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Brief Contents
1. Acknowledgments
2. Preface
1. Chapter 1 The Social Construction of Sexuality
2. Chapter 2 The Science of Sexuality
3. Chapter 3 Gender and Sexuality
4. Chapter 4 Sexuality, Inequality, and Privilege
5. Chapter 5 LGBTQ Mobilization and Activism
6. Chapter 6 Media, Sport, and Sexuality
7. Chapter 7 Sexuality, Schools, and the Workplace
8. Chapter 8 Religion, Family, and Sexuality
9. Chapter 9 Sexuality and Reproduction
10. Chapter 10 Sexual Health
11. Chapter 11 Commodification of Sex
12. Chapter 12 Sexual Violence
3. References
4. Index
5. About the Authors
Detailed Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Chapter 1 The Social Construction of Sexuality
The Sociology of Sexualities
Terminology
Evidence of the Social Construction of Sexuality
Nature versus Nurture
Sexual Binaries
The Invention of Heterosexuality and Homosexuality
Heteronormativity
Compulsory Heterosexuality
The Invention of Homosexuality
The Gendered Construction of Sexuality
Sexual Socialization
Sexual Revolutions
Box 1.1: Global/Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality: The
Sexual Revolution in Russia
Sexual Relationships: Beyond Monogamy
Sexual Invisibility
Sexual Pleasure
Sexuality Across the Life Course
Childhood Sexuality
Adolescent Sexuality
LGBTQ Adolescent Sexuality
Not My Child: Parental Views on Adolescent
Sexuality
Sexuality and the Aged
Sexualizing Racial/Ethnic Minorities
Sexual Minorities Beyond LGBTQ
Conclusion
Chapter 2 The Science of Sexuality
Understanding Sexuality Through Science
The Early Years: Sex, Morality, and Medicine
Science of Sex: Sexology
 Psychoanalytical Theory: Sigmund Freud
Box 2.1: Global/Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality:
Sexology in Imperial Japan
Evolutionary Theory: Charles Darwin
The Kinsey Reports: Alfred Kinsey
Sexual Physiology Research: Masters and Johnson
Sociology and Social Constructionism
Sex in America Survey
Feminist Contributions to Sexuality Studies
Intersectionality
Post-Structuralism: Michel Foucault
Queer Theory
The Science of Homosexuality
Homosexuality as Mental Illness
Sociology of Homosexuality
Sexuality Studies in Academia
Researching Sex: Ethical and Methodological Concerns
Ethical Issues in Sex Research
Methodological Issues in Sex Research
Stigma and Sexuality Research
Conclusion
Chapter 3 Gender and Sexuality
Social Construction of Gender: Femininity and Masculinity
Challenging the Gender Binary: Gender in Non-Western
Cultures
Gender Identity
Box 3.1: Global/Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality: The
Guevedoces in the Dominican Republic
Doing Gender
Gender Roles
Gender, Inequality, and Stereotypes
Gender and Social Institutions
Intersection of Gender and Sexuality
Masculinity and Sexuality
Masculinity and Race/Ethnicity
Femininity and Sexuality
Femininity and Feminism
 Femininity and Race/Ethnicity
Transgender
Cross-Dressers, Drag Kings, and Queens
Intersex
Conclusion
Chapter 4 Sexuality, Inequality, and Privilege
The Sociology of Inequality
Legal Discrimination
Marriage Equality
LGBTQ Adoption
Sexuality-Related Discrimination in the Military
Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault in the
Military
Workplace Discrimination
Pregnancy Discrimination
Housing Discrimination
Sexuality and Social Control
Criminalization of Sexual Behaviors
Medicalization of Sexual Behaviors
Box 4.1: Global/Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality:
Paragraph 175 and the Criminalization of Homosexuality
During the Nazi Regime
Homophobia and Hate Crimes
Transgender Discrimination and Inequality
Heterosexual and Cisgender Privilege
Conclusion
Chapter 5 LGBTQ Mobilization and Activism
The Sociology of Social Movements
Social and Cultural Contexts
The Influence of World War II on Gay Rights
Urbanization and the Emergence of Gay Enclaves
The Emergence of a Gay Press
The Role of the Kinsey Studies
The Influence of Right-Wing Opposition
Movements
Identity-based Social Movements
Before Stonewall: The Homophile Movement
 Box 5.1: Global/Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality: Gay
Rights in Russia
After Stonewall: The Modern Gay Rights Movement
Emergence of Lesbian Feminism
AIDS Activism
Queer Nation
Undocumented Queer Youth Activism
The Road to Marriage Equality
Transgender Activism and Rights
Bisexual Activism
Conclusion
Chapter 6 Media, Sport, and Sexuality
Media and Sexuality
Sexualized Language in Media
Sexualized Imagery in Media
Hypersexualization: Magazines and Music Videos
Sexual Objectification: Advertising
Intersectionality: Race, Class, and Ethnic Imagery
Children, Sexualization, and the Media
LGBTQ Representations in Television and Film
From Invisibility to Stereotypical Images: Lesbians and
Gays on Television
Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Images in Hollywood
Cinema
Transgender Images and Issues in Media
Sexuality and Sport
Sport Media
Masculinity and Sport
Sports, Masculinity, and Sexual Assault
Sexuality, Femininity, and Sport
Title IX
Coming Out of the Athletic Closet
Gay Games
Creating Space for Intersex and Transgender Athletes
Trans Inclusion in the Gay Games
Box 6.1: Global/Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality:
South African Sprinter Caster Semenya and Sex Testing in
 International Sports
Conclusion
Chapter 7 Sexuality, Schools, and the Workplace
Schools, Sexuality, and Social Control
Coming Out in School
LGBTQ Students’ Experiences of Harassment in Schools
Impact of Harassment
Transgender Students’ Experiences of Harassment in
Schools
Creating Safe Schools
Gay-Friendly Schools
Queering the Curriculum
Gay Student Organizations
Policies and Programs
Challenging Institutionalized Heterosexuality
College and University Campuses
