Anxious Pleasures: The Sexual Lives of an Amazonian People

By Thomas Gregor

Book Overview

"Good fish get dull but sex is always fun." So say the Mehinaku people of Brazil. But Thomas Gregor shows that sex brings a supreme ambiguity to the villagers' lives. In their elaborate rituals--especially those practiced by the men in their secret societies--the Mehinaku give expression to a system of symbols reminiscent of psychosexual neuroses identified by Freud: castration anxiety, Oedipal conflict, fantasies of loss of strength through sex, and a host of others. "If we look carefully," writes Gregor, "we will see reflections of our own sexual nature in the life ways of an Amazonian people." The book is illustrated with Mehinaku drawings of ritual texts and myths, as well as with photographs of the villagers taking part in both everyday and ceremonial activities.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B000UUGP3Q
• ISBN13: 9780226307435
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 231 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

For anyone interested in Sexual folklore- a must read!

I was forced to read this ethnography in college and it changed my worldview. Now, nearly six years after my read, it still has bookmarked a page in this slackened brain. It contains a thoughtful and sympathetic view of a culture rife with sexual tensions. It provides a valuable window on how sexual roles are developed and perpetuated. I'm very pleased this book is still accessible to the interested and advise anyone reading this to buy. If you need further convincing, or a decent argument in Freudian analysis, please e-mail me. In short, this is a book I offer to others but crave its return. It is a treasure in a host of dust-gathering anthropological ethnographies.