Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:
Prepare a 750-1000 word essay (approx. 3-4 pages) that addresses the following question:
How do we know whether sexual relationships represented in historical records were consensual, coercive, loving, or meaningless? What can we know and what can we not know about the history of sexuality?
To answer this question in an essay, drawn from at least one of the following assigned readings as well as the book, A Global History of Sexuality:
Fay Yarbrough, “Legislating Women’s Sexuality: Cherokee Marriage Laws in the Nineteenth Century,” Journal of Social History 38:2 (2004), pp. 385-406.
Matthew S. Hopper, “Slavery, Family Life, and the African Diaspora in the Arabian Gulf, 1880-1940,” Sex, Power, and Slavery, pp. 167-181.
The goal of this assignment is not to summarize the readings, but rather to analyze the information you gather from them in order to answer the prompt. Take the points made in lecture about what we can know and what we can’t know about the history of sexuality, and then identify other examples from the readings. Finally, analyze these case studies or examples in support of your argument. How have historians tried to learn about the history of sexuality in these case studies or examples, and to what extent can they know or not know how the individuals in history experienced sex or sexuality?
Your paper should contain a thesis/argument in the introductory paragraph. You should develop this thesis through the rest of the paper with supporting evidence.
Format: If using a word processing application like Word or Google Docs, make sure your paper is double-spaced, with 12-point font and one-inch margins all around. Please include your name, the date, and your paper’s title. If possible, use Chicago Manual of Style footnotes or endnotes to give citations. For information on Chicago style, see: https://writing.wisc.edu/handbook/documentation/docchicago/ (Links to an external site.). Given the fact that we are all working on different digital platforms, you may opt to copy and paste your paper directly into the text box if you cannot upload one of the accepted document versions. If you copy and paste your paper, be sure to use in-text citation or manual endnotes for citations as footnotes will not appear. You must cite your sources in some way.