Inclusion of Transgender Students at Women’s
Colleges
History and Experiences of LGBTQ Teachers
College Campuses: From “In Loco Parentis” to the
“Hook-Up” Culture
Sex Education
Box 7.1 Global/Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality:
American Sex Education Goes Global
Sexuality and the Workplace
Heterosexual Relationships in the Workplace
Sexual Harassment
LGBTQ Employment Experiences
Homophobia in the Workplace
Coming Out at Work
Challenges of a Gay-Friendly Workplace
Conclusion
Chapter 8 Religion, Family, and Sexuality
Religion and Sexuality
Christianity
Christianity, Sex, and Gender
Christian Views on Homosexuality
 Impact of Religious Condemnation on LGBTQ
People
LGBTQ Christians
Same-Sex Marriage and the Church
Transgender and Christianity
Judaism
Judaism, Sex, and Gender
Jewish Views on Homosexuality and Bisexuality
Transgender and Judaism
Islam
Islam, Sex, and Gender
Islam and Homosexuality
Transgender and Islam
LGBTQ Families
The Changing Family
Defining Gay Families
Exiles from Kinship
Marriage Equality
LGBTQ Parenting
Box 8.1: Global/Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality:
Marriage Equality Across the Globe
Intimate Partner Violence
Conclusion
Chapter 9 Sexuality and Reproduction
Compulsory Reproduction
The Body as a Social Construction
Menstruation as Biological Reality
Menstruation as Social Construction
Pregnancy and Childbirth
Access to Maternity Care
Commodification of Birth
Technocratic Model of Birth
Box 9.1: Global/Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality:
Giving Birth in Afghanistan
Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding as Taboo
Costs of Breastfeeding
 Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Pregnancy
Teen Pregnancy and Birth
Birth Control
History of Birth Control
Gendered Contraception
Forced Sterilization and Eugenics
Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Choice
Women of Color and Reproductive Justice
Disability Rights and Reproductive Rights
Institutional Sexism, Racism, and Reproductive Rights
Politics
Religion
Corporations
Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs)
ARTs, Infertility, and Gender
ARTs and Income Disparities
ARTs and Older Mothers
Conclusion
Chapter 10 Sexual Health
Understanding Sexual Health
Male Sexual Dysfunction
Female Sexual Dysfunction
Sexuality and Disability
Sexuality and People With Physical Disabilities
Sexuality and People With Intellectual Disabilities
Disability and Sex Work
Sex Assistants and Sex Surrogates
Disability Pornography
Disability, Sexuality, and Homophobia
Sexually Transmitted Infections
Common STIs
STIs and Stigma
HIV/AIDS
The Origins of an Epidemic
Moral Panics Surrounding HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS Today
Global Pandemic
 Box 10.1: Global/Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality:
The Consequences of HIV/AIDS on Africa
Current Social Consequences of the HIV/AIDS Crisis
Conclusion
Chapter 11 Commodification of Sex
Pornography
Technology and Rise of Amateur Porn
Legalities and Debates
Violence and Pornography
Gender, Race, Class, and Sexuality
Impact of Pornography on Young People
Child Pornography
Youth Sexting
Prostitution
Johns and Pimps
Male and Transgender Prostitutes
Debates Over Legalities
Globalization and Sexuality
Sex Trafficking
Box 11.1: Global/Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality:
Natural Disaster and Child Sex Trafficking in Nepal
Feminist Response
Mail-Order or Internet Brides
Sex Tourism
Female Sex Tourism: “The Caribbean Beach Boys”
Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in Sex Tourism
Sexuality and Militarism
Conclusion
Chapter 12 Sexual Violence
Understanding Sexual Violence
Rape
Consent
Rape Survivors, Double Victimization, and
Victimization Language
Campus Rape
Sexual Violence in Conflict: Wartime Rape
Box 12.1: Global/Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality:
 Sexual Violence and Femicide in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Feminist Perspectives on Rape
Child Sexual Abuse
Is Pedophilia a Sexual Orientation?
Child Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Catholic Church
Racialized Homophobic and Transphobic Violence
Sexual Assault of LGBTQ People
Criminalization of LGBTQ People
Carceral Sexuality
LGBTQ Prisoners
Prison Rape
Rape, Homophobia, and Correctional Staff
Consensual Sexual Relations
Sexuality and Male Prisoners
Sexuality and Female Prisoners
Conclusion
References
Index
About the Authors
Acknowledgments
It is impossible to acknowledge all the people who have influenced my
understanding of the sociology of sexualities, and inequalities more broadly,
over the years; but they are reflected in these pages. During my years at
Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville when I was working on my
master’s degree, I was exposed to a committed group of sociologists who
were just as interested in teaching as they were in research. Many of them
wrote textbooks that were innovative and market leaders at the time, which
likely subtly influenced me to try my hand at textbook writing. I am still
grateful for the influence of my former graduate professors at the University
of Missouri, particularly Mary Jo Neitz, Peter Hall, Ibitola Pearce, Ted
Vaughan, and the late Barbara Bank, for their profound influence on my
intellectual development. I am thankful for the thoughtful conversations with
my graduate colleagues then, and over the years, especially Diane Rodgers,
Yngve Digernes, Karen Bradley, and Latanya Skiffer. My late friend and
former colleague Pamela McClure still speaks to me in my head about these
issues. And thank you to my wonderful new colleagues at Tulane University
not just for the intellectual stimulation but for making me feel welcome.

