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Guardians of the Flutes, Volume 1

Idioms of Masculinity

In the first systematic documentation of New Guinea rituals of manhood, Gilbert Herdt places the homosexual customs of the Sambia in their ecological and ideological contexts while exploring what they mean to the individuals who practice them. Raising a host of issues concerning gender identity, hostility between the sexes, and the relationships between myth, culture, and personal experience, Herdt provides a vivid and convincing portrait of how Sambia men experience their sexual development.

402 pages | 2 halftones, 1 map, 2 line drawings, 6 tables | 6 x 9 | © 1994

Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology

Gay and Lesbian Studies

Gender and Sexuality

Table of Contents

A Note on Language
Foreword
Robert A. LeVine
Preface to the 1994 edition
Preface
Introduction
1: People of the Mountain Forest
2: Idioms and Verbal Behavior
3: The Inward Cosmos
4: Genderizing the Pandanus Tree
5: The Phantom Cassowary
6: Femininity
7: Masculinity
8: Male Parthenogenesis: A Myth and Its Meaning
9: Conclusion
Appendix A: "Tali Says": On the problem of symbolic meaning and its relationship to field conditions among the Sambia
Appendix B: Nilutwo’s Dreams
Appendix C: The Myth of Cassowary
Appendix D: On the Origins of Warfare and Initiation
Appendix E: The Myth of Gandei
References
Name Index
Subject Index

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