ISSN 2084–1418
The paper edition of the Anthropology of History Yearbook is the definitive version

2015, No. (8), Anthropology and History


Agnieszka Kościańska
History as necessary knowledge: on the anthropological studies of expert discourse about sexuality

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Keywords: sexuality, gender roles, Poland, history of sexology, sexual dysfunctions, communism

Abstract:
This paper shows the role of historical findings in the interpretation of ethnographic research. The 1970s and 1980s mark a period in which sexology developed in Poland; several important books appeared, and sexologists published extensively in the popular press. Health professionals discussed with their readers various sexuality related issues, such as sexual techniques and pleasure, sexual “deviations,” gender, marriage and violence. They provided guidelines on how to achieve pleasure and how to eliminate obstacles to good sex. One of the obstacles discussed by sexologists was women’s emancipation. Referring to various scientific theories, sexologists argued that women’s sexual expectation made many men unable to perform. This paper asks how to interpret sexological understanding of gender in the 1970s.

About Author:
KOŚCIAŃSKA AGNIESZKA - cultural anthropologist, Assistant Professor in the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Warsaw. Email: akoscianska[at]uw.edu.pl

References
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