Why the word 'homosexuality' can be misleading

Yours is certainly a convincing explanation as to why there should be many instances of bestiality and few of gay sex in a rural country, but I don't think it applies much to pederasty. Gay sex was historically only practised by a small minority who depended on living in cities to muster sufficient numbers to create a gay subculture. Otherwise, gays had to be lucky to find lovers, a reason so little gay sex is known of before 1700. In contrast, pederasty, at least in culturally favourable societies, was sometimes ubiquitous rather than the activity of a small minority, and so not confined to cities. I agree with Sick Rose and Pharmakon that it's unlikely early modern European men preferred animals to boys. From Cider with Rosie, a famous novel evoking rural life in old England (admittedly much later than has been under discussion, but I see no reason to suppose much need have changed in this respect): "And there were usual friendships between men and boys, who wandered through the fields like lovers." www.amazon.com/dp/1481222112