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Manhood in the Making: Cultural Concepts of Masculinity

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Here, an anthropologist looks at the way masculinity is defined and created in various ways and various cultures around the globe. What we find is that just about every trait now vilified in America is highly valued around the world, in both "primitive" and "advanced" societies. This book seems to be about what our country has forgotten (or is in serious denial about), at its own peril -- that men are constructive, generous, sacrificing, loving, supportive of their families, hard working, etc... Why they are that way is what the book explains.

Unlike women, who automatically get to go from being girls to being women when they first menstruate, men face a much less definite transition in going from boys to men -- a state which has to be earned and is constantly tested. Femininity is a biological fact; masculinity is largely a cultural construct. This is why we have the term "real man", while it would be ludicrous to say someone was not a "real" woman or implore her to be one. Being a man is provisional, not permanent. It's something which is always in question.

This book is a definite tonic for anyone who thinks men's lives are some walk down a flower-strewn path. Also a good complement or counter-balance to all the deterministic evolutionary socio-biology out recently. The bibliography goes on for pages (thus satisfying the other experts in the field), yet the book is for the most part quite readable to the motivated layperson. Sure to provide one with new perspectives on familiar aspects of everyday life even if it's not an analysis of modern industrial life.

This book explores the ways in which manhood is defined. It does so by investigating a series of fascinating case studies. To take but two of these, we see that the Truk of Micronesia have a pattern of adolescent drinking and brawling that can be seen as both a holdover of a more bellicose past and a stage through which to pass into marital and parental life; furthermore, we find that Tahitian manhood is subdued, probably reflecting the relative ease and cooperative nature of their subsistence basis (fishing and agriculture) as well as an absence of intergroup aggression. The ways by which males achieve status across cultural contexts vary with respect to the social and ecological conditions faced by a given society. Where warfare prevails, for example, a society's warriors earn high status, and are typically favored by women as mates. Common to many societies, men must "impregnate women, protect dependents from danger, and provision kith and kin (p. 223)." Such provocative conclusions, attention to ethnographic detail and clear writing make this a book difficult to put down. The main drawback rests with some of the interpretation of the cultural and universal patterns of manhood. The Freudian interpretations commonly make little sense and the group selection arguments need re-couching in terms of individual selection; otherwise, most interpretations seem sensible. Overall, this book does a great job of addressing manhood in the making.

Most of the book consists of Gilmore's summary of anthropological studies of "primitive" cultures, and these accounts are reasonably interesting in themselves, and good background for readers interested in subjects like evolutionary psychology. I respect the author as being objective. I also accept his conclusion, that most of the traditional values associated with manhood had their genesis in the needs of society, e.g. for protection. I presume he writes about the Mediterranean ideals of machismo (in one of the less interesting chapters) rather than Middle Eastern ideals because he was more comfortable with them, but it does not take a feminist to believe some of the concepts of manhood were used to oppress women. Gilmore does not sufficiently distinguish between the origin of values, and their functionality within changed environments, or between the core values and their subsequent distortion. Most provocative were the two studies of cultures in which all the "normal" concepts of manhood are lacking: does this really show there is no genetic basis for gender differences, or that neither genetics or environment by itself determines behavior?

David D. Gilmore does a good job at providing a historical viewpoint of what has defined manhood in various cultures throughout various dispensations of time. The information presented in this work serves as a good framework from which one can understand that manhood by definition is about functionality and requires ACTION from he whom would qualify for this honorable status. Gilmore emphasizes that many times that one must not only act, but act aggressively for the acquisition of and maintenance of his manhood. This acting is far different from the empty, chest-thumping ignorance that we see present in today's society, but rather it is a rigorous, unselfish undertaking for the benefit of one's family, community, and nation.

Because Gilmore is an Anthropologist, he is squarely, though not always accurately (I question some of his analysis regarding the rites of passage among some african peoples.)on the past. He would have served his readers best by providing a juxtaposition of past manhood definitions with current definitions, detailing the impact of the past on the present and advising on methods to correct the foolery that is currently viewed as manhood in today's world. Undoubtedly his analysis of what was serves us well, and for that I commend him. This is espeically needed in an era where manhood is truly rare and steadily retreating.

Man Up!

Okera Adofo

David D. Gilmore

Manhood in the Making:

Cultural Concepts of Masculinity

(New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1990) 258 pages

Conventional manhood as found in several primitive tribes:

warrior, food-gatherer, big-talker, etc.

Each culture has definite ideas and means for creating 'masculinity'.

If you would like to know about better books on 'masculinity',

search the Internet for the following bibliography:

"Best Books on Gender-Personality".

James Leonard Park, creator of the Gender-Pattern Chart.

I used this book for my Culture Anthropology report and this subject was certainly intense. I felt this book was very comprehensive and graphic in its discription of male cultural concepts.