Male & Female in New Guinea

10-6 Male & Female in New Guinea Male Dominance and Female Pollution -Pollution: associated with menstruation -Male insecurity -The natural female & the artificial male *Woman grows and matures on her own *Boy does not grow into a man without social/cultural Influence The Sambia -Value masculinity -Girls are like soft-growing plants, mature faster than boys who are like hardwoods *Blood & soft parts of our bodies (flesh, organs) come from our mother *Hard parts (teeth, nails, bones) come from our father -All children ibued with feminine at birth (covered in mother?s blood) *Fine for girls, but femininity is destructive to boys? Masculinity -Females are more complete than boys, have everything they need to grow. *Boys cannot make semen *Boys have expected homosexuality ~Boys get ?starter supply? of semen from other males, age 14ish ~Men drink white sap -White things associated with male, red with female. -Objective of initiation: break connection with mother, make boys into men *In Africa, a monster comes and takes the boys into the brush- brings them back as men Male Cult of the Flutes -Kept in men?s house -Secret from women -Notion that if the women learned of the flutes they would take them over and become dominant -The flutes used to be the women?s long ago, but the men took them -Powerful, may represent a deeper female power (back to male insecurity) The Wogeo -Schouten Islands: Blupblup & Bam -Mutual contamination/pollution Story of the flutes (women -> men) -Women have them -Boy wants to play, women say he flutes are ours, you listen, they play Themselves -Boy says no, women say fine & give them the flutes -Flutes: only men can play them, but they played themselves for the women Male Initiation as Cleansing of Female Influences -Ear piercing: have been marked, monster wil come eat you -Age 11ish: tongue scraping- men scrape their tongues so they bleed into fire *Blood is polluted, must drip into the fire *Pollution is from the mother?s milk -Male menstruation *Menstruation: how you cleanse youself of contamination from sexual contact with the opposite sex *Women are natural, menstruate themselves *Men: when feeling blah, must go into the sea, get an erection, take a shap shell and cut the penis, bleed into the sea ***Rapan contrast: sexual contact is invigorating, not polluting Male Pregnancy Among the Hua -Once a man, you cannot eat juicy foods, mostly hard dry foods -Men really like opposum, but not supposed to eat it, so they sneak it -Men can become pregnant from eating juicy foods *Body swells & swells, then he dies -Again, women=natural Myth -A man lived wildly in the woods, met up with a woman -She said he should gather/cultivate/hunt food, she will cook -He didn?t know what cooking or cultivation was, she pulls supplies out of her Vagina -He doesn?t have an anus she jams stick up and creates one ***Shows pattern of incomplete male, complete (natural) female Absent Father and Cross-Sex Identity -Joh Whiting: wrote book in the 50?s -Looked at cultures all around the world -Post-partum sex taboo *Women do not have sex with their husband for a certain time after having a baby *One reason- do not want two babies suckling at the same time *Polyandy- women with multiple husbands (not the case) *Polygynous- man with multiple wives (the case) ~Each wife has her own house and raises her children there, man rotates between wives ~When one wife has a baby, she is out of the rotation ~Wife & baby develop a close bond ~Child undergoes some type of trauma ~Is weined, husband returns, and baby is kicked out of bed *Creates status envy ~Before: the child had whatever it wanted ~Now: realizes child not all powerful, mother is ~Status envy not a problem for girls, should envy mother and want to be like her ~Problem for boys: cross-sex identity, wish they were woman ***Again, female=natural Break Cross-Sex Identity in Severe Practices -Like ear piercing, tongue scraping -Couvade as sign it has not been broken *When woman is giving birth: husband takes to bed and attention is given to him, mother is ignored to the side ~Reasoning: forces want to harm mother & baby, trick these forces into harming father instead ~Reason according to Whiting: men consider themselves to be like Women -In our society: cross dressing Gang & frat initiations