The Classification of Sex: Alfred Kinsey and the Organization of Knowledge

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HISTORY OF SCIENCE “Donna J. Drucker has authored the most substantial book-length study of Kinsey’s research currently available in the field of science studies. She contributes a new perspective to a well-researched field, which is not that easy to achieve. A great scholarly accomplishment and a pleasure to read.” —Stefan Bargheer, University of California, Los Angeles “In The Classification of Sex, Drucker delineates Kinsey’s early training, collecting, writings , and teaching in depth, and brings together and integrates conversations from the history of biology and sexuality studies in a way that will benefit readers from a range of fields.” —Miriam G. Reumann, University of Rhode Island Alfred C. Kinsey’s revolutionary studies of human sexual behavior are world renowned . His meticulous methods of data collection, from comprehensive entomological assemblies to personal sex history interviews, raised the bar for empirical evidence to an entirely new level. In The Classification of Sex, Donna J. Drucker presents an original analysis of Kinsey’s scientific career in order to uncover the roots of his research methods. She describes how his enduring interest as an entomologist and biologist in the compilation and organization of mass data sets structured each of his classification projects. Kinsey’s doctoral work included extensive research of the gall wasp, where he recorded variations in over six million specimens. His classification and reclassification of Cynips led to the speciation of the genus that remains today. During his graduate training, Kinsey developed a strong interest in evolution and the links between entomological and human behavior studies. In 1920 he joined Indiana University as a professor in zoology, and in 1938 Kinsey began teaching a noncredit course on marriage. Soon after, he was gathering case histories of sexual behavior. As a pioneer in the field of sexology, Kinsey saw that the key to its cogency was grounded in observation combined with the collection and classification of mass data. To support the institutionalization of his work, he cofounded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University in 1947. He and his staff eventually conducted over eighteen thousand personal interviews. As Drucker shows, Kinsey’s scientific rigor and his early use of data recording methods and observational studies shaped his entire career and produced a wellspring of new information, whether he was studying gall wasp wings, writing biology textbooks, tracing patterns of evolution, or developing a universal theory of human sexuality. Donna J. Drucker is a guest professor at Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. University of Pittsburgh Press www.upress.pitt.edu Cover design: Joel W. Coggins isbn 13: 978-0-8229-6303-5 isbn 10: 0-8229-6303-5                        & & & & &           & & & & &  1 1 1 1 1 1        ; ; Classification Sex ...