The Construction of Homosexuality
9780226306285
9780226219813
The Construction of Homosexuality
"At various times, homosexuality has been considered the noblest of loves, a horrible sin, a psychological condition or grounds for torture and execution. David F. Greenberg’s careful, encyclopedic and important new book argues that homosexuality is only deviant because society has constructed, or defined, it as deviant. The book takes us over vast terrains of example and detail in the history of homosexuality."—Nicholas B. Dirks, New York Times Book Review
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
1. Theorizing the Prohibition against Homosexuality
Part I. Before Homosexuality
2. Homosexual Relations in Kinship-Structured Societies
3. Inequality and the State: Homosexual Innovations in Archaic Civilizations
4. Early Civilizations: Variations on Homosexual Themes
5. Sexual Asceticism in the Ancient World
6. Feudalism
Part II. The Construction of Modern Homosexuality
7. Repression and the Emergence of Subcultures
8. The Rise of Market Economies
9. The Medicalization of Homosexuality
10. Bureaucracy and Homosexuality
11. Gay Liberation
Epilogue: Under the Sign of Sociology
References
Index
1. Theorizing the Prohibition against Homosexuality
Part I. Before Homosexuality
2. Homosexual Relations in Kinship-Structured Societies
3. Inequality and the State: Homosexual Innovations in Archaic Civilizations
4. Early Civilizations: Variations on Homosexual Themes
5. Sexual Asceticism in the Ancient World
6. Feudalism
Part II. The Construction of Modern Homosexuality
7. Repression and the Emergence of Subcultures
8. The Rise of Market Economies
9. The Medicalization of Homosexuality
10. Bureaucracy and Homosexuality
11. Gay Liberation
Epilogue: Under the Sign of Sociology
References
Index