Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Sexual cultures in Asia refer to the ways of sexual life – the shared beliefs, values, meanings, and practices – that are common to members of Asian societies. The sexual cultures of a society refer to its sexual belief systems, usually stemming from folktales, myths, and religions, which provide a framework for what we should think and how we should feel and behave in terms of sexuality. These sexual belief systems in turn give impetus to the forming of a hierarchy of sexual value systems that define what is sexually right or wrong, normal or pathological, honorable or shameful. Sexual belief and value systems, governed by sexual norms and manifested in customs and laws, are shared meanings and practices that are common to different segments of a society and historical periods. Different sexual cultures exist within a society and change over time. Sexual cultures in Asia refer to many different and somewhat conflicting sexual value systems, as Asia is not a unified entity but a collective term that refers to many countries with divergent and even contradictory social, cultural, economic, and political values and systems. Studies on sexuality are relatively a new area in sociology. Studies of Asian sexuality have been limited as sociologists have focused overwhelmingly on Anglo-European countries. As anthropologists have the tradition of studying “other” cultures (with the earliest ... log in or subscribe to read full text