Textbooks are written for a particular audience, of course: students. And so, I
would like to dedicate this textbook to the many hundreds of students I have
had the pleasure of teaching over the years. It is an undeniable privilege to
teach college students, and I know I have been very lucky in my career in that
I have encountered so many amazing people.

To the sociologists working in the field of sexuality studies: thank you. It has
been a pleasure diving deeply into this scholarship—so many smart people
are doing such great work! We wanted this textbook to reflect the best of the
field. We hope we succeeded at doing that. Thanks to Jeff Lasser and the
folks at SAGE for their enthusiasm and assistance with this project.

And a giant thank-you to Kandice Grossman for enthusiastically jumping on

board when I casually mentioned the idea of coauthoring a sociology of
sexualities textbook with her. It has been an incredible pleasure to work with
her on this project. I knew I could count on her! Finally, my ultimate love and
thanks go to my partner, husband, friend, and fellow sociologist, Tony Ladd.
His constant love and support has been invaluable. His brilliant mind keeps
me sharp, and his big heart make me a better person every day. During the
writing of this book, he offered the perfect balance of support and space that
was needed. So, this book is dedicated to him.

Kathleen J. Fitzgerald

July 2016

I would like to express heartfelt gratitude to my daughters, Isadora and

Madelynn Grossman, for their patience and support throughout this project.
They are the light of my life. I would like to thank my two greatest academic
influences: Dr. Kathleen Fitzgerald and Dr. Anthony Alioto. For over twenty
years, they have both consistently believed in me. It was their teachings
twenty years ago that taught me to challenge social ideas and critically
evaluate history. It was their encouragement that motivated me throughout
this entire writing process. With a most sincere heart, I thank them both for
their guidance. And to Kathleen specifically, writing a book with her has
been a huge learning experience and pleasure. She is an inspiration and role
model in so many ways. I cannot thank her enough for her mentorship.

I want to acknowledge the profound influence I received in my upbringing

from my mother, Ginger Mistler, and my grandmother, Bettie Lasley. My
gram bore seven children prior to 1960, before there was accessible birth
control for women. She was very outspoken about her beliefs in women’s
rights to reproductive control, choices, and health; this message was
imprinted on my mind from an early age. It was her narrative, her story, and
her feminist outlook that brought me to the writing of this book. My mother,
too, taught me the importance of higher education. This book is a product of
their combined efforts at shaping who I am today. Thank you to my sister,
Tara Looney, for graciously editing citations and for continued support.
Many thanks to Jeff Lasser at SAGE for his enthusiasm for this project.

Kandice L. Grossman

July 2016
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
SAGE gratefully acknowledges the contributions of the following reviewers:

