GIRLS' PUBERTY RITES IN MANAM ISLAND, NEW GUINEA

Abstract

T^HE island of Manam lies a little south of the latitude 40 S., and * some six miles from the coast of New Guinea. It is inhabited by a population of about 4,000 people, who dwell in a number of villages distributed round the coast. Each village is composed of a large number of scattered homesteads, which are occupied by members of several clans, the clans of each village being independent of those of every other village. Descent is normally patrilineal and, except in certain special circumstances, a woman goes to live with her husband in the homestead occupied sometimes by himself alone, sometimes by his father or one of his brothers as well. These customs of patrilineal descent and patrilocal marriage, as well as the rules of patrilineal inheritance and succession which obtain in Manam, are in this island not correlated with a low social status of the women in the community. That women, while generally held to be inferior to men, are not considered to be the natural drudges of their husbands, is shown in many small but significant incidents of daily life, and on at least two occasions in her life every woman may be said to take the centre of the stage. These two occasions are at the time of her first menstruation and at the time of her death.