I am moved to wonder if there are any men offering stories from the other side of the gender divide. In my own case, I was newly married when my wife and I traveled to Taiwan for my fieldwork and, instead of my moving in with a Taiwanese family, we found an apartment that became our private space. I was, moreover, a boy brought up in a conservative Lutheran family. We started fieldwork in 1969, the Vietnam War was still underway, and Taiwan a major R&R destination for US troops on leave from the war. But both newlywed and inhibited, I never availed myself of the numerous opportunities available for sexual contact with local partners this context made possible. I was, of course, enormously privileged, but reading about your encounters in Jamaica recalls for me the embarrassment of being hit upon by pimps and prostitutes and rejecting their offers in a state of confusion about how I should respond.

I offer this confession with no intention whatsoever of rejecting the argument that women and especially black women anthropologists confront situations from which race and gender shield their white male counterparts. There may, however, be common ground in feelings of awkwardness and moral confusion that transcend gender boundaries.