Aella's library. sorted by topic.

Many of the books on Aella's shelves: heavy on the history and anthropology of sex, primates, and old eyewitness accounts of other people's societies.

75 titles

History of sexuality

how desire was practiced, policed and theorized, from Athens to America9

The History of SexualityAn Introduction · The Use of Pleasure · The Care of the Self · Confessions of the FleshMichel Foucault · 1976–20184 volumes
Sexuality in Greek and Roman CultureMarilyn B. Skinner · 2005
A Cultural History of Sexuality in the Classical Worlded. Mark Golden & Peter Toohey · 2011
The Joy of SexusLust, Love, and Longing in the Ancient WorldVicki León · 2013
Sexual Life in Ancient ChinaR. H. van Gulik · 1961
Sexuality in Medieval EuropeDoing Unto OthersRuth Mazo Karras · 2005
Sex and PunishmentFour Thousand Years of Judging DesireEric Berkowitz · 2012
Intimate MattersA History of Sexuality in AmericaJohn D'Emilio & Estelle B. Freedman · 1988
The Technology of Orgasm"Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual SatisfactionRachel P. Maines · 1999

Sex manuals & early sexology

primary texts: erotic classics and the first doctors to catalog desire7

KamasutraVātsyāyana · c. 3rd century2 editions
The Perfumed Garden of Sensual DesireShaykh al-Nafzawi · 15th century
Manual of Classical ErotologyDe figuris VenerisFriedrich Karl Forberg · 18242 copies
Nerve-Vibration and Excitation as Agents in the Treatment of Functional Disorder and Organic DiseaseJ. Mortimer Granville · 1883
Psychopathia SexualisRichard von Krafft-Ebing · 1886Quantified report →
Sexual InversionHavelock Ellis · 1897
Ideal MarriageIts Physiology and TechniqueTh. H. van de Velde · 1926

Anthropology of sex & gender

fieldwork on sexual cultures far from the West5

Patterns of Sexual BehaviorClellan S. Ford & Frank A. Beach · 1951
The Spirit and the FleshSexual Diversity in American Indian CultureWalter L. Williams · 1986
The SambiaRitual, Sexuality, and Change in Papua New GuineaGilbert Herdt · 1987
Sambia Sexual CultureEssays from the FieldGilbert Herdt · 1999
With Respect to SexNegotiating Hijra Identity in South IndiaGayatri Reddy · 2005

Modern sex, porn & relationships

surveys, the brain, porn, and keeping desire alive6

The Janus Report on Sexual BehaviorSamuel S. Janus & Cynthia L. Janus · 1993
Mating in CaptivityUnlocking Erotic IntelligenceEsther Perel · 2006
Addicted to LustPornography in the Lives of Conservative ProtestantsSamuel L. Perry · 2019
Sex in the BrainHow Seizures, Strokes, Dementia, Tumors, and Trauma Can Change Your Sex LifeAmee Baird · 2020
The Pragmatist's Guide to SexualityWhat Turns People On, Why, and What That Tells Us About Our SpeciesSimone & Malcolm Collins
The Pornography WarsThe Past, Present, and Future of America's Obscene ObsessionKelsy Burke · 2023

Evolution, primates & animals

what other species, and our own past, say about us7

BonoboThe Forgotten ApeFrans de Waal & Frans Lanting · 1997
A Primate's MemoirA Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the BaboonsRobert M. Sapolsky · 2001
Sex at DawnHow We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern RelationshipsChristopher Ryan & Cacilda Jethá · 2010
The Bonobo and the AtheistIn Search of Humanism Among the PrimatesFrans de Waal · 2013
Animal WeaponsThe Evolution of BattleDouglas J. Emlen · 2014
DifferentGender Through the Eyes of a PrimatologistFrans de Waal · 2022
EveHow the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human EvolutionCat Bohannon · 2023

