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The Sambia: Ritual and Gender in New Guinea (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology)
Gilbert Herdt

Issue #0

The Sambia: Ritual and Gender in New Guinea (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology)

Wadsworth Publishing (Jan 01, 1987)
9780030689079
| Paperback
227 pages | 6.5 x 9.2 inch | English
Dewey 392.1409953
LC Classification DU740.42 .H45 1987
LC Control No. 86022888

Subject

  • Initiation Rites - Papua New Guinea
  • Male Homosexuality - Papua New Guinea
  • Masculinity - Papua New Guinea
  • Sambia (Papua New Guinean People) - Rites And Ceremonies
  • Sambia (Papua New Guinean People) - Sexual Behavior
  • Sex Customs - Papua New Guinea
  • Sex Symbolism - Papua New Guinea

Plot

This cultural and psychological study of gender identity and sexual development in a New Guinea Highlands society includes initiation rites and socialization studies, and contrasts the Sambia with other societies, including our own. Sambia boys experience ritualized homosexuality before puberty and do not leave it until marriage, after which homosexual activity is prohibited. The implications are developed cross-culturally and contextualized in gender literature.