ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book deals with a variety of societies around the world, and talks about how sexual attitudes and behaviors are affected by larger global forces like the advent of agriculture or, later, urbanization. It discusses the sexual implications of the transition from hunting and gathering economies to agricultural economies—a transition that had obvious impacts on behaviors and which, even more dramatically, encouraged development of new cultural norms. The book covers the complex transformations brought about by industrialization—in the West, but also Japan and Russia; and global patterns and reactions, often associated with imperialism. It also covers the overall sexual trends over the past century, and focuses more directly on sexual conflicts and problems, seek to sort out the major contemporary patterns and their relationship to earlier frameworks.