Sarah A. N. Akers, Washington State University

Lanier Basenberg, Georgia State University
Marni Brown, Georgia Gwinnett College
Angel M. Butts, Rutgers University
Moon Charania, Spelman College
Amanda Czerniawski, Temple University
Barbara Jones Denison, Shippensburg University
Andrea Fitzroy, Georgia State University
Alison Hatch, Armstrong State University
Nicole LaMarre, SUNY Albany
Lisa M. Lepard, Kennesaw State University
Adina Nack, California Lutheran University
Michaela A. Nowell, University of Wisconsin-Fond du Lac
Kathleen O’Reilly, University of Connecticut
Meg Panichelli, Portland State University
Todd Penner, Austin College
Antonia Randolph, Christopher Newport University
Teresa Roach, Florida State University, Appalachain State University
Maura Ryan, Georgia State University
Eryn Grucza Viscarra, Georgia College and State University
Laurie M. Wagner, Kent State University
Kassia Wosick, New Mexico State University
Marik Xavier-Brier, Georgia State University
Preface
This textbook takes a sociological approach to the study of sexualities and is
designed to be a core text for “Sociology of Sexuality,” “Human Sexuality,”
and similar courses. Taking a sociological approach to the study of
sexualities requires an exploration of sexuality as a social construction; the
emergence of sexual and gender identities; a focus on intersectionality;
historical and current inequalities and discrimination faced by sexual and
gender minorities; heterosexual and cisgender privilege;
activism/mobilization to challenge such discrimination; and the ways
sexuality operates in and through various institutions, such as media, schools,
family, religion, sport, and the workplace. Additionally, this text includes
chapters on the science of sexuality, from early sexologists to queer theory;
coverage of issues facing transgender people; an exploration of sexual health,
disability and sexuality, and sexually transmitted infections; and on
reproduction. There are chapters on social problems associated with sexuality
such as the commodification of sexuality, including pornography, human
trafficking, and prostitution; prison sex; and sexual violence. Finally, every
chapter includes a boxed insert that explores a global, transnational
perspective related to the specific chapter topic.

This text includes the most up-to-date social scientific research on sexuality,
as well as coverage of the latest political developments surrounding the
issues. It is designed for students to learn the fundamental concepts of a
sociological approach to understanding sexualities, but also to integrate such
knowledge into their broader understanding of society. An intersectional
approach that considers multiple grounds of identity and the ways various
modes of oppression intersect and work together in society is consistently
woven throughout this book. No sexuality textbook on the market takes such
a comprehensive sociological approach to the study of sexualities.

Key Features of the Text

Sexuality, Inequality, and Discrimination—This topic is absent from
most of the sexuality readers and textbooks, yet this is where students
“see” lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) issues in
their daily lives. What is less visible to students is the extent of
inequalities LGBTQ individuals historically faced and continue to face,
and other forms of discrimination related to sexuality, such as
discrimination against pregnant women. Certainly throughout the
lifetimes of traditional-aged college students, the issue of marriage
equality has been front and center; and, thus, it can appear that the fight
for LGBTQ rights has been won. Yet, inequalities remain. Additionally,
heterosexual and cisgender privilege remains invisible. When
sociologists explore status hierarchies, we look at not only the groups
that are disadvantaged but those that reap advantages as well.
Activism/Mobilization to Challenge Such Discrimination—This
textbook explores not only inequalities sexual minorities face and
heterosexual privilege, but the organized opposition to such
discrimination. It is important for students to shake the misconception
that progress is “inevitable” and, instead, is the result of decades of
organized activism. This text explores LGBTQ activism, from the
Compton Cafeteria riots, known as the first transgender riots, to the
Stonewall riots, the fight for marriage equality, AIDS activism, and
Queer Nation. This book weaves feminist and queer theoretical insights
throughout to reveal how challenges to inequality in the streets are
reflected and translated in academia, and vice versa.
Sexuality and Societal Institutions—This is the only sexuality textbook
on the market that explores the ways sexuality operates in and through
institutions such as sports, media, schools, workplaces, family, and
religion. By exploring institutions, students again find a way to “see” the
inequalities attached to sexuality in their daily lives. For instance, many
traditional-aged college students witnessed or participated in battles to
allow LGBTQ student organizations (or Gay-Straight Alliances) on their
middle-school or high-school campuses. Their generation came of age
during significant cultural battles over sex education versus abstinence
education. Some of them may work in environments that discriminate
against sexual minorities. Some of them come from gay families. They
are also the first generation of Americans to come of age as the first gay
professional athletes chose to come out of the closet during their athletic
careers. This generation of students has also been exposed to a
proliferation of gay images in the media, yet simply having gay images
does not necessarily mean stereotypes are not being perpetrated.
Focus on Transgender People and Issues—Each chapter of this
textbook includes the latest research on transgender people and issues;
from the incorporation of intersex and transgender athletes into a gender
segregated sports world to discrimination against transgender
individuals in the workplace, and epidemic levels of violence directed at
transgender people, overwhelmingly transgender people of color.
Sexual Identities—The invention of heterosexuality and homosexuality
involved the emergence of sexual identities—for the first time, people’s
sexual behaviors defined a “kind of person.” While this resulted in new
forms of discrimination against sexual minorities, it also contributed to
the mobilization of LGBTQ individuals to combat their inequality. As
just one aspect of how we see ourselves, sexual identities are also
understood to intersect with other identities, such as gender, race, and
class, informing how individuals see themselves. Much sociological
research addresses the ways individuals construct and negotiate multiple
identities.
Sexual Health—This text takes a sociological approach to
understanding sexual health, including a critical discussion of the
emergence of female sexual dysfunction, to an exploration of disability
and sexuality, and a discussion of sexually transmitted infections (STIs),
including HIV/AIDS, from a sociological perspective. Finally, we
explore reproduction, from compulsory reproduction to the
commodification of birth, transgender men and childbirth, and the
increasing availability of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), and
what these have meant for LGBTQ families.
Social Problems Associated With Sexuality—This is the arena where
sociologists have long contributed to sexuality studies, including
research on sexual assault, rape, pornography, sex trafficking, child
sexual abuse, and prison sex—with feminist sociologists placing
questions of power at the center of such analyses. Additionally, we
explore sexual violence targeting the LGBTQ community, intimate
partner violence within same-sex relationships, and sexuality and
militarism.
Global/Transnational Perspectives on Sexuality—Each chapter
includes a boxed insert highlighting a global illustration of one of the
issues explored in the chapter. This helps students understand sexuality
 as a social construction that changes across time and place.

