Edited by Robert Aldrich
Thames and Hudson ($69.95)
There’s evidence to show that men have lusted after other men, and women have lusted after other women since as far back as 1700 BC. The epic Gilgsmesh is the starting point for this extensive accumulation of historical records of intimate same-sex partnerships that, three thousand years later, would be named ‘the love that dare not speak its name’ by Oscar Wilde. Much of this history has since been forgotten, ignored or even erased, but Professor of European History at the University of Sydney, Robert Aldrich, has collated a whole volume of that which had been generally hidden from history. Aldrich worked with fourteen leading historians from ten different countries to source material on same-sex relationships throughout the centuries and chart the shifting attitudes towards homosexuality.
Of course the earliest practices of same-sex intimacy existed long before the words that we use today to describe them and was an accepted part of the Classical Greek and Roman cultures. The Judeo-Christian tradition of social taboo forced the rich tapestry of same-sex relationships to be buried away from the prying eyes of Church and State. The researchers have managed to unearth the ancient sexual cultures in Saharan Africa, Islamic North Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, China, Japan and India. Adrian Carton, from the School of History at Macquarie University, contributes a fascinating chapter ‘Desire and Same-Sex Intimacies in Asia’ and Aldrich writes on homosexuality in early Australia.
Gay Life and Culture: A World History is a lush volume that draws from archives, memoirs, letters, literature and visual representations. It has 253 illustrations to show the variegated ways that love and lust has been captured through the ages and enough academic footnotes to satisfy the most finicky scholar. Gert Hekma who teaches Gay and Lesbian Studies at the University of Amsterdam tackles the events leading up to the present day in ‘The Gay World: 1980 to the Present’. He notes that the gay world may have become homogenised as a result of globalisation but it has also become more fragmented. In a world where heterosexist ideology remains dominant, gay space remains limited to bedrooms, bars and the media, and the persecution of gay and lesbian people continues in many other arenas.
Gay Life and Culture: A World History is essential reading for everyone. Get yourself this magnificent hardcover compendium, give it as a present or pressure your local library to get a copy.