Other societies, myths & madness

fieldwork, culture-bound syndromes, and the myth of primitive harmony5

The Arctic Hysterias of the North Alaska EskimoEdward F. Foulks · 1972
Sick SocietiesChallenging the Myth of Primitive HarmonyRobert B. Edgerton · 1992
Don't Sleep, There Are SnakesLife and Language in the Amazonian JungleDaniel L. Everett · 2008
UnikkaaqtuatAn Introduction to Inuit Myths and Legendsed. Neil Christopher, Noel McDermott & Louise FlahertyExpanded edition
The Geography of MadnessPenis Thieves, Voodoo Death, and the Search for the Meaning of the World's Strangest SyndromesFrank Bures · 2016

The ancient & medieval world

historians, travelers and courtiers in their own words, plus one archaeologist9

Excavations at UrA Record of Twelve Years' WorkSir Leonard Woolley · 1954
The HistoriesHerodotus · c. 430 BC
AnabasisThe Persian ExpeditionXenophon · c. 370 BC
Agricola and GermaniaTacitus · AD 98
The Pillow BookSei Shōnagon · c. 1002
Alberuni's Indiaal-Bīrūnī · c. 1030
The AlexiadAnna Komnene · c. 1148
The Book of ContemplationIslam and the CrusadesUsama ibn Munqidh · c. 1183
The Travels of Ibn Battutain the Near East, Asia and Africa, 1325–1354Ibn Battuta · 1355

First contact

explorers, captives and missionaries in the Americas and New Guinea8

Chronicle of the Narváez Expeditionalso as The Account: Cabeza de Vaca's RelaciónÁlvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca · 15422 translations
Hans Staden's True HistoryAn Account of Cannibal Captivity in BrazilHans Staden · 1557
Yucatan at the Time of the Spanish EncounterRelación de las cosas de YucatánDiego de Landa · c. 1566
The Jesuit RelationsNatives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North Americaed. Allan Greer · 1632–1673
Captured by the Indians15 Firsthand Accounts, 1750–1870ed. Frederick Drimmer · 1961
In Search of YorkThe Slave Who Went to the Pacific with Lewis and ClarkRobert B. Betts · 1985
Empire of the Summer MoonQuanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American HistoryS. C. Gwynne · 2010
The New Guinea DiariesNikolai Miklouho-Maclay · 1871–1883

Childhood, cruelty & violence

child-rearing, abuse, and the arguments people made for cruelty4

Centuries of ChildhoodA Social History of Family LifePhilippe Ariès · 1960
For Your Own GoodHidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of ViolenceAlice Miller · 1980
SaharasiaThe 4000 BCE Origins of Child Abuse, Sex-Repression, Warfare and Social Violence, in the Deserts of the Old WorldJames DeMeo · 1998
Defending SlaveryProslavery Thought in the Old South: A Brief History with DocumentsPaul Finkelman · 2003

Status, taste & culture

why people chase rank, and what it does to art, fashion and TV6

From Dawn to Decadence500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the PresentJacques Barzun · 2000
The Money ShotTrash, Class, and the Making of TV Talk ShowsLaura Grindstaff · 2002
Very Important PeopleStatus and Beauty in the Global Party CircuitAshley Mears · 2020
The Status GameOn Human Life and How to Play ItWill Storr · 2021
Status and CultureHow Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant ChangeW. David Marx · 2022
Get the PictureA Mind-Bending Journey among the Inspired Artists and Obsessive Art Fiends Who Taught Me How to SeeBianca Bosker · 2024

Science, drugs & catastrophe

light, LSD, bioweapons and AI risk4

QEDThe Strange Theory of Light and MatterRichard P. Feynman · 1985
Storming HeavenLSD and the American DreamJay Stevens · 1987
BiohazardThe Chilling True Story of the Largest Covert Biological Weapons Program in the World, Told from Inside by the Man Who Ran ItKen Alibek with Stephen Handelman · 1999
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone DiesWhy Superhuman AI Would Kill Us AllEliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares · 2025

Fiction & poetry

the rest of the shelf5

Book of MercyLeonard Cohen · 1984
Stories of Your Life and OthersTed Chiang · 2002
Reflected in YouCrossfire, book 2Sylvia Day · 2012
The RiskMindf*ck series, book 1S. T. Abby
A Girl Corrupted by the Internet is the Summoned Hero?!Eliezer Yudkowsky