![]() | Women as Unseen Characters: Male Ritual in Papua New Guinea Subjects: Sambia (Papua New Guinea people) -- Rites and ceremoníes; Kukukuku (Papua New Guinea people) -- Rites and ceremonies; Women Sambia -- Social conditions; Women Sambia -- Attitudes; Women Kukukuku -- Social conditions; Women Kukukuku -- Attitudes; Initi; Rituals have always been a focus of ethnographies of Melanesia, providing a ground for important theorizing in anthropology. This is especially true of the male initiation rituals that until recently were held in Papua New Guinea. For the most part, these rituals have been understood as all-male institutions, intended to maintain and legitimate male domination. Women's exclusion from the forest space where men conducted most such rites has been taken as a sign of their exclusion from the entire ritual process. Pascale Bonnemere is a researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). |
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