• Citer

The moral territory: Sexual frontiers and identities in urban/rural historiography

par Gaissad, Laurent
Editeur scientifique Klusakova, Luda;Teulières, Laure
Référence Frontiers and Identities, Cities in Regions and Nations, Pisa University Press, Pise, page (34-48)
Publication Publié, 2008

Partie d'ouvrage collectif

• Accès en ligne
• Détails
• Contenu
• Statistiques

Résumé :

Cette contribution aux travaux d'un collectif d’historiens européens suggère l’examen sociologiquement fondé d'une histoire des frontières et identités sexuelles, en insistant surtout sur les échelles et les rythmes de la mobilité (ou du changement) dans l'espace, le temps et les normes que révèle l’historiographie de ce domaine précis. Les définitions de "l'ordre moral" territorial du Chicago des années 1920 sont aussi réexaminées.

This chapter attempts to present sexuality as a field of human experience which may help in conceptualizing frontiers and identities. Though written from a sociological perspective, the chapter is nevertheless interested in the contribution of historiography to the problem. It shows that historiography has frequently addressed sexual behavior – including questions relating to designation and degrees of acceptability – in territorial terms, particularly urban or rural. Consequently, this study argues that sociological conceptions of (sexual) identities and frontiers may be seen as inspired by the diversity of historiographic and ethnographic evidence, rather than as simply sources of conceptual models disconnected from their specific historical and cultural contexts. Revisited from a sociological point of view, the considerable corpus of relevant historical research may be taken as representative ‘data’, and discussed without regard to customary chronological frameworks. The chapter will also assess the relevance of the concept of “moral territories” in the analysis of contrasted urban and rural living conditions, and to stimulate inventive empirical inquiry into the history of sexuality. Classic interpretations, particularly the Chicago School’s conceptualization of the metropolis as a sociological laboratory, are also re-examined, showing how they continue to inspire socio-anthropological surveys as well as fieldwork. Overall, the study posits a sociologically-grounded historical explanation of sexual frontiers and identities, stressing in particular the scales and rhythms of mobility (or change) in spaces, times and norms revealed by the historiography in this specific field.