ABSTRACT
Anthropologists, exploring a variety of societies in the contemporary world, have been particularly creative in uncovering the range of human sexual practices. In 1928, a pioneering American anthropologist, Margaret Mead, published her book, Coming of Age in Samoa, to what turned out to be a substantial public as well as scholarly audience. The focus was on adolescents in Samoa and other South Pacific societies, and how their behaviors contrasted strikingly with what Mead saw as prohibitively restrictive sexual practices back home, as she drew out moral implications for the contemporary United States. Partly in response to contemporary issues in the West, anthropologists have also been interested in exploring other kinds of sexual alternatives, for example concerning same-sex activities. Most historians greatly appreciate the anthropological approach to topics like sexuality, because of the clear demonstration that human behavior responds so extensively to cultural stimuli.
