The African Sexual System: Comment on Caldwell et al.

This rebuttal to the Caldwell et al article positing a distinctly African sexual system is based on pointing out the bias in selecting data that may not be representative or universal. The authors identify methodological flaws and ethnographic omissions. It is concluded that there is evidence that does not support the existence of a distinctive African pattern of sexuality but rather a wide variety of patterns in sub-Saharan Africa. Many African populations have very strict controls over female sexuality. The social context of AIDS transmission in Africa must take into account the economics of increasing urbanization labor migration urban poverty and poor sanitation. Sexual practices alone should not be isolated in any policy-oriented study. Education and improved living conditions are 2 important intervention strategies. In the discussion of methodological flaws it is mentioned that there were no moral and institutional limitations on sexual practices of women in particular and the nature of the sexual system leads to the spread of AIDS. Substantiation of this thesis was made without putting the studies in the context of representativeness or time frame. Even in the referenced studies there are cautionary warnings about the lack of representativeness. The 1st flaw then is the absence of explicit criteria of inclusion/exclusion of the literature. The 2nd flaw is that equal weight is given to studies conducted in the 1920s and present ones with no recognition of change. The 3rd flaw is that too few examples are used to extrapolate to the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. The 4th flaw is the inappropriate use of the central piece of supporting evidence the Molnos collection. Ethnographic omissions distort the original conceptualizations. A primary source provided by Goody of comparative Eurasian and African societies presents for example African sexuality as deriving from the economic context but Caldwell et al. present it as a determinant in and of itself. Other studies cited which complicate their thesis are minimized. Although there is agreement that sexuality is a neglected theme in the ethnographic literature there is ample published evidence to contradict the idea that there is a sexual pattern general to Africa and to support the notion that sexuality is regulated. There is considerable support for a diverse view of sexual behavior and lineage ties have weakened and lead to conjugal instability matrifocality and single parenthood not the nuclear family.