Ryerson University

[Name of Course]

Human Sexuality Diversity

[Instructor's name]

[Date completed]

Human Sexuality Diversity

Human sexuality holds a great interest for anthropologists. As a biological reality and a reproductive force, sexuality affects all humans. However, there is much diversity in the experience, expression, and interpretation of sexuality throughout the world. Using a holistic perspective, meaning that various aspects of the human experience are considered to be interrelated and interdependent, anthropologists consider biological as well as cultural factors in an attempt to understand and explain the dynamics of human sexuality.

Some anthropologists are particularly interested in the interrelationship between sexuality and human physical and cultural evolution. Physical changes in the human species over time have influenced the nature of sexuality. In turn, changes in sexual practices may have had an impact on the physical changes that humans have undergone.

If sexuality is a biological reality, it is nevertheless interpreted through the various cultural frameworks in which it is experienced. Therefore, human culture has an enormous impact on the diverse meanings attributed to sexuality and sexual behaviors. Anthropologists consider sexuality to be a central aspect of human social organization that influences, and is influenced by, various other aspects of society such as food-getting, family structure, and religious belief.

Through ethnographic studies, social and cultural anthropologists have found that there exists a great diversity with respect to the ways in which sexuality is discussed with children or among adults. From sex-positive societies such as the Trobriand Islanders and the Canela, where children have opportunities to observe adults engaging in sexual intercourse, to sex-negative societies such as that of Inis Beag, Ireland where sex was rarely mentioned and was the cause of great anguish, there exist many patterns of ideas and practices.

Human sexuality is a complex subject but it is crucial to an understanding of the human experience. Today, as in the past, conflicts arise between and within societies regarding the appropriateness of various forms of sexual conduct, the roles of the sexes, and so forth. Since one's society so strongly influences an individual's perception of what is normal and natural sexual behavior, it can be difficult to accept the sexual practices of an unfamiliar culture. Unbiased anthropological inquiries into the evolution of human sexuality and the diversity of sexual norms and practices may help to shed light on these conflicts. However, since sexuality is such a central part of human life and touches on core aspects of group and individual identity, it is impossible to predict whether these conflicts will ever be resolved.

Ignoring biology and concentrating on social construction seems to be a misguided position for feminists given the focus of some recent medical research. For example, medicine has searched for gay genes and for differences in brain structures between men and women as well as homosexuals and heterosexuals, and in biology, the studied attempts to deny the existence of “homosexuality” as well as the general “plethora of sex diversity” in the nonhuman animal world persists (Hird 2004). Anne Fausto-Sterling (2005) points out that although contemporary biomedical research seems to deal with ...