“Sociology of Sexuality,” “Sociology of Sexualities,” “Human Sexuality,”

and “Sexuality and Society” courses are increasingly being offered by
sociology departments across the nation, often at the behest of students.
Sexuality courses tend to be 200 (sophomore) or 300 (junior) level courses,
generally with a large population of students who are not sociology majors;
thus, having a textbook that takes a sociological perspective is essential. Until
now, no textbook on the market took a sociological approach to the subject
matter. This text is ideal for courses in sociology of sexualities, gender and
sexuality studies, LBGTQ studies, and deviance courses that focus on sexual
deviance.

Instructors, sign in at study.sagepub.com/fitzgeraldss for the following

instructor resources:

A Microsoft® Word test bank is available containing multiple choice,

true/false, short answer, and essay questions for each chapter. The test
bank provides you with a diverse range of pre-written options as well as
the opportunity for editing any question and/or inserting your own
personalized questions to effectively assess students’ progress and
understanding.
Links to exceptional teaching resources from A.S.A.’s TRAILS
(Teaching Resources and Innovation Library for Sociology).
1 The Social Construction of Sexuality

Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this chapter, students will be able to …

Explain the sociological approach to the study of sexuality

Understand what it means to say that sexuality is socially constructed
Identify key characteristics of a sexual revolution
Understand sexuality across the life course
Explain the sexualization of racial/ethnic minorities
Discuss sexual minorities beyond lesbian and gay

For many, it was an unforgettable image: Michael Sam, an openly gay,

African American, male football player, kissing his white male partner on
national television, in celebration of being chosen by the St. Louis Rams in
the 2014 NFL draft. Upon being drafted, Michael Sam became the first
openly gay player in the NFL. Several NFL players openly expressed their
unhappiness with Sam’s actions, while others cheered the action as evidence
of both societal progress and institutional change within the NFL. Former
NFL football player Derrick Ward tweeted his discomfort with the image,
stating, “I’m sorry, but that Michael Sam is no bueno for doing that on
national T.V.” Miami Dolphins safety Don Jones tweeted “OMG” and
“horrible” after the kissing aired on national television (Yan and Alsup
2014). The Miami Dolphins organization reacted to Jones’s comments by
fining him and requiring him to attend diversity training.

Despite the controversy surrounding this event, certainly the image of two
men kissing passionately on national television represents progress for
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) equality, and the fact
that this occurred at the NFL draft is also remarkable. Historically,
masculinity has been strongly linked with heterosexuality. Football is one of
the most masculine sports. Gay male athletes have historically found the
sports world an intolerant and hostile place, and maybe the most hostile place
is on the football field (see Chapter 6). While Michael Sam did not make the
final roster cut as a member of an NFL team, the fact that an openly gay male
athlete was drafted by an NFL team was history making in itself.

When Michael Sam was drafted in 2014, he became the first openly gay NFL
player.

Source: AP Images. Photo/Jordan Strauss.

And yet, this story also provides evidence of how far we still have to go.
After the football season ended, Sam commented to Oprah Winfrey that a
number of gay NFL players reached out to him personally and commended
him for being brave enough to come out, something they were still unwilling
to risk.

You are taking this class during a period of unprecedented change for
LGBTQ individuals. All state prohibitions on same-sex marriage were
overturned in June 2015 with the Supreme Court decision Obergefell v.
Hodges, making marriage equality the law of the land. Prior to that, in 2013,
the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional the Defense of Marriage Act,
which was the federal prohibition on same-sex marriage. High-profile gay,
lesbian, and bisexual athletes are coming out of the closet regularly. School
policies nationwide are being challenged by the needs and demands of
transgender students. And finally, LGBTQ actors and characters are more
prolific in the media than ever, including the first transgender character
played by a transgender actor, Laverne Cox, on the hit series Orange Is the
New Black. Daily headlines highlight the ongoing cultural changes
surrounding sexuality-related issues, and yet, sexuality is still highly
regulated. Prostitution is illegal in all 50 states, for instance (the state of
Nevada does allow for prostitution in some of its counties, but it is not legal
in the entire state). While the Republican Party remains officially opposed to
gay marriage and other rights for sexual minorities, polls show that among
younger voters of both parties, gay rights are a given. Despite the significant
progress made, LGBTQ individuals still face discrimination and inequality
both in the United States and across the globe. These include violence;
harassment; legal discrimination in numerous institutions, from the
residential sphere to the workplace; and the burden of stereotypical images in
popular culture.

