The Making of Great Men: Male Domination and Power Among the New Guinea BaruyaThe Baruya are a tribal society in highlands Papua New Guinea, with whom Western contact was first made in 1951. During the last twenty years, Maurice Godelier has spent many long periods of time living among this people, and in this book he presents a detailed account of their lives and their forms of social organization. The focus of the book is on inequality and power in this classless society. Godelier discusses both the power that certain men (the Great men) have over others through their control of war, shamanism, hunting, and rites of initiation, as well as the extraordinary power and domination that men in general exert over women. He explores how this domination is produced and maintained, examining it in particular through a detailed study of male and female initiation. He also analyzes the role that sexuality plays in Baruya thought and theories, showing that in the Baruya view, every aspect of domination - be it (in Western categorization) economic, political, or symbolic - can be explained by sexuality, and the different role of the sexes in human reproduction. A major contribution both to the ethnography of Melanesia and to anthropological theory, the book will interest scholars and students of anthropology, as well as other readers interested in power and inequality, and in the relationships between the sexes. |
Contents
Womens subordinate position | 9 |
bodies space gestures | 10 |
The place of men and women in their various activities | 11 |
Magic in the production processes | 16 |
The subordination of women in the production of relations of kinship | 19 |
One woman equals one woman | 23 |
A last look at the principle of female equivalence | 28 |
The institution and legitimization of male superiority initiations and the separation of the sexes | 31 |
the great warrior | 103 |
the shaman | 112 |
the cassowary hunter | 126 |
the salt maker | 130 |
General view of Baruya social hierarchies | 136 |
The nature of manwoman relations among the Baruya violence and consent resistance and repression | 141 |
Forms of female resistance and rebellion | 149 |
Male violence and repression | 151 |
The womans life cycle | 40 |
Are the womens initiations genuine initiations? | 46 |
The Baruya vision of the process of the reproduction of life the significance of bodily substances | 51 |
Female powers and the ambivalence of woman | 63 |
The production of great men powers inherited powers merited | 77 |
Male hierarchies | 79 |
the kwaimatnieowners | 81 |
status for the taking | 96 |
The discovery of great men | 100 |
Great men societies big men societies Two alternative logics of society | 162 |
The paradigm of the big man | 163 |
Recent transformations of Baruya society | 189 |
The colonial order and independence | 191 |
Conclusion | 225 |
The ventriloquists dummy | 227 |
239 | |
245 | |
Other editions - View all
The Making of Great Men: Male Domination and Power Among the New Guinea Baruya Maurice Godelier No preview available - 1986 |
The Making of Great Men: Male Domination and Power Among the New Guinea Baruya Maurice Godelier No preview available - 1986 |
Common terms and phrases
ancestors Andavakia Anga aoulatta arrows bark cloaks Baruya society become belonging big men societies body boys bride wealth brothers cassowary hunter ceremonial exchanges cross cousins cult culture digging sticks direct exchange Djoue enemy exchange of women existence father female shamans forest forms function gardens gifts girls give groups Guinea hand hierarchy hunting husband ideological individual initiation ceremonies Jim Sinclair kill koulaka kwaimatnie kwaimatnie-men Kyaka labor land lineage live magic male domination male initiations man's Marawaka marriage married master material Maurice Godelier means Melanesian Melpa men's house menstrual blood Moon mother mouka myths neighboring tribes pandanus Papua New Guinea parallel cousins pidgin pigs principle production relations of kinship reproduction rituals role salt sexual shamans sisters sperm spirits subordination superiority sweet potatoes symbolic tannaka taro tchouwanie territory tion tree tsimia vagina village violence warriors wife wives woman Wonenara world of women young initiates