Sexuality in South America varies by region and time period. Before the arrival of Europeans in South America, the different Indigenous people living there had multiple types of sexualities: there was not a single norm, but several practices that were part of a more diverse sexuality than in the West. Homosexual practices were common, and sexuality, far from being a taboo, was represented in art and everyday objects (such as the Moches vases). The arrival of Europeans changed South American sexual practices and gender expressions, forcing them to adhere to the classical heteronormative model.
It was only with the global acceptance of diverse sexualities (in connection with the emancipation and visibility of the LGBT cause) that the European norm imposed during colonization could be challenged again by sexualities based on models other than heteronormativity and marital exclusivity.
Pre-colonial history
Before the arrival of the colonists in South America in the 15th century, the sexualities of indigenous peoples were much more varied than the heteronormative Christian norm. And before the European invasion, sexuality was a vital element that was neither associated with sin, nor regulated, nor criminalised.
According to Manuela L. Picq and Josi Tikuna, “Sexual diversity has historically been the norm, not the exception, among Indigenous peoples”. For example, in the Amazon and Himalayan regions, non-monogamy is the norm.
Much of the evidence and sources of knowledge on the subject of sexuality in ancient South America and its various regions comes from sources such as ceramics, “human skeletal remains, representational imagery, the organization of space, and ethnohistoric documents”.
Ceramics
Since sexuality was not seen as taboo or different from other social activities, it was often represented in art, as is the case with the famous Moches ceramics (AD 15-800), which celebrates sexuality as a life force.
These ceramics frequently depict various sex acts, many portraying acts of sodomy and fellatio and far more infrequently, vaginal intercourse.
Where there artifacts are largely without context, stripped of archaeological data, and absent any written records, their significance and purpose are frequently left up to interpretation.
Reproduction
Several South American tribes had a unique and different understanding of reproduction: for example, certain South American indigenous groups believed in the notion of “partible paternity”. This consists in the belief that multiple men can help contribute to the development of a fetus. More prevalent in the lowlands of South America, this deeply historically-rooted notion, sometimes “accompanied by ritualized sequential sex” could help to formalize male alliances as well as minimize the risk of death or abuse of the infant.
Same-sex practices
After the arrival of the colonists in South America, the goal of conversion to Christianity was manifested in sexual practices: indeed, for many of the original peoples, homosexuality was not a taboo at all. However, the Church considered that the body should only be used for reproductive purposes. Same-sex practices were then prohibited and punished.
The researcher Patricia Carvalho Rosa explains the exclusion of homosexuals who did not submit to heterosexual norms in the post-colonial period in indigenous Tikuna communities in Brazil.
Until the insertion of the moral canons imposed by Christianity, the category of "morbidity" was not used to qualify non-heterosexual relations.
Since the Christian Church was totally opposed to homosexual practices, it did not hesitate to impose severe punishments on those continuing such practices. Christian missionaries sent to South America were violent towards the 'sodomites' they encountered in the indigenous communities. The chronicler Pietro Martire (1513) tells us that in the Isthmus of Panama, the Europeans trapped a group of native homosexuals and punished them by having them eaten by dogs.
Despite the harsh repression of homosexual practices throughout Latin America, the existence of erotic artworks has allowed a whole section of certain cultures to survive, such as the Moches or the Chimu.
Gender Identities
Before the arrival of settlers, the different communities had more than two gender identities, and some identities can be understood with concepts defined by the LGBT community.