A Brief Prehistory of Sexual Relation
Published on October 15.
The evolution of knowledge in the field of prehistory includes findings that resonate in new ways with the conception of a sexual origin of language. This unexpected convergence prompted Gisèle Chaboudez to explore its implications, evaluate its foundations, and outline its consequences.
By ceasing to describe prehistoric sexual activity as merely reproductive, prehistorians are changing the paradigm and opening this field to the specific jouissance of speaking bodies, thereby unwittingly aligning themselves with Lacan’s little-known works. Through language, Homo sapiens manifests the jouissance that results from the interaction of the body and language, represents it in cave art, and endows it with social and even sacred significance.
This prehistory of the sexual relationship, like that of gender relations, is of particular interest to our era. Yet structures of domination and social organization may stem from the way speaking communities respond to the structural lack of the sexual relationship, in order to compensate for it.
What does sex between men and women hold that leads to such a singular fate? This book offers a novel anthropological framework for understanding our systems of belief and power.