Citation

Ember C. Sex Roles 1978; 4(5): 657-678.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1978, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/BF00287331

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Anthropologists have described cultural beliefs in many societies that suggest men fear sex with women. In this paper I derive and cross-culturally test the implications of four theories that may help explain such fear. These theories suggest that men may fear sex with women because their wives come from enemy villages; population pressure on resources favors the avoidance of intercourse; males are conflicted about their sexual identity; or males have an exaggerated Oedipus complex. The cross-cultural evidence is generally consistent with all four theories. A tentative causal model is presented to account for the results.