Evidence of the undeniable progress, yet the remaining inequalities faced by

LGBTQ individuals, includes, but is not limited to:

In a 2013 issue of Sports Illustrated, National Basketball Association

player Jason Collins became the first male member of a major American
sports team to publicly announce he was gay during his playing career.
As sexual assaults on college campuses gained increasing national
 attention, in July 2014, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) announced
the results of a national survey that found more than 40 percent of
colleges had not conducted a single sexual assault investigation in the
past five years—and that is not because there were no charges of sexual
assault at those institutions (Vendituolie 2014).
In July 2014, President Obama signed legislation providing protection
for gay, lesbian, and transgender federal workers and their contractors, a
move that ultimately affects one-fifth of the U.S. workforce (Pickles
2014).
The Boy Scouts of America voted to end the ban on participation by
openly gay adults in 2015, despite warnings that such a move would
result in the demise of the organization; one year later, the Boy Scouts
of America are stronger than ever, with a stabilized membership after
years of decline (Crary and Mccombs 2016).
In July 2016, Sarah McBride became the first transgender person to
speak at a major political party convention when she gave her invited
address at the Democratic National Convention.
Violence against transgender people, particularly transgender people of
color, reached an all-time high in 2015, with 22 murders, nineteen of
whom were people of color. As of July 26, 2016, 16 transgender people
have been murdered in the United States, and 13 of them were
transgender women of color (Fitzgerald 2017).

The Sociology of Sexualities

In this textbook, we explore sexuality through a sociological lens. This means
we approach an otherwise familiar topic from an often unfamiliar angle. Most
of us are socialized to think of sexuality as fixed and innate. If asked, most
people easily identify their own sexual orientation. However, sociologists
view sexuality as more complicated. What defines us sexually? Is it our
behaviors, the people we choose to have sex with, or the sexual acts we
engage in? Or is it about identity—how we define ourselves along sexual
lines? What about our sexual desires and sexual fantasies? Are these the
“true” gauges of sexuality? Is there a genetic determinant to human
sexuality? Sociologists point to instances where sexual identities, desires, and
behaviors are in conflict with one another, rather than the instances where
they are consistent, as evidence of how complicated defining sexuality really
is.

Jessica Taylor and Charlotte Jones married in the summer 2016, something
that was not legal in their state prior to the Supreme Court decision in June
2015 that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Source: Photo courtesy of Jessica Taylor and Charlotte Jones; Bron Moyi,
photographer.

What does it mean when individuals identify as heterosexual, yet engage in

sexual relations with members of their own sex? It might mean that, due to a
larger homophobic culture, they are hesitant to accept a gay or lesbian
identity despite their actions. It also might mean that they do not have the
opportunity to have sex with members of the opposite sex; a situation
incarcerated people find themselves in. Researchers identify a sexual practice
among black men that is referred to as being on the “down low”; black men
who identify as heterosexual, often have wives or girlfriends, yet who engage
in sex with other men (Boykin 2005; Collins 2005; King 2004; Snorton
2014). Latino men engaging in similar behaviors are categorized as MSMs,
or “men who have sex with men” (Diaz 1997; Gonzalez 2007).

Sociologist Jane Ward (2015) examines patterns of and meanings behind the
sexual contact between straight white men who are not gay. Some scholars
use the term heteroflexibility to describe a broad range of same-sex sexual
encounters experienced by heterosexuals in which the actions are understood
as meaningless and unlikely to fundamentally challenge a person’s
presumably fixed sexual identity (Ward 2015). An example of
heteroflexibility includes girl-on-girl kissing, whether at fraternity parties or
among celebrities, which is generally done for male sexual arousal.
Ultimately, identities, desires, and behaviors are not always consistent, thus a
simplistic understanding of “sexuality,” as based on only one of these criteria,
is problematic.

A sociological approach to understanding sexuality requires we understand it

as cultural rather than as strictly personal. It is not inaccurate to understand
sexuality through an individualistic lens; but that is not the only way to
understand it. Sexuality is very much a product of and a reflection of society.
While we have learned to view our own sexual desires as quite personal, they
are very much a reflection of cultural assumptions surrounding what is
natural or unnatural, acceptable or unacceptable, sexually. We understand our
sexual desires and behaviors through our social contexts and preexisting
cultural scripts. Thus, sexuality is both personal and social. Even further,
sexuality is political, as recent political contestation over sexuality-related
issues and feminists and LGBTQ activists have repeatedly brought to our
attention. Finally, because sexuality is culturally informed, it is important to
note that this text will approach the sociology of sexualities primarily through
a U.S. lens, with some historical and cross-cultural analyses and comparisons
—particularly in the boxed inserts focused on “Global and Transnational
Perspectives on Sexuality” found in each chapter.

