The Sambia: Ritual and Gender in New Guinea by Gilbert Herdt

Description

This cultural and psychological study of gender identity and sexual development in a New Guinea Highlands society includes rich material on initiation rites and socialization studies, and contrasts the Sambia with other societies, including the United States. For example, Sambia boys experience ritualized homosexuality before puberty and continue this practice until marriage, after which homosexual activity is prohibited. The implications are developed cross-culturally and contextualized in show more gender literature. This new edition contains updated information about the Sambian ritualization and socialization of gender practices and will include a new chapter on sexuality, gender and social change among the Sambia. show less

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SusieBookworm 286 reviews

Overall, this was an excellent description of male initiation rituals in a traditional highland New Guinean society. Occasionally, it was written more informally than what I'm used to, and I know the content (a lot of fellatio) would offend some people. Just remember cultural relativism. The last couple of chapters seemed repetitive, but in general, this was a good ethnographic read.

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cskowronski 4 reviews