Greta LaFleur, professor of American studies at Yale University, began her talk on the environment and its relation to early sexuality with a variety of different narratives that she proposed. Initially she spoke of the execution narratives in which the details of a crime and the moments leading up to it were described. Secondly, she spoke of the barbary captivity narratives, when Christian sailors were captured were sold on the Islamic slave market from the 17th to the 19th century. In these narratives the slaves rejected the sodomy laws. I am still unsure of these and how they relate to the idea of environmental theory influencing early sexuality as both of these are accounts of humans and not how the environment has changed sexuality. However, later in the lecture, Professor LaFleur showed a quote by William Cronon from A Place for Stories. I felt that this quote helped me to understand the relation between the Barbary captivity narratives and the execution narratives. In essence the quote describes all human relationships actions and feelings as both a notion of history but also of the earth and how it has changed over the years.
This statement relates to the climate theory, one that LaFleur brought up later on in her discussion. This theory is that differences amongst people, their bodies and beings, are a result of the climate where they reside. An example she gave was one that the class could understand, in cuffing season. Cuffing season describes the idea that when the weather gets colder, people want to couple up and have someone to “snuggle” with as opposed to when it is hotter, people are less likely to display this phenomenon. This example shows that people can change their behaviors when it the climate changes regardless of whether or not they realize what they are doing.
Another author, Samuel Stanhope Smith, describes the effects of climate on humans in An Essay on the causes of variety of complexion and figure in the human species. He believes that variation in humans is caused by not only differences in beliefs, actions, looks and many more combined with the environment are what causes all variations amongst humans. Professor LaFLeur, gave many good reasons for the environment to influence human beings, but perhaps she could have organized it in a better manner. I felt that the second part of the lecture made much more sense in the context of what she was arguing, and I was slightly unsure of how it all connected to the first part in which she discussed the different types of narrative. Perhaps that is due to my lack of knowledge on the subject, however, I feel she could have connected the different parts of the lecture to help the audience understand its purpose. In the Q & A portion of the talk someone mentioned how climate determines how people act and feel. I think that this is one takeaway from the talk that could have been simplified. It is easy to understand how where one lives could influence the food that is available to them and work from their towards sexuality.