Sociology is the study of human social behavior, culture, and interaction

between individuals and groups. While sociologists do not ignore the
importance of biology in sexuality, they instead emphasize the role social
forces play in understanding sexuality. A sociological approach to the study
of sexuality emphasizes the socially constructed nature of sexuality, the
cultural assumptions surrounding sexual behaviors, and the emergence of and
significance of sexual identities—all of which will be introduced in this
chapter. The rest of the book will focus on the following sociological topics:
the science of sexuality; the intersection of gender and sexuality; sexuality as
a status hierarchy where one’s group membership, either as a member of the
privileged group known as heterosexuals or as a member of a sexual minority
group, determines one’s access to various societal goods and resources; the
activism designed to overturn the discrimination faced by LGBTQ
individuals; the ways sexuality operates in and through various institutions
such as the media, sports, schools, workplace, religion, and family; and sex
education, reproduction, disability and sexuality, sexually transmitted
infections, and sexual health. Finally, a sociology of sexualities would be
incomplete without an understanding of social issues associated with
sexuality such as the commodification of sexuality, pornography,
prostitution, sex trafficking, prison sex, and sexual violence.

Terminology
Some of the terminology used throughout this text is assumed to be
straightforward, however, this can be misleading. What does it mean to speak
of a sexual orientation, for instance? Sexual orientation refers to an
individual’s identity based on their enduring or continuing sexual attractions,
and may include behaviors and membership in a community of others who
share those attractions. Sexual orientation generally falls into four categories:
heterosexuality, when one’s romantic and sexual attractions are directed at
members of the opposite sex; homosexuality, when those feelings are
primarily directed at individuals of the same sex; bisexuality, when such
feelings exist for both members of one’s own sex and members of the
opposite sex; and asexuality, which is broadly defined as having no sexual
attraction at all, or being indifferent to sexual activity.

In the current era, the term pansexuality has also gained some prominence. It
refers to having sexual attractions to individuals, regardless of their sex or
gender; a sexual attraction to all sexes/genders. Pansexuality may at first
seem similar to bisexuality, except that pansexuality is a more fluid concept
than bisexuality, which assumes a gender binary, something we will talk
about in great detail throughout this book. Pansexuality rejects the notion of a
gender or a sexual binary (the notion of either/or: gay or straight, male or
female). Sexuality refers to one’s sexual desires, erotic attractions, and sexual
behaviors, or the potential for these; physical acts and emotional intimacies
that are intended to be pleasurable, and that are embedded within larger,
socially constructed, body of meanings. For many people, their sexuality is
congruent; meaning their identities, desires, and behaviors align. For others,
however, this may not be true. Their identities, desires, and behaviors are not
always congruent, and instead are inconsistent. They may identify as
heterosexual, but desire sexual relations with members of their same sex, for
instance. Thus, the definitions we rely on to describe human sexual variation
are somewhat problematic, yet we live in a culture that assigns meaning to
certain sexual behaviors. The definitions above, limitations and all, reflect
those cultural meanings.

Our culture treats sexual categories as real, emphasizing that for each sexual
orientation there is a specific set of fixed traits that are associated with it.
This is something social scientists refer to as essentialism. Essentialist
thinking implies a permanence to sexual orientation; that it is static,
unchanging, and innate. Essentialism naturalizes differences between groups.
As we will see, this is a weakness of the essentialist position on sexuality.
Yet, despite such weaknesses, essentialism is the foundation of Western
understandings of sexuality. That being said, sociologists do not take an
essentialist position on sexuality; instead, we take a social constructionist
position, which will be introduced later in this chapter.

This text will rely on the acronym LGBTQ to represent lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals and communities. However, that
is simply an editorial decision, as there are other, more inclusive, umbrella
terms used to refer to the community of gender and sexual minorities. The
acronym LGBTIQQAAP (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer,
questioning, asexual, allies, and pansexual) is also sometimes used. We have
already defined sexual minorities such as bisexuals and homosexuals (male
homosexuals are generally referred to as gay while women are referred to as
lesbians), but we have not yet defined gender minorities. Transgender refers
to people whose gender identity is inconsistent with their assigned sex at
birth (see Chapter Three). Queer is also a label that recognizes the fluidity of
sexuality, someone who falls outside the norms surrounding gender and
sexuality. Queer is a term that has political origins and emerged during a
specific historical era, the 1990s (see Chapter Five). This broad overview of
terminology is evidence of the changing cultural understandings surrounding
sexuality and thus, should not be understood as fixed.

