A look at sexuality in anthropological fieldwork. The author looks at how the anthropologists sexual identity in their 'home' society affects the kind of sexuality they are allowed to express in other cultures.

Sex, Desire, and Taboo in South Asia: Religion, Culture of Ability, and Patriarchy explores the intersection of religion, culture of ability, and patriarchy in relation to sex, desire, and taboo. Divided into six chapters, this book utilizes Western theorists such as Foucault and Freud in conjunction with Spivak’s theory of the subaltern to establish a theoretical context on sexuality. Through this lens, Acharya evaluates the intersection between religion, patriarchy, and gender and their impact on the perception of sex and desire as a taboo within a South Asian context. The book also examines how individuals contend with their sexual desires, using literature and social media to display the stark difference between the cultural promotion of antisexualism and existing ancient texts on the art of erotica, such as the Kamasutra. In doing so, Sex, Desire, and Taboo in South Asia expands on Eurocentric notions of sexuality and addresses the conditions of the subaltern to explore the complex dynamics of sex in South Asia.

Book Description Taboo by Kadimbini Unravel the intricate tapestry of human society as Taboo takes you on a global exploration of the unspoken rules that shape our lives. From the heart of India to the farthest corners of the world, author Kadimbini delves deep into the cultural, social, and personal boundaries that are often shrouded in silence. With a keen eye for detail and a compassionate voice, Kadimbini unveils the complexities of taboos, examining their origins, impacts, and the courage it takes to challenge them. Through vivid storytelling and insightful analysis, Taboo invites readers to question their own assumptions and to embrace a more open and understanding world. Whether it's the taboo surrounding menstruation, sexuality, death, or caste, this thought-provoking book sheds light on the universal human experience while celebrating the power of breaking free from societal constraints. Taboo is a bold exploration of the human condition, offering a fresh perspective on the forces that both bind and divide us.

This volume brings together experts from a wide range of disciplines to define and describe taboo words and language and to investigate the reasons and beliefs behind them. It examines topics such as impoliteness, swearing, censorship, taboo in deaf communities, translation of tabooed words, and the use of taboo in banter and comedy.

Metaphor has long provided a rich way to speak about the unspeakable, to refer to delicate issues. Sex is one such area. This book follows a cognitive-linguistic and relevance-theoretic approach to the language of sex, considering metaphor as a bridge that brings together mind and language. It does this through the analysis of the antithetical mechanisms of verbal mitigation and offence. These two mechanisms are (more commonly know as) euphemism and (its lesser known companion term) dysphemism. The volume reflects on the social and communicative functions that sexual metaphors perform in a sample of almost two hundred postings taken from internet forums. How do people think about sex? How do people avoid talking about sex? How do people paraphrase sexual topics? It offers an account of how real language users understand sexual taboo in present-day English and also a great grounding in manual corpus work on a qualitative level.