Guided Reading Form: Sambia Reading: Herdt’s “Fetish and Fantasy in Sambia” pp. 44-98 1. What is this chapter’s overall claim (a.k.a. finding‚ main point‚ thesis‚ conclusion)? The key problem of this chapter is actually represented by the Men’s attachment to the Janus-faced fetish and its relation to a culturally constituted fantasy. He begins to decipher how exactly this right of passage exists from becoming a boy to a man. He discusses the use of the flute that seemingly becomes an erotic
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The Sambia Tribe Coming Of Age Ritual Children all over the world experience many different transitions from childhood to adulthood. The Sambia Tribe has a very strange coming of age ritual. This ritual was originated in Papua New Guinea‚ which is a country in Oceania. This is a ritual for male not female. It begins at the age of seven. There are six stages to this ritual. The ceremony lasts seven days. The first stage is when the boys are removed from their mothers and are put in a men’s cult
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general explanation of what a social construct is‚ after that I’ll bring three different concepts which I understand as social constructions. Specifically the three concepts will be gender‚ death and language using. To explain gender “Rites of Manhood: Sambia” (1990 [1943]) by David Gilmore. In discussing death as a social construction I’ll be using “Mother’s Love: Death without Weeping” in “Conformity and Conflict: Readings in Cultural Anthropology”(2012) by Nancy Scheper Hughes. In engaging with language
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Review and Critique of: "Gender in Cross-Cultural Perspective" A book by Caroline Bretell Carolyn Sargent By Introduction In this book the focus is on how gender is constructed around the world. The book demonstrated many different areas in which women either ruled or ruled together with man. It leaves people with hope that the world is capable of an equalitarianism society. Many topics in the field of anthropology
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Critically evaluate essentialist approaches to the theorisation of sexuality. Essentialism argues that there are ‘real’ and categorical sexualities in the world and that each of these sexualities can be described definitively according to a set of characteristics or properties‚ e.g. a man that has sexual intercourse with another man fits the category of homosexual (Hammack‚ 2005). This conceptualises sexuality in terms of ‘sexual orientation’‚ assuming that no sexual orientation; whether homosexual
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Sexualities? The puzzle of homosexuality" Anthropology Contributes to the homosexuality debate in two ways: first by examining the cultural assumptions of the western model of gender and sexuality and by exploring the ideas of othercultures. Gilbert Herdt stated that Western thinkers‚ including anthropologist‚have been prisoners of "Sexual dimorphism". Sexual dimorphism empasizes two genders‚male‚and female‚ whose purpose is reproduction. Sexual dimorphism relegates other culturally constructed genders
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Rite of Passage Every person begins their life with a birth and ends it with death. In our lives‚ there will be other rites of passage that will still have great importance; celebrating birthdays‚ graduation from school or collage‚ getting jobs‚ marriage‚ having kids‚ transition from child to adult and even divorce. Rites of passage help many people feel part of their respective society. Making their lives sweeter or bitter. Easier or harder. Better or more difficult. Their changes are huge‚
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Papua New Guinea‚ in which Sambian society views females inferior to men and women are seen as being a form of pollution (Herdt 1994). Men have sexual relationships with women only for the purpose to procreate‚ and they do not engage in sexual activities with women for recreational purposes. Due to the assumption that men will become polluted by this‚ perhaps by temptation (Herdt 1994). This is a disadvantage for women because they are only seen as a sexual or reproductive property. Similarly‚ in western
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than a subservient to male desire (Brown 1988). Traditionally their life as a vassal begins from the moment that they are born‚ being perceived as dirty. This is reinforced when a girl reaches puberty which is sometimes after their arranged marriage (Herdt 1994). Throughout their lives they are subjugated into manual labour through the day‚ and at night a sexual slave to their husband. This treatment has only recently begun to change through the continuing influence that Western societal values are having
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Throughout history and across culture‚ definitions of masculinity and femininity have varied dramatically‚ leading researchers to argue that gender‚ and specifically gender roles‚ are socially constructed (see Cheng‚ 1999). Cheng (1999:296) further states that “one should not assume that ‘masculine’ behaviour is performed only by men‚ and by all men‚ while ‘feminine’ behaviour is performed by women and by all women”. Such historical and cultural variations oppose the essentialist view that masculinity
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