8 October - William Jankowiak UNLV Anthropology A Case for Emotional Monogamy
Ethnographic Inquiries into Sex, Love and Intimacy     No culture is ever completely successful, or satisfied, with its synthesis or reconciliation of love and sex, though every culture is compelled to attempt one. No matter how socially humane, politically enlightened, spiritually attuned or technologically adapted, failure is the name of the game.  Dissatisfaction to some degree is everywhere, since we rarely, if ever, can have both.  Its dissonance sounds in all spheres of culture. To date, either cultural anthropologists or evolutionary oriented researchers have confront this eternal human conundrum.
    Evolutionary theory is relentless in documenting the sex link differences in erotic perception and behavior, while  virtually silent in its examination of emotional intimacy. In this paper I want to explore the human pair bond from the other side of the equation - emotional intimacy. Specifically I want to construct an ideal type of the human pair bond all toward the end of constructing a case for the universality of emotional monogamy. In support of my analysis, I will present the results of several recently competed and several on going field research projects conducted among American swingers, in an American polygamous community, contemporary People's Republic of China husband-mistress entanglements, and the results of a cross-cultural survey examining the ways women respond to infidelity. The implications of my findings for evolutionary and cultural theories of the sexuality will also be explored.