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Rüdiger Lautmann, Bremen:
Kultur als Schlüsselbegriff der Sexualwissenschaft
(Culture as Key Concept of Sexology)
Culture, or civilization, does not simply deal with sexuality in the sense of "taming" something already growing "wild". Instead culture enables sexuality, and sexuality endows culture with its passionate flavor. Any and all processes of nature are shaped and overlayed by social influences. Exactly how biological dispositions are being unfolded is regulated by the surrounding socio-cultural matrix. Nature speaks to us in the language of our culture. Cultural meanings "produce" sexual relationships. Authors like Norbert Elias, Michel Foucault, and Gilbert Herdt have supplied some of the most interesting contributions.
Ties and options in sexual culture are produced in the following dimensions:
· world view and ideology (religion and sexuality);
· familism (reproduction, incest taboo, etc.);
· form of relationship (love, marriage, etc.);
· gender dualism;
· privacy (shame, desexualized organization, etc.);
· normalcy vs. perversion.
Thus, viewed under the perspective of culture, the numerous confusing debates on the sexualities and the main characteristics of sexual organization may be put in relation to each other.
About the Author:
Rüdiger Lautmann, Dr. phil., Dr. jur., born in 1935, is a Full Professor of Sociolgy at Bremen university. He heads the Institute for Empirical and Applied Sociology (EMPAS). Main reaerch aeras at present: sociologies of culture, of sexuality, and of crime. - Recent books:
· with Jörg Hutter and Volker Koch-Burghardt:
Ausgrenzung macht krank. Homosexuellenfeindschaft und HIV-Infektionen. Opladen (Westdeutscher Verlag), 2000.
· ed. with Burkhard Jellonnek:
Nationalsozialistischer Terror gegen Homosexuelle. Verdrängt und ungesühnt. Paderborn (Schöningh). February 2002.
· Soziologie der Sexualität. Erotischer Körper, intimes Handeln und Sexualkultur. Weinheim (Juventa-Verlag), April 2002.
· ed. of a special issue of Kriminologisches Journal (vol. 34, No. 2, May 2002): Septemberterror - Krieg oder Verbrechen?
Address:
Prof. Dr. Dr. Rüdiger Lautmann
Holzdamm 41, D-20099 Hamburg
Tel. (001 40) 2802503; Fax: (001 40) 2802509
eMail: LautmannHH@aol.com
Website: www.lautmann.de (with English C. V.)
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