ABSTRACT
The Mehinaku also practice the couvade, in connection with which T. Gregor specifically cites Bettelheim’s theory of male envy of female reproductive power as a valid interpretation of his Mehinaku data. T. Gregor’s Mehinaku material is by no means atypical; the anthropological reader immediately registers many parallels, not only from elsewhere in South America but from Melanesia and Australia as well. One of the main alternative psychodynamic theories of harsh initiation rites — one no doubt influenced by Bettelheim’s work, but significantly different from it as well—is that proposed by Burton and Whitin. For many other reasons anthropologists tend to reject explanations drawn from the experience of depth psychology. Among these are a suspicion of any theory that posits universals of human nature, since anthropology stresses the variability and particularity of cultures; and, relevant in the present context, the subtle, but profound, differences in goals between an academic discipline and a clinical field.
