ABSTRACT
In the case of Wogeo, where the link between penile bleeding and menstruation is clear, I. Hogbin reports that the people of Wogeo apply their word for ‘menstruating’ to both men and women. They define and class the event by its function, neglecting whether it is natural or artificial. The idea of a symbol entails the idea of reference to something else, the image referring to some actual or imaginary reality which is different from it. If symbolism involves the notion of one something standing for or representing something else, it must depend on a particular classification that separates the one thing from the something else it represents. Some anthropologists discuss and interpret symbols as things purely of the intellect, to be analysed in terms of logic and categories abstracted from attitude, motivation and emotion. If this approach is followed for fear of trespassing into psychology, it makes a strange distinction between intellect and emotion as subjects for psychology.
