Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia (Studies in Melanesian Anthropology) (Paperback)

~ Gilbert H. Herdt (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Must reading for serious investigators of sex and gender. . . . This documentation of several societies where homosexual relations among men are both universal and obligatory challenges a number of medical, biological, and psychological theories of homosexuality." -- Barry D. Adam, American Journal of Sociology

"The authors place the homosexual behavior in the context of gender roles so effectively that one wonders how previous anthropologists wrote about relations between Melanesian women and men without considering this important aspect of behavior." -- Walter L. Williams, Journal of Anthropological Research

Product Description

This book contains the work of seven leading anthropologists on the subject of ritualized homosexuality, and it marks the first time that anthropologists have systematically studied cross-cultural variations in homosexual behavior in a non-Western culture area. The book as a whole indicates that contemporary theories of sex and gender development need revision in light of the Melanesian findings.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 472 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (January 28, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520080963
• ISBN-13: 978-0520080966
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,646,317 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 4.5 Stars for Letting Us Know the Scholarly Details of "the Unspeakable", May 24, 2008

By	Bonam Pak (Berlin) - See all my reviews

I read the 1993 edition of the 1984 book on research primarily conducted between 1958 and 1970 in Melanesia, including the world's second largest island, New Guinea.

The societies in this area are exceedingly numerous and often miniscule, widely differentiating in language, customs and outlook on what the West terms (male) homosexuality from valley to valley and highlands and from island to island. Nine anthropologists (eight of them male) contribute in as many chapters to a somewhat holistic picture of how sexual and love life is, was and/or had been institutionalized when the aghast missionaries weren't around.

I am not sqeamish personally, however I am not that sure wether amazon would be really happy with me even when describing much of the content with Latin or French foreign words. Many Melanesian societies' concepts of initiation, adult life or continuous youth raising are clearly beyond the wildest of Western orgy fantasies. To give a mild idea: Some societies think that after female breast feeding, the male has to feed the male youths as well or the latter will not be able to become adult men. I am not talking about male lactation, which by itself is a bit wonderous for most Westerners. Some will use the direct approach, others a female for the vessel of nourishment. Use your imagination. After reading this book I can comprehend much better what missionaries in the original colonial days described as unspeakable acts etc. Behind his desk, a Western compiler of these stories in 1917 (Das Geschlechtsleben der Naturvölker., re-published in untranslated German in the US) thought largely, regular homosexual acts would have been unspeakable enough for those missionaries. But here I am, 90 years later, wondering how much this American site will let me review the content of this 1980s book.

It is an intriguing reading for sure. Sometimes it is Shakespeare on acid: About public performances of very explicit homosexual acts, but with one of the performers, the "active" one, being a women in a man's disguise. Or about men who are afraid of getting raped by a certain woman with a dental vagina. Or about the refreshing concept of heterosexuality symbolizing decay, homosexuality growth. And so on and on and on for 474 pages. Sadly only from the Western anthropoligsts' perspective, i.e. lacking the first-hand authenticity. Some day, such books will be written by members of the parts of culture themselves - if anything will have been allowed to remain intact. To make sure that this will be the case, the editor of this book and author of the introductary chapter has written a separate book about one of these societies with ritualized homosexuality. For their protection, he has withheld their identity. Read Guardians of the Flutes, Volume 1: Idioms of Masculinity. You may also be interested in the broader compilation work Boy-Wives and Female Husbands: Studies of African Homosexualities. And if all of these homosexualities are too tame (or too male-only) for you, please visit the animal kingdom in Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions).