ABSTRACT
David Gilmore, an anthropologist who has written on Mediterranean culture, recently published one of the few comparative studies of masculinity. He suggests that in many cultures manhood involves three major demands-to procreate, to protect and to provision. His argument is about systemic necessities, and how these shape the challenges which mould both individual males and men-in-groups. Gilmore concludes that: ‘Manhood is the social barrier that societies must erect against entropy, human enemies, the process of nature, time and all the human weaknesses that endanger group life’ (1990:226).
