The Jaguar and the Anteater: Pornography Degree Zero

This elegantly written, dispassionate study broadens the debate on pornography through its anthropological, historical and cross-cultural perspectives. Surveying research worldwide, Arcand, a French-Canadian anthropologist, reports that no conclusive links exist between viewing pornography and criminal sexual behavior. Nevertheless, he finds that much pornography promotes an infantile, dehumanizing model of sexuality. Arcand surveys South American native myths portraying a contest between the jaguar (symbol of sex and reproduction as an escape from death) and the anteater, an asocial creature without much appetite. The Sherente tribe of Brazil embrace the jaguar, but modern pornography, declares Arcand, sides with the anteater in promoting cozy isolation and escape from traditional social constraints. One section contrasts medieval India's open embrace of human sexuality, as exemplified by erotic temple sculptures, with modern Western prudery. Arcand also distills much information on pornography's embattled history, marketing and consumption. (Dec.)