ABSTRACT
In the New Guinea Highlands, many of the structural and interpersonal tensions which characterize the relationship between the sexes in American society and in other societies present themselves in an exaggerated form. Factors stemming from the economic and sociopolitical organization of Highland society, as well perhaps as from the overall adaptation of the society to its environment, must be taken into account in explaining these attitudes and beliefs. The societies of the Highlands, share many characteristics of economic and social structure. Highland societies maintain a patrilineal ideology, but the actual recruitment to local groups takes place through various sources, including affinal and cognatic connections and the efforts of big men to recruit supporters, and through the incorporation of refugees produced by chronic feuding between neighboring groups. There are of course differences among Highland societies, especially between those of the Eastern and Western Highlands.
