The varieties of fertility cultism in New Guinea: part I

Abstract

The fertility cults of New Guinea are often stereotyped simply as “male cults” in the literature, but comparative analysis reveals a great deal of regional variation in the cults, both in regard to the celebration of manhood and in regard to the degree of female exclusion. In a two-part essay (Part II will appear in the next issue of AE), I will argue first that the cultic emphasis on male power and solidarity varies according to the form of the political community that the cult in part regulates and, second, that the cultic construction of fertility highlights the regionally variable position of the sexes in ceremonial exchange. [New Guinea, fertility ritual, sexual inequality, political organization, exchange theory]