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9 - Sexuality in the Traditional Systems of Thought and Belief of the Americas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2024

By
Rosemary A. Joyce
Edited by
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks  and
Mathew Kuefler
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
Mathew Kuefler
Affiliation:
San Diego State University
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Summary

Sexuality in Indigenous societies of the Americas, prior to colonization by European powers, was characterized by an interplay between heterosexual reproductive sexuality (especially valued in hierarchical states) and forms of desire that extended beyond heterosexuality. Visual representations of sexual bodies from pre-colonial societies demonstrate that sexuality was emergent with age, with sexual difference most marked in young adulthood. Some representations suggest sexual relations between people occupying the same sexual status, or with people who may have been recognized as non-binary, third genders comparable to contemporary two-spirits. Diversity in sexual practices was rooted in ontologies that in well-studied cases converge on understandings of sexuality as non-binary, fluid, and emergent in practice. Previous understanding of visual sources that illustrate sex acts initially characterized as non-reproductive, such as anal penetration and oral sex, have changed as a result. Now scholars suggest a division between reproductive and non-reproductive sex ignores ontologies in which intergenerational reproduction was promoted by the circulation of bodily substances through sexuality not limited to heterosexual penetration. Critique of early colonial texts which imposed gender normativity on these societies and condemned actions that scholars can now see were acceptable has resulted from such new analyses.

Keywords

North AmericaMesoamericaSouth AmericaAztecMexicaMayaMochetwo-spiritshomoeroticismpregnancy
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History of Sexualities , pp. 181 - 200
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Further Reading

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