Abstract
ABSTRACTThis essay extends Anthony Forge's ideas about the ‘unspoken meanings’ of Abelam ritual art, by testing them against cognate forms among the neighboring Ilahita Arapesh, and by invoking L.R. Hiatt's insights into ‘pseudo‐procreation rites’ among Australian Aborigines. It is argued that the meanings of Abelam visual art and Arapesh myth are comparably ineffable, and that in both cases this non‐verbal quality conduces to the expression of ideas that are cognitively, socially, or emotionally unacceptable to consciousness. The conclusions are, first, that veiled, ritual and aesthetic expressions of ‘procreation’ permit the men to enact a fantasy of male parthenogenesis; and, secondly, that the cult‐sponsored tricks and illusions surrounding these expressions have the effect of surreptitiously appropriating female procreative power to the concealed goals of male ritual.
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