The History of Sex.

I'm watching the first part of the History of Sex on the History Channel. It's an interesting premise for a show, and not at all surprising that they'd choose to make something like it. Basically it describes people's notions about sex, including morality, monogamy, love, etc. throughout the ages. I must say, it's kind of disappointing. No, I didn't expect to experience any arousal watching it, though there are some pretty graphic pictures. Intsead, I was hoping that they would have more information on pre-Mesopotamian sex or something other than the standard Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek. As someone who used to study archaeology in North and South America and who's also dabbled in European Stone Age archaeology, I can tell you without a doubt that every other culture thought about it just as much as the Mesopotamians did and some may have written about it even earlier.

I'm always frustrated by the dogged focus the History Channel demonstrates on Egyptian and Middle Eastern archaeology. I think it's a hold over from the heyday of British archaeology when people thought that Egypt was the seat of civilization and didn't use common sense to get that, with so many people all over the world, "civilization" will reasonably develop in several different places in tandem or at slightly different times. What's truly fascinating is that so many civilizations separated by a vast amount of land and sea appear to have evolved more or less in tandem, which tells you a lot about the people who created them.

What's also interesting is that notions of sex and love are very similar in most places. Were I to create a similar show, I'd probably highlight that and also South American attitudes toward sex, prehistoric and current. I'm betting it would be similar to Middle Eastern attitudes, though with different stylistic elements to the graphic images.

Oh, well - can't have everything. I guess if I can write smut, I can research a book on sex in South America, right? That'll be an interesting idea to toy around with.