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Domination": the Discourse of Gender in the Ethnography of Papua New Guinea

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Domination FROM "SEXUAL ANTAGONISM" TO "DOMINATION": THE DISCOURSE OF GENDER IN THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA By Pelly R. E. Shaw B.A., The University of British Columbia, 1976 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of Anthropology and Sociology) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September 1991 Pelly Shaw, 1991 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of Anthropology The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date October 7, 1991 DE-6 (2/88) ABSTRACT This thesