Literally Me Meaning

The Spanish Language

Just Between Us

A photograph of two men, cowboy-hatted and -booted and discreetly holding hands, is the departure point in a groundbreaking study on masculinity and homosexuality in Mexico. Just Between Us, an ethnography of intimacy and affection between men, explores the concept of masculine identity and homoeroticism, expressing the difficulties men face in maintaining their masculinity while expressing intimacy and affection. Using fieldwork from rural Sonora, Mexico, Guillermo Núñez Noriega posits that men accept this intimacy outside gender categories and stereotypes, despite the traditional patriarchal society. This work contests homophobia and the heterosexual ideal of men and attempts to break down the barriers between genders. The photograph Núñez Noriega uses to explore the shifting attitudes and perceptions of sexuality and gender provokes more questions than answers. Recognizing the societal regulations at play, the author demonstrates the existence in contemporary Mexico of an invisible regime of power that constructs and regulates the field of possibilities for men’s social actions, especially acts of friendship, affection, and eroticism with other men. The work investigates “modes of speaking” about being a man, on being gay, on the implicit meanings of the words homosexual, masculine, trade, fairy, and others—words that construct possibilities for intimacy, particularly affective and erotic intimacy among men. Multiple variants of homoeroticism fall outside the dominant model, Núñez Noriega argues, a finding that offers many lessons on men and masculine identities. This book challenges patriarchal definitions of sex, gender, and identity; it promotes the unlearning of dominant conventions of masculinity to allow new ways of being.

The origin of humanity

Let you be surprised. Even more important, surprise yourself. THE ORIGIN OF HUMANITY answers the questions of how it all began, and how to move forward in an uncertain world: Words and humanity appeared 13750 years ago. 13750 years ago, the appearance of words changed the world more than any other event before or since, the age was stone, the Sahara green, Northern Europe under 1-mile-thick ice, and writing had not been invented yet. THE ORIGIN OF HUMANITY does not fight the old but instead tells the untold story of how it all began. It invites you to look at words as an alien might. New landscapes will unfold that have been there all along. But as you will find, the unfolding is you. "The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new." - Socrates "To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." - Buckminster Fuller When you change how you look at words, your world changes. For these and other reasons, THE ORIGIN OF HUMANITY can offend.