Breakthroughs in Human Relationships, Families, and Understandings of Gender

This salon will trace the origin and development of human relationships, understandings of what a family consists of, and the way sex and gender were understood throughout human history in different cultures. Human relationships have taken many forms throughout history. In what ways do modern relationships constitute progress from their historical counterparts? In what ways have we lost important dynamics and possibilities? Here we’ll explore how early human societies and their hunting-gathering lifestyles influenced the formation of primitive social structures and discuss the transition from nomadic tribes to settled agricultural communities and how this affected the dynamics of human relationships.

We’ll look at the history of families and the diverse familial structures that have been common throughout history and their cultural perceptions. Similarly, sex and gender have been understood in many diverse ways from culture to culture ranging in how important they are to the society’s culture and praxis. We’ll explore what sex is, what gender is, and how the historical concepts have helped shape modern conceptions or been forgotten by the wayside.

• History of the Family
• Friendship in the Classical World
• Ancient Roman Family Life
• Family
• A Companion to Gender History
• A History of Sexuality by Michael Foucault