The information on each country in this encyclopedia is organized according to the following standard outline. The fourteen major headings are also listed on the first page of each chapter with the appropriate page numbers for that country. The reader interested in drawing comparisons on specific issues between different countries will find page references for specific topics and refinements beyond the major headings in the complete index at the end of third volume. Checking this index under a specific topic, such as premarital sex, teenage pregnancy, puberty rites, or sexual harassment, the reader will find page references that facilitate comparisons among the thirty-two countries covered in these three volumes.
Demographics and a Historical Perspective
A. Demographics
B. A brief historical perspective
1. Basic Sexological Premises
A. Character of gender roles
B. Sociolegal status of males and females
C. General concepts of sexuality and love
2. Religious and Ethnic Factors Affecting Sexuality
A. Source and character of religious values
B. Character of ethnic values
3. Sexuality Knowledge and Education
A. Government policies and programs
B. Informal sources of sexual knowledge
4. Autoerotic Behaviors and Patterns
A. Children and adolescents
B. Adults
5. Interpersonal Heterosexual Behaviors
A. Children
B. Adolescents
C. AdultsPremarital relations, courtship, and dating
Sexual behavior and relationships of single adults
Marriage and family
Cohabitation and monogamy
Divorce, remarriage, and serial monogamy
Extramarital sex
Sexuality and the physically disabled and aged
Incidence of oral and anal sex
6. Homoerotic, Homosexual, and Ambisexual Behaviors
A. Children and adolescents
B. Adults
7. Gender Conflicted Persons
8. Significant Unconventional Sexual Behaviors*
A. Coercive sexChild sexual abuse, incest, and pedophiliaB. Prostitution
Sexual harassment
Rape
C. Pornography and erotica
D. Paraphilias
9. Contraception, Abortion, and Population Planning
A. Contraception
B. Teenage (unmarried) pregnancies
C. Abortion
D. Population programs
10. Sexually Transmitted Diseases
11. HIV/AIDS
12. Sexual Dysfunctions, Counseling, and Therapies
13. Research and Advanced Education
A. Graduate programs and sexological research
B. Sexological organization and publications
14. Aboriginals, Important Ethnic, Racial, and/or Religious Minorities References and Suggested Readings
*In Section 8, “Unconventional Sexual Behaviors,” we consider a group of “other” sexual behaviors. These include sexual coercion (rape, sexual harassment, and child sexual abuse), prostitution, pornography, paraphilias, and fetishes. As a general rule, sexologists and the general public tend to view heterosexual relations between consenting adults in an ongoing relationship, such as marriage, as the norm. It is true that such sexual relations are the modal pattern in every culture. However, the earlier reviews of premarital sex, extramarital sex, alternative patterns of marriage, homosexuality, and bisexuality in Sections 5 and 6 serve to illustrate that in any country variable percentages of people engage in sexual behavior which departs from this assumed “conventional” norm. Sexologists have struggled for some time to develop acceptable terminology to describe these “other” sexual practices. “Unconventional behaviors” appears to be the least judgmental and restrictive label for “other behaviors.” This is preferable to other labels, such as “sexual deviance” or “sexual variance,” which convey a sense of pathology, dysfunction, or abnormality to behaviors.The social meaning of specific incidents of “unconventional behavior” is defined by its situation. Exhibitionism, for example, has one meaning when engaged in by a couple in private, a different meaning when engaged in on the stage of a “go-go” bar for patrons of that bar, and a third meaning when engaged in on a public street. Second, some of these behaviors are, in fact, quite common. Although the number of individuals who engage in any particular form of “unconventional behavior” may be small, it seems clear that in most countries, taken together and added to the forms of non-marital sexual expression, rather large percentages of people do participate in some “other” “unconventional” form of sexual practice.
