Review: Claudia Bruns & Tilmann Walter (Eds.) (2004). Von Lust und Schmerz. Eine Historische Anthropologie der Sexualität [Lust and Pain. A Historical Anthropology of Sexuality]

Authors

  • Volker Barth École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-6.2.475

Keywords:

historical anthropology, sexuality, Michel Foucault, discourse analysis

Abstract

This compilation contains eleven articles concerned with the description of sexual practices. Here, sexuality is defined as a human experience, as a specific part of the quotidian. The focus is on the 19th century but three articles deal with early modern history. Through examples such as hysteria, homosexuality, racial hygienics, family planning, Jewish sexuality and rejuvenation [Verjüngungskuren], discourses of the self and the other are analysed within their scientific and political contexts. Most of the authors come to the conclusion that due to the lack of personal documentation of individually experienced sexuality, the different ways of dealing with the topic can only be retraced through sources such as reports of court trials, scientific or medical texts, and publications by specific pressure groups. This compilation nicely illustrates this linguistic staging, but beyond that it offers little in terms of new methodological insights for a historical anthropology of sexuality. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs050268

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Volker Barth, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

Volker BARTH ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Historischen Seminar der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und Postdoc-Fellow an der École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte sind u.a. französische und lateinamerikanische Geschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts, Repräsentationsformen des Fremden und Konsumforschung. In zurückliegenden Ausgaben von FQS finden sich Besprechungen von Volker BARTH zu "Das Ritual. Struktur und Anti-Struktur" (http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/2-02/2-02review-barth-d.htm) (Victor TURNER 2000), "Verschriebene Fremdheit. Die Ethnographie kultureller Brüche bei Clifford Geertz und Stephen Greenblatt" (http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/3-01/3-01review-barth-d.htm) (Lutz ELLRICH 1999; siehe auch die französiche Fassung, http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/3-01/3-01review-barth-f.htm) und zu "Aus der Werkstatt des Historikers. Zur Theorie und Praxis der Geschichtswissenschaft" (http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-02/1-02review-barth-d.htm) (Marc BLOCH 2000).

Published

2005-05-31

How to Cite

Barth, V. (2005). Review: Claudia Bruns & Tilmann Walter (Eds.) (2004). Von Lust und Schmerz. Eine Historische Anthropologie der Sexualität [Lust and Pain. A Historical Anthropology of Sexuality]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 6(2). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-6.2.475