Sexual Knowledge, Sexual Science - Softcover

Porter, Roy; Teich, Mikulas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521448913 ISBN 13: 9780521448918

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1994

Synopsis

Sexual Knowledge, Sexual Science explores attempts to develop bodies of knowledge about sex from antiquity to the present day. Taking into account cognate sciences like zoology, anatomy, embryology and psychiatry, the volume analyses the shaping over the centuries of disciplines which came by 1900 to be called 'sexology'. Various contributions explore the interfaces between 'high' and 'low' sexual teachings, and the connections and tensions between popular and empirical sexual knowledge on the one hand and overtly scientific formulations. A major concern of the book is to investigate the ideological functions - in terms of group, class and gender - of sexual science, especially when incorporated into systems of legal, medical and political power. Among sexual liberals and radicals it has long been an article of faith that sexual science, sexual liberation and sexual fulfilment will all advance hand-in-hand. With the modern backlash against permissiveness, and against the background of AIDS, such views are being challenged. This new book offers an historical perspective upon such questions.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521448913
• ISBN 13: 9780521448918
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 422