ABSTRACT
Violence is a possibility that derives from a context in which power differences, usually with a material basis in the sexual division of labour, are implicit and explicit in the cultural constructions of gender which give to certain representations of masculinity a dominant status. An inseparable image of masculinity is that of the hombre parrandero, the fun-loving drinker and dancer who is always ready to party with his male friends and stay up all night, drinking rum, listening and dancing to music, telling jokes and stories. This chapter examines different masculinities and femininities in a specific Colombian context, analyses how these interact, develop and conflict, and looks at the strategies, violent and non-violent, that people adopt as they try to constitute in their lives specific subjective positions as ‘men’ and ‘women’. Whether or not women approve of masculinity as nomadic hunter, it is clear that in some sense they accept the man as polygynous, or even as womaniser.
