ABSTRACT
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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|28 pages
Introduction
part II|51 pages
Defining Women: Gender Images in Female Initiation Rites
chapter 2|21 pages
Puberty Rites, Women's Naven, and Initiation
part III|78 pages
Achieving Womanhood: The Life Cycle as Cultural Performance
chapter 4|28 pages
Achieving Womanhood and the Achievements of Women in Murik Society
part IV|53 pages
The Female Body and Life-Cycle Rites as Metaphor
chapter 7|18 pages
The Washed and the Unwashed
part V|21 pages
Conclusion