286 p. ; 24 cm, Includes bibliographical references

ia/jaguaranteaterpo0000arca_q1i6.pdf

Bernard Arcand; translated by Wayne Grady

Verso Editions

New Left Books

Verso Books

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

English Translation., PS, 1993

obscured text

Includes bibliographical references (p. 259-286).

Over the last two decades, pornography has become not only one of the most spectacularly profitable industries in the West but also, in its own way, the most innovative, with the development of more and more individualized technologies of sexual stimulation and simulation. At the same time, it has been the focus of ever fiercer political, ethical and judicial. Despite the medias expanding sexual obsessions, pornography remains largely a matter of public shame, while being privately consumed by millions of citizens, now female as well as male. It is a unique phenomenon of our time, and one whose real significance is still little understood.
In this remarkable study Bernard Arcand approaches pornography as an anthropologist, in an attempt to explain precisely why it exists in these forms at the moment, and with what consequences. To do so, he has assembled data on the state of the industry and its technology, on its history, and on the polemics it has engendered, especially, but not exclusively, among feminists. The result is probably the most comprehensive overview of the subject ever published.
But Arcands main concern in The Jaguar and the Anteater is to elucidate the ways in which pornography is a mirror of our modernityhow we get the porn we deserve and need. Drawing on the work of social theorists such as Lasch, Sennet, Baudrillard and Lipovetsky, he examines the consumption of pornography and its wider significance in terms of privatization, specialization, isolation and extremism. And, while stressing the peculiar originality of contemporary porn, he uses anthropological material, particularly from South American tribal societies, to suggest that the phenomenon is also a new and uncertain response to a series of elementary questions concerning modesty and desire, masturbation and inhibition, death and illusions of eternal youth.

This remarkable study won the Canadian Governor Generals Award for non-fiction. Arcand approaches the contentious issue of pornography as an anthropologist. He does not condone or condemn pornography but explains why it exists — & in what forms & with what consequences for us. He takes readers on a tour of this modern & spectacularly profitable industry, & through the overheated judicial & moral arguments that it has generated. He explains the views of all sides in the feminists split over pornographys portrayal of women. A fascinating look at what pornography reveals about modern society & its anxieties.

This work provides not only a history and survey of pornography, but an explanation of pornography itself. It uses anthropological material, particularly from South American tribal societies, to draw conclusions about the nature of the industry.

2023-06-28