Interest in human sexual behaviour and the factors influencing it has prob-
ably never been greater than it is today as, threatened with a new and
uniquely dangerous epidemic of sexually transmitted disease (AIDS), we
speculate about how our sexual behaviour will need to change to lessen this
formidable threat.

There are three important sources of information: historical evidence of
changing patterns of sexual behaviour; cross-cultural anthropological
studies of mainly primitive societies and surveys of sexual behaviour and
attitudes in modern societies.

Social history, particularly as it applies to sexuality and marriage, is a
relatively new discipline. In the last few years some important studies have
been published (e.g. Shorter 1975; Stone 1979; Boswell 1981; Gillis 1985).
They make compelling reading and seductively offer interpretations of the
past which have considerable potential relevance to our situation today. We
must undoubtedly treat them seriously, whilst at the same time recognising
that they are as susceptible to bias as any other source of evidence, and in
some respects more so. As we shall see they do not always reach the same
conclusions.

Anthropological data are also a rich, appealing and intrinsically important
source. As yet relatively few anthropological studies have focused specifi-
cally on sexuality (Malinowski 1929; Mead 1929, 1931; Herdt 1981;
Marshall & Suggs 1971) and the scope for biased interpretation in such
studies is obviously considerable. Much of the writing on cross-cultural
comparisons has relied on the Human Relations Area File (e.g. Ford &
Beach 1952; Barry & Schlegel 1980), a collection of information about 186
cultures which varies considerably in the amount of attention paid to sexual
behaviour, and which has been gathered by a motley collection of observers
whose sexual values and prejudices were probably highly influential (Broude
& Greene 1980).

Our main sources of information are the various surveys of modern
western societies. In 1965 Schofield was able to list 33 such surveys carried

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