Evidence of the Social Construction of Sexuality

Sociologists understand sexuality as a social construction rather than as
something biological. By this we mean that sexuality is defined within
particular social and cultural contexts; and, thus, definitions of appropriate
sexual behavior change across time and place. Social constructionists
emphasize the ways sexuality is learned. British sociologist Jeffrey Weeks
(1981) introduces the notion of constructionism as an opposing position to
essentialism for understanding sexuality. What is defined as sexually
acceptable and natural in our society today has not always been so, just as
what some cultures define as appropriate and natural sexual behaviors can be
seen as deviant in other times and places. For instance, the Ancient Greeks
had a very different sexual order than we do today. In that time and place,
adult men were expected to have young, adolescent men as lovers, while at
the same time they formed sexual relationships with women. Such behaviors
today are viewed not only as deviant but as criminal, due to the ages of the
participants.

Sociologists John Gagnon and William Simon (1973) are the first
sociologists to question existing essentialist claims of biological determinism
—the idea that sexuality is determined primarily by our genetics—and
instead to emphasize its social nature. Their research challenges
psychoanalytic ideas about sexuality popularized by Freud, primarily that
there is an innate sexual drive that should be understood as an overwhelming
force requiring societal control. Gagnon and Simon emphasize the
“everydayness” of sexuality, rather than treating it as special or something
separate from everyday life (Jackson and Scott 2015; see Chapter Two).

Our understandings of particular sexual behaviors and physiological

reactions, such as virginity loss and orgasms, can also be understood as social
constructions. While most of us may think that losing one’s virginity is rather
easy to delineate, research by Laura Carpenter (2013) finds that it is anything
but unambiguous. Virginity loss is generally understood to be the first time a
man or woman engages in vaginal-penile intercourse. One problem with this
definition is that it is heterocentric, centered on and biased toward
heterosexuality. Gay men and lesbians are more likely to define their
virginity loss as their first time engaging in oral or anal intercourse rather
than their first experience with vaginal-penile intercourse. Research also finds
that individuals tend to not include coerced sexual experiences, such as rape
and sexual assault, as virginity loss. Additionally, if the sexual experience is
physically ambiguous in some way or if it is an unpleasant experience, people
are less likely to define that experience as virginity loss (Carpenter 2001).

Finally, there is the idea of “secondary” virginity or “born-again” virgins.

This refers to people who have lost their “true” virginity, but then decide to
abstain from sex until marriage or until some future date when they are in a
committed, significant relationship (Carpenter 2013). Secondary virginity is
more often found among young, white, conservative, Christian women,
particularly those born after 1972. It is linked to the Christian influenced
“abstinence-only” educational curriculum that gained prominence in the
1980s (Carpenter 2011; see Chapter Seven). Moreover, this revirginizing
phenomenon is gendered because virginity has been socially constructed as
more important for women than for men.

Research finds that orgasms can also be understood as social constructions

because people learn to understand certain feelings as sexual and pleasurable.
While orgasms are physiological reactions, they are not comparable to
digestion or sneezing; in fact, orgasms vary considerably across time and
across cultures. Female orgasms vary much more than male orgasms. In
cultures where women are believed to have less interest in sex, the concept of
the female orgasm is unknown (Richters 2011). Much popular media
attention is devoted to the issue of the female orgasm. In fact, since the
1960s, women’s magazines such as Cosmopolitan, under the editorship of
Helen Gurley Brown, became notorious for their discussions of women’s
sexuality, female orgasms, and the radical notion that women should enjoy
guilt-free sex. In reaction to the publication of Helen Gurley Brown’s book
Sex and the Single Girl (1962), a male editor of Life magazine said, “The
assumption that a woman is supposed to get something out of her sexual
contact, something joyful and satisfactory, is a very recent idea. But this idea
has been carried too far” (Allyn 2000:21).

The idea that sexuality is a social construction challenges how we have been
taught to think about sexuality, which is that sexual orientation is innate and
that heterosexuality is natural. In the following section, we provide evidence
that sexuality is a social construction. We begin by exploring the extent to
which sexuality is innate versus the extent to which it is a product of the
environment. From there, we analyze the construction of sexual binaries; the
invention of heterosexuality and homosexuality; the gendered nature of
sexuality and sexual socialization; and finally, the variation in acceptable
sexual behaviors cross-culturally and historically.

Nature Versus Nurture

Is sexuality innate? The short answer is, we do not know. Scientists have
been unable to identify a genetic marker linked to sexuality. There is no
evidence of a so-called “gay gene,” or combination of genes, despite
considerable scientific efforts directed at this question and much popular
interest in the idea. There is somewhat of a cultural preoccupation with the
“nature versus nurture” question, not just pertaining to sexuality but also to
issues like crime, intelligence, and illness. The “nature versus nurture”
question asks: To what extent is homosexuality a result of a genetic
predisposition (nature), or is it a reflection of social forces in an individual’s
environment (nurture)?

Research by Michael Bailey and Richard Pillard (1991) at Northwestern

Another random document with
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 DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
 FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
 Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
 The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

 This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
 “We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
 Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
 BRAZIER

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

 FINISHING THE BOTTOM

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

 LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
 Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

 BEATING THE BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN