ABSTRACT
RITUALIZED HOMOSEXUALITY IN MELANESIA. Gilbert H. Herdt, Editor. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1984, 409 pp.
In many Melanesian societies, real men do it with others of their sex, first as boy initiate "insertees;' then as fierce young warrior "insertors. " Manhood thus secured and demonstrated in native ideology, they proceed to take wives and father children, move into leadership positions in their communities, and assume the prideful aggressive style so common to men throughout the Melanesian area. No evidence can be found of , 'effeminacy" or of enduring homosexual preferences, even among those whose pederastic tutelage has occupied their entire youth. Melanesian ethnographic cases provide material to blow away many a Western stereotype about the nature and ontogenesis of homosexuality. With the edited volume, Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia, anthropologist Gilbert Herdt, who personally studied a "ritualized homosexuality" society in New Guinea, brings out his third book centered on this important intellectual mission. Before asking how well this mission is accomplished, we will take an overview of the book's contents.
