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Ancient Homosexuality

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Sexual expression; Sexual orientation

Definition

Same-sex attraction in early recorded history.

Introduction

Despite recent attention to the issues surrounding gender identity and sexual orientation, human same-sex attraction is not a novel phenomenon. Historical, anthropological, cross-cultural, and archaeological evidence points to frequent same-sex attraction and sexual behavior in early recorded human history. The consistent instantiation of same-sex behavior throughout time and across disparate civilizations suggests the possibility that evolutionary processes have helped to shape human same-sex attraction (Bailey et al. 2016). This entry presents some interpretations of the evidence for same-sex attraction in early history, focusing on manifestations of same-sex attraction in antiquity.

The Multitude of Same-Sex Attractions

The earliest evidence for the existence of same-sex attraction dates back to pre-civilization. Archaeological records describe Mesolithic rock art...

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References

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Correspondence to Konstantin O Tskhay .

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Tskhay, K.O., Rule, N.O. (2021). Ancient Homosexuality. In: Shackelford, T.K., Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_3376

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