What Other Cultures Can Teach Us about Sexuality

By Zach Daly
Professor D
Human Sexuality Final Paper

Sexuality is an interesting concept, and when examined clearly has a relationship to cultural rules and norms. What is considered acceptable and appropriate sexual behavior varies significantly according to cultural rules, though some sexual taboos and norms seem to cross cultural lines. The fact that cultural norms impact what sexual behaviors are considered appropriate or inappropriate is significant, because many people argue that certain variants of sexuality are either natural or unnatural. However, if some sexual behavior was inherently unnatural, one would not expect to find sexual behavior that is considered aberrant in some cultures as a normative behavior in other cultures. In fact, it is this diversity of “normal” sexual behavior that is the most informative aspect of learning about sexual behavior in other cultures, because it helps explain that what is considered deviant in some cultures is considered normal in other cultures. Of course, examining diverse cultural sexual norms does not mean that all abnormal sexual practices should be embraced as elements of cultural diversity. The fact that a behavior might be considered normative and may be adapted to further cultural norms does not mean that the behavior is necessarily positively adaptive. For example, child brides are the norm in many cultures. The practice of permitting child brides serves to unite families, shift the financial burden of females to other families, and provide men with wives, so it does serve some positive social roles. However, that does not mean that the young girls who are married to adult men benefit from the process or that any benefits that they do receive would not be equally applicable if they were to be married as adults. Therefore, it is important