Guardians of the Flutes: Idioms of Masculinity

by Herdt, Gilbert H.

• ISBN13: 9780226327495
• ISBN10: 0226327493
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

A Note on Language	vi
Foreword	vii
Robert A. LeVine
Preface to the 1994 edition	xi
Preface	xvii
Introduction	1	(20)
People of the Mountain Forest	21	(36)
Idioms and Verbal Behavior	57	(14)
The Inward Cosmos	71	(26)
Genderizing the Pandanus Tree	97	(34)
The Phantom Cassowary	131	(28)
Femininity	159	(44)
Masculinity	203	(52)
Male Parthenogenesis: A Myth and Its Meaning	255	(40)
Conclusion	295	(32)
Appendix A ``Tali Says'': On the problem of symbolic meaning and its relationship to field conditions among the Sambia	327	(15)
Appendix B Nilutwo's Dreams	342	(6)
Appendix C The Myth of Cassowary	348	(3)
Appendix D On the Origins of Warfare and Initiation	351	(1)
Appendix E The Myth of Gandei	352	(3)
References	355	(14)
Name Index	369	(4)
Subject Index	373