Gender Rituals

Edited by Lutkehaus, Nancy; Roscoe, Paul

This volume draws together ethnographies of female initiation rites in Melanesia which require anthropologists to rethink their analysis of initiations and their perceptions of gender. The contributors argue that female initiation rites express more than cultural notions of femininity, narrow definitions of reproduction, or coming of age rituals - instead they play an important role in other life cycle rituals and in the political and economic organization of society.

Part 1 Introduction; Chapter 1 Feminist Anthropology and Female Initiation in Melanesia, Nancy C. Lutkehaus; Part 2 Defining Women: Gender Images in Female Initiation Rites; Chapter 2 Puberty Rites, Women's Naven, and Initiation, Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin; Chapter 3 In the Shadow of the Tambaran, Paul B. Roscoe; Part 3 Achieving Womanhood: The Life Cycle as Cultural Performance; Chapter 4 Achieving Womanhood and the Achievements of Women in Murik Society, Kathleen Barlow; Chapter 5 Transforming Women, Deane Fergie; Chapter 6 Mythic Images and Objects of Myth in Rauto Female Puberty Ritual, Thomas Maschio; Part 4 The Female Body and Life-Cycle Rites as Metaphor; Chapter 7 The Washed and the Unwashed, Patricia K. Townsend; Chapter 8 Gender Metaphors, Nancy C. Lutkehaus; Chapter 9 Marriage as the Model for a New Initiation Ritual, Lorraine Sexton; Part 5 Conclusion; Chapter 10 "Initiation" in Cross-Cultural Perspective, Paul B. Roscoe;