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Intimacies: Love and Sex Across Cultures

Edited by William R. Jankowiak

Paper, 304 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13437-8
$24.50 / £14.50

March, 2008
Cloth, 304 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13436-1
$74.50 / £44.00

"William R. Jankowiak’s splendid new anthology focuses on the relationship of sexual passion to companionate love in a great variety of settings throughout the world. Not only do the essays offer fine-grained ethnography but they also feature a refreshing theoretical eclecticism that will make this collection very useful in the classroom. What is more, the overall quality of exposition is uniformly straightforward and clear. Intimacies is an exciting addition to the growing cross-cultural literature on love. This volume represents cultural anthropology as it should be." — David Lipset, professor of anthropology, University of Minnesota

"For years the study of love languished in anthropology and the social sciences. William R. Jankoviak's previous work (Romantic Passion: A Universal Experience?) brought the topic of love and sexuality to the forefront of anthropological study and established that love is a cultural universal. His current edited book, Intimacies: Love and Sex Across Cultures brings together eleven scholars whose work illuminates the integrating theme of the book: the tensions between passion, companionate or ‘comfort’ love, and sex, a dilemma that is handled differently in varying cultural settings. The contributions are of a high level, the book is a pleasure to read and the topic is absolutely fascinating. Intimacies: Love and Sex across Cultures is just what ‘the love doctor’ ordered—the right tonic for a discipline that is now recognizing the universal cultural importance of love." — Thomas Gregor, professor of anthropology and religious studies, Vanderbilt University

"Another superb anthology by anthropologist William R. Jankowiak. It brings together an impressive array of experienced and talented field researchers who give us a treasury of data on topics of deep interest to us all: sex and love. You will see a bit of yourself, your friends, and your relatives on just about every page." — Helen Fisher, author of Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love

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About the Author

William R. Jankowiak is professor of anthropology and ethnic studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is the author (with Dan Bradburd) of Drugs, Labor, and Colonial Expansion, Urban Mongols: Ethnicity in Communist China, and Sex, Death, and Hierarchy in a Chinese City.William Jankowiak is Professor of Anthropology & Ethnic Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1986 from the University of California Santa Barbara. His research and teaching interests include ethnographic studies of contemporary Chinese society, especially Mongolian culture, as well as human universals such as love and family bonds. His publications include Urban Mongols: Ethnicity in Communist China (Prentice Hall, 1994); Sex, Death and Hierarchy in a Chinese City (CUP, 1993); and is editor of Romantic Passion: The Universal Experience (CUP 1995)

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