Since ancient times, it’s been known that some people do engage in sexual practices with members of the same sex. But when did society become aware that some people are more or less exclusively attracted to members of the same sex?
Which society? Cultures are extremely varied in their take on sexuality.
I’m primarily interested in the earliest known date for any concept that is like the modern concept of sexual orientation. If I had to pick a group of culture, I’d say any of the ones that had strong influences on modern Western society.
Check it out: there’s a similar thread in GD right now. I haven’t had time to read through it thoroughly, but it might be what you’re lookin’ for. I’ll give it some more thought and come back when I have something valuable to say!
Right, so you’re already posting there. Sorry about that.
Yeah, this thread is an offshoot of that one. Looking forward to whatever you have to say.
I don’t think it’s possible to know for sure, and I certainly can’t prove this, but it’s my belief that right up through the middle ages, our modern concept of people “being homosexual” or “being heterosexual” just didn’t exist.
I don’t know what percentage of the human population is which. Whatever the breakdown is, it’s probably been the same throughout history. The people have not changed; what’s changed are the concepts and attitudes.
Sorry – you’re asking for facts and I’m responding with opinions. But it’s my opinion that the facts can’t be established. And actually, you’re asking if people centuries ago did or didn’t have a certain opinion (“some people really only like sex with their own gender”) How can we be sure that people centuries in the past did or didn’t hold an opinion? The lack of any record of of anyone stating the opinion doesn’t prove that no one held it; could be people thought it but no one wrote it down. Or the few written records have been lost.
You could only legitimately conclude that a society recognised or became aware of same sex orientation by the laws governing sexual relationships - without a defintive mandate it is just specultation.
You might want to take a look at early Greek society. They had some quite sophisticated social policies in place to govern sexual behaviour: hetro and homo sexual relationships, which would indicate that they understood exclusive same sex proclivities.
However the rise of the Church vastly altered moral perceptions about sex and it became one of the most powerful forms of social control (in the West anyway) unitl farily recently - you could even argue the 20th century.
I did a course on Sex and Sexuality as part of my degree and I will try and remember some of the books I read on the subject and let you know. It’s fasinating stuff.
Pretty much as long as recorded history. To the extent there is any in-depth discussion of sex in ancient texts there is invariably some observation made or opinion expressed about same sex relationships. Although modernity may have labeled it, it certainly did not “discover” the concept of sexual orientation. Our ancestors were no fools and the better educated ones were reasonably savvy about the nature of people’s animal spirits and the fact that some men were attracted to other men and some women were attracted to other women.
They may have considered it not a big deal, perverse, sinful or against nature but they knew it existed way back to the dawn of human history.