Sodomites, Siamese Twins, and Scholars: Same-Sex Relationships in Moche Art

Abstract

Erotic vessels of the Peruvian Moche culture (C.E. 100–800) are often referred to in literature as being among the most reliable pieces of evidence of the presence of institutionalized same-sex sexual behavior in prehistoric societies. But are the references made to this pre-Columbian example well founded? The currently available material is exceptionally sparse; the hypotheses to date were mainly based on far-fetched interpretations of the rare and highly controversial depictions and even modern forgeries. They were generally developed by nonspecialists, while Moche scholars themselves have never commented on this subject to any significant extent. In this article, we present the tumultuous history of research into homoerotic Moche depictions, analyze the shortcomings of the hypotheses contained in literature, and finally present examples of representations that can actually be interpreted as images of same-sex relationships that were intentionally or unintentionally overlooked in research to date. [Moche, iconography, homosexuality, sex, gender roles, Peru, archaeology]