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the varieties of fertility cultism in New Guinea: part I
Author(s) -
WHITEHEAD HARRIET
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1986.13.1.02a00050
Subject(s) - fertility , cult , new guinea , sociology , politics , power (physics) , solidarity , gender studies , inequality , social science , ethnology , political science , demography , law , population , mathematical analysis , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics
The fertility cults of New Guinea are often stereotyped simply as “male cults” in the literature, but comparative analysis reveals a great deal of regional variation in the cults, both in regard to the celebration of manhood and in regard to the degree of female exclusion. In a two‐part essay (Part II will appear in the next issue of AE), I will argue first that the cultic emphasis on male power and solidarity varies according to the form of the political community that the cult in part regulates and, second, that the cultic construction of fertility highlights the regionally variable position of the sexes in ceremonial exchange . [New Guinea, fertility ritual, sexual inequality, political organization, exchange theory]