Beneath the Equator: Cultures of Desire, Male Homosexuality, and Emerging Gay Communities in Brazil

Richard Parker's Beneath the Equator is a groundbreaking anthropological study of male-male relationships in Brazil and the ensuing emergence of distinct gay communities in that country. Parker raises important questions that challenge Western ideas about same-gender desire and sexuality. In the first chapters of the book--using his own research as well as a wealth of other materials--Parker elucidates how gender, race, the history of colonialism, and the views of Western countries have all contributed to constructing specific Brazilian homosexualities. In subsequent chapters, he charts how these manifestations of same-sex desire form the basis for a series of distinct communities. Parker also discusses in depth the effect of the AIDS epidemic on Brazilian gay life and how different, culturally specific AIDS prevention strategies have been formulated and employed to deal with the disease. Written in clear and accessible language, Beneath the Equator brings together a huge amount of research and thought and presents the reader not only with a new, complex portrait of gay life in Brazil but new ways of conceptualizing sexuality and culture worldwide. --Michael Bronski