Ancient Oriental tradition holds that a newlywed couple would be presented with a Shunga or Pillow Book as a wedding gift.  These illustrated collections of erotic techniques would allow the couple to familiarize themselves with lovemaking and serve as inspiration.  The Hindu texts of the Kama Sutra, written by Vatsyayana around 350 BC, and the Ananga Ranga, from the 1500’s, follow that same tradition.  The Ananga Ranga divided sexual unions into six categories; Woman supine (on back), Woman on side, Sitting or squatting, Standing, Woman prone (face down), and Woman superior (on top). 

 

I have adapted this technique, of categorizing a sexual position by describing the position of the woman, for organizing Dud’s erotica.

 

Taxonomy is the ordered division of items into groups or categories.

 

 Sexual Taxonomy, in this case, is organizing a large group of erotic artwork by the ordered division of sexual positions according to the position of the woman (this only applies to heterosexual pairings).

 

For example the above illustration from the web site would be a woman prone (even though she’s gazing longingly back at him), rear entry position. The Romans would have described it as, a tergo from the Latin for, “from behind” or coitus more ferarum, for “intercourse in the manner of a beast,” a Latin term for any rear entry position.

In this day and age if one were, "hooking up" you might say you did it doggy style.

 

I’ll cover some more examples another time.           

 

Live long and prosper.

Please check out the Dud's Erotica web site at: http://dudserotica.com/