Roman cultures discusses the role of pederastic homosexuality as an initiation ritual into manhood and, more culturally, into philosophical questions about the nature of love and the self. Early modern Christian culture outlawed acts of physical intimacy between same-sex couples, while at the same time cults of friendship were an essential part of socialisation. Such cults appear throughout history as a corollary to mainstream culture and gay life: in l6th century Florence, socio-sexual patterns between men often functioned to cement male professional or political hierarchies.
The book also explores the persecution that has always followed gay men and lesbians. We are shown how homosexuality was policed and found expression - during the 20th-century world wars, and how the rise of liberal politics in the post war period brought about significant cultural change. The impact of Aids in the 1980s and 1990s is covered, along with the benefits of health and sexual awareness that characterise our age.
What emerges is the truism that homosexuality has always existed, and that same-sex attraction has always been embedded in everyday life. Most objections to it have come from leaders who sought to instil norms of "biblical" sexual behaviour in their followers. The near, middle and far east have all played a role in allowing westerners to inhabit their sexual lives. The explorer Richard Burton, T.E. Lawrence, E.M. Forster, Andrè Gide and Gertrude Stein all had formative sexual experiences in the colonies. The homosexual practices of indigenous cultures have helped to validate claims that homosexuality is not simply a function of modern urban life.
Is there a need for this kind of history? Much of what is contained on these pages is the discussion of private matters: should the intimate not remain so? What this book proves is that documenting gay life is an exercise that draws on a vast range of disciplines and perspectives. The private is cultural in so many ways. If history can be seen as making sense of that which is obscured by society or by time, then this book is indeed an important one.
......................................
FT Syndication Service
Homosexuality is often seen as coming from elsewhere. The Greeks appear to have invented it; foreigners brought it to the west, or, conversely, they took it to indigenous people. The aristocracy could not help partaking of it and thinkers and moralists could not help but theorise about it. In the 16th century, Protestant reformers took satirical verse on the "sodomitical papacy" as irrefutable evidence of Italian depravities. Homosexuality is a love that bears many names and incarnations. It is so much more than just a sex act.
Gay Life and Culture takes on an ambitious task. Drawing on the "many paths of historical research" that have come into their own in recent decades, this collection of essays provides a sweeping narrative, but also includes many of the nuances and complexities that the subject needs. Edited by Robert Aldrich, it is both a scholarly and a lusciously presented popular work, taking the shifting, often conflicting ways in which homosexuality has been experienced, and placing them against wider historical trends.
The chapter on Greek and Roman cultures discusses the role of pederastic homosexuality as an initiation ritual into manhood and, more culturally, into philosophical questions about the nature of love and the self. Early modern Christian culture outlawed acts of physical intimacy between same-sex couples, while at the same time cults of friendship were an essential part of socialisation. Such cults appear throughout history as a corollary to mainstream culture and gay life: in l6th century Florence, socio-sexual patterns between men often functioned to cement male professional or political hierarchies.
The book also explores the persecution that has always followed gay men and lesbians. We are shown how homosexuality was policed and found expression - during the 20th-century world wars, and how the rise of liberal politics in the post war period brought about significant cultural change. The impact of Aids in the 1980s and 1990s is covered, along with the benefits of health and sexual awareness that characterise our age.
What emerges is the truism that homosexuality has always existed, and that same-sex attraction has always been embedded in everyday life. Most objections to it have come from leaders who sought to instil norms of "biblical" sexual behaviour in their followers. The near, middle and far east have all played a role in allowing westerners to inhabit their sexual lives. The explorer Richard Burton, T.E. Lawrence, E.M. Forster, Andrè Gide and Gertrude Stein all had formative sexual experiences in the colonies. The homosexual practices of indigenous cultures have helped to validate claims that homosexuality is not simply a function of modern urban life.
Is there a need for this kind of history? Much of what is contained on these pages is the discussion of private matters: should the intimate not remain so? What this book proves is that documenting gay life is an exercise that draws on a vast range of disciplines and perspectives. The private is cultural in so many ways. If history can be seen as making sense of that which is obscured by society or by time, then this book is indeed an important one.
......................................
FT Syndication Service