Newton's classic text stood largely alone until the end of the decade, at which point glbtq-oriented book-length ethnographies slowly began to emerge. These included studies of lesbian communities (Wolf 1979) and gay bar life (Read 1980) in the United States, and Gilbert Herdt's research on "ritualized homosexuality" among the Sambia in Papua New Guinea (1981).

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Books that focused on alternative genders and sexualities began appearing even more regularly from the mid-1980s. Some of these ground-breaking texts included studies of two-spirited people among Native Americans (Williams 1986), a support group for male-to-female in the United States (Bolin 1988), and the hijra of India (Nanda 1990). Several important edited volumes also appeared in the 1980s, including Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia (Herdt 1984) and The Many Faces of Homosexuality (Blackwood 1986).

A New Era

The 1990s saw a dramatic increase of theoretically sophisticated research on issues of sexual and gender diversity as gay, lesbian, , and transgender studies began to be taken more seriously in the academy. Several important ethnographic studies of gay and lesbian communities in the United States were published during the first half of the 1990s, including works by Weston (1991), Newton (1993), and Kennedy and Davis (1993).

Moreover, grant monies from public health agencies and non-governmental organizations increasingly became available for research relating to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This allowed researchers to pursue studies of sexual subcultures to an extent that had not been possible before in the social sciences.

In the late 1990s transgenderism emerged as a significant research topic, with long-term research projects carried out by ethnographers in countries such as Brazil (Kulick 1998), the Philippines (Johnson 1997), Tonga (Besnier 1997), and among Native Americans (Lang 1998). Recently, more attention has also focused on lesbianism and female-to-male transgenderism, subjects that were often ignored in the past (Blackwood and Wieringa 1999).

In addition, two landmark volumes co-edited by Ellen Lewin and William Leap were published that explore the history, politics, and debates surrounding gay and lesbian ethnography, and the complex issues of positionality and authority that affect gay and lesbian ethnographers.

Methodological Considerations

A number of sensitive questions face ethnographers who conduct research on glbtq topics, as well as those who themselves identify as glbtq. For example, what are the implications and effects of being "out" in the research setting? How does one's sexuality and gender identity impact how one conducts fieldwork?

In the past, ethnographers have typically remained silent in their written ethnographies about their own identities. But in recent years reflexive reporting, in which researchers offer personal (sometimes intimate) information in their finished texts, has become popular in the social sciences. Accordingly, glbtq ethnographers have recognized the importance of allowing readers to understand how the sexual and gendered aspects of the researcher's identity can influence how a research topic--whether glbtq-focused or not--is approached, and how being out may shape personal relationships that are formed in the field.

Questions of identity inevitably lead to questions of privilege. Does being glbtq-identified permit a researcher greater access to certain research populations? For instance, does being an out lesbian allow a researcher to gain a greater measure of trust among lesbian informants than would otherwise be possible? This in turn leads to a consideration of the ethical implications of pursuing sexual relations with one's informants.

A final controversial issue concerns the use of Western labels to refer to indigenous terms. That is, how applicable are English words such as homosexual, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite, and queer to people in non-English speaking cultures? After all, such words have their own context-bound histories. Thus, the ethnographer must make the decision when writing up fieldwork whether to use native terms or English glosses.

Indeed, whose interpretation of reality will become privileged in the final written ethnographic product? Should a group of people be labeled and conceptualized as homosexual or transgendered even if they themselves do not self-identify as such?

For example, some Thai kathoey view themselves as "women" (phuying), but are typically described by Western social scientists as "drag queens," "transsexuals," or "transgendered homosexuals." How to reconcile the tensions between such insider and outsider views is a major challenge for today's ethnographer.

Anthropology, the first of the social science disciplines to take sexuality--and particularly homosexuality--seriously as a field of intellectual inquiry in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, has achieved a new impetus in the post-Stonewall era.

Ethnography, the description of indigenous non-European peoples by Euro-Americans, has been a safe way for writers to discuss homosexuality as a normal, non-pathological behavior.

The earliest etiologies--or theories of causation--of homosexuality date from European antiquity, but the search for a universal etiology has intensified as homosexual behavior has come under the scrutiny of science.

"Indigenous" is a concept important in the history of anthropology, particularly as it regards anthropology's treatment of same-sex sexual relations.

A great range of non-normative sexualities and genders can be found in the Indonesian archipelago, but the concepts gay and lesbi are Western terms that have been transformed in the Indonesian context.

As an academic field, sociology has only recently begun to examine sexuality, and members of the profession are divided over glbtq concerns.

Among the first American women to study anthropology, Ruth Benedict rose to the top of her profession; her "patterns of culture" theory explains human behavior and concepts of deviance as cultural constructs.

Both male and female berdaches (or two-spirit persons), common among Native American tribal cultures, were characterized by gender variation sanctioned by supernatural dreams and visions.

Although she was one of the most prominent and widely admired American anthropologists of her generation, Margaret Mead chose to keep her own bisexuality a secret.

Transylvanian paleontologist Baron Franz Nopcsa made significant contributions to the fields of paleontology, geology, ethnology, and evolutionary biology, and aspired to become King of Albania.

Although there is some question as to whether travel writer, explorer, photographer, and cult figure Sir Wilfred Thesiger can be labeled as homosexual, his most powerful emotional ties were with the young male companions of his famous journeys.

Finnish sociologist, anthropologist, and moral philosopher, Edward Westermarck wrote a number of classic books on sexuality and sexual mores.