Reviews for Homosexuality & civilization

The average rating for Homosexuality & civilization based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-02-01 00:00:00 Hector Rivas Dr. Crompton provides a thoroughly researched and well presented survey of same-sex attraction and sexuality in Europe and East Asia. He provides some information about Central America as well, but evidently Africa, South Asia, pre-Columbian North and South America, Oceania, and the Caribbean do not fall under the rubric of "civilization." Ahem. Unexamined racism is annoying. He does, happily, pay attention to female sexuality in the book. Given that this book purports to be a global survey, the exclusion of large parts of the world is striking--especially since there is extensive ethnographic data on historical same-sex attraction and sexuality in the ignored regions available in the scientific and academic literature. I read a great deal of it as an anthropology undergrad before this book was published. *roll eyes* This is a big reason why people complain about dead, white male academics... The author did manage to pull me out of the camp of Michel Foucault and others who maintain that the late nineteenth century role of "homosexual" was the first historically defined social group based on sexual orientation. Crompton's documentation of earlier social identities based around same-sex attraction is solid and convincing. Note, however, that these past social roles are NOT the same as the modern one. And here Dr. Crompton stumbles very badly. He uses the term "homosexual" repeatedly throughout the book to describe people with same-sex attraction whose lives and social roles had nothing to do with the modern concept. Furthermore, the word did not even exist in the eras in which he insisted on using it. This was particularly surprising given his fairly careful analysis of social roles and language at other points in the text. Lazy, bad scholar. No biscuit! Homosexuality and Civilization is worth reading even with the major problems I've noted. Conceptual sins aside, Dr. Crompton presents his survey of Europe and East Asia very well. Just bear in mind that he ignores large parts of the globe inhabited by brown and black people (who are not part of "civilization").

Review # 2 was written on 2015-11-13 00:00:00 Carol Gould Finished at last! :-) I am very pleased to have read this book, but I can't deny some of it was tough going - and you will understand why when I say that the narrative ends with the last execution for homosexuality in Europe. Once we were past the Inquisition, though, things started slowly getting brighter, and it's terrific to read of individuals who successfully defied the social laws and mores of their day, and philosophers who managed to reason their way to more enlightened views. I learned some things, including the notion that a homosexual identity isn't quite such a modern notion as is generally believed. There is good coverage of countries outside the usual UK / US focus, and good coverage of lesbians as well as their gay brethren. There is also useful analysis along the way of why this has all been so problematic, especially in Christian countries. Crompton is a fine and lucid writer, and makes things as fun and interesting as he can (given the subject matter). There are plenty of illustrations, too, which adds to the interest. The book itself is nicely presented, and I particularly love the cover. A Must Read for anyone interested in homosexuality and 'civilisation'. However, if you would like a somewhat lighter introduction to the author and the subject matter, I'd highly recommend his Byron and Greek Love.