[Aztlan] Sexuality in Mesoamerica

[Elaine Schele]

Hi Rodrigo,

I know that I am going to sound like a broken record because I have
posting responses similar to this before, but if you go to the Google
Books website (http://books.google.com/) and then type in the phrase
that characterizes what you are looking for, you can almost always
find what you want (unlike what the Mick Jagger says).  The answer to
many of your questions can be found in scholarly books.

If you type in the phrase (without the quotes) "Sexuality in ancient
Mesoamerica", this is what comes up:

http://tinyurl.com/yf8fbh5

Elaine Schele
PhD Candidate
University of Texas
http://gispalenque.blogspot.com/
http://volunteermayameetings.blogspot.com/

On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 11:28 AM, Rodrigo Garcia <rodrigo at paloalto.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
>
>
> I have a few questions which I can't seem to find much information about
> anywhere and I would appreciate any help you can give me on this.
>
>
>
> What do we know about sexuality in Mesoamerica?
>
> Did people carry the same taboos and negative associations about sex that
> we do today?
>
> Was sex repressed by Mesoamerican religions like it has been repressed by
> many other religions all over the world?
>
> Was nudity accepted in public and if so was sex also accepted in public or
> was it something to be strictly practiced only in private areas?
>
> Was sex restricted only to married couples?
>
> What was considered wrong sexual behavior?
>
>
>
> And I read somewhere that the Totonacs were more "free", open and tolerant
> about sexuality and that they had a lot of sculptures of genitalia. I
> wonder if anybody can direct me to where I can find examples of this. Also
> I tried searching on the Justin Kerr vase collection for "sex",
> "sexuality" and nothing comes up. Does this mean that sexual practices
> were never depicted in Maya art? If this is not true could somebody direct
> me to art where sexual practices are depicted in Maya or Mesoamerican art?
> I know there are at least a few examples of this because a friend of mine
> told me he visited a famous painters house in Mexico and he supposedly had
> many prehispanic clay figurines of couples engaging in sex, something I
> had never heard of before. So I am wondering if the church destroyed a lot
> of these or if they have been kept from the public because of our own
> taboos against sex?
>
>
>
> Thanks for any help on this!
>
>
>
> Rodrigo
>
>
>
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