National Endogamy and Double Standards: Sexuality and Nationalism in East-Central Europe During the 19th Century

Abstract

During the "long nineteenth century," nationalism came to permeate all aspects of European society, including attitudes toward human sexuality. Both sexuality and nationalism are complex phenomena that overlap in myriad ways. However, national endogamy may have been the most characteristically national of all possible sexual attributes: qualities such as chastity or fidelity, while frequently claimed as typical of a given national group, have religious and social dimensions independent of nationalism. An individual who makes nationality a decisive factor in selecting sexual partners, however, not only makes some concept of the nation a defining feature of sexual virtue, but implicitly defines the nation in sexual terms.