The “Love for Money” in Sardinia: On the Question of an Ethnoanthropological Study of the Phenomenon of Prostitution in Traditional Society

Abstract

The article makes a novel contribution to anthropological studies by exploring the phenomenon of prostitution in Sardinia which remains a poorly urbanized conservative rural region of Europe, which still retains a high degree of cultural traditionalism. Due to the lack of research on this issue, I draw primarily on my own field material obtained as a result of many years of surveys conducted in the region, mainly in mountainous areas, that is the pastoral zone which is a set of introverted and patriarchal village microcosms with unusually strict social control and a rigid system of moral taboos. The principal difficulty in conducting this type of fieldwork is the uncommunicativeness and “closedness” of informants in any kinds of conversations involving topics of sex. I argue that there was an organic social “acceptance” of the institution of prostitution in the traditional society as an element that provided a mechanism for its social functioning and the preservation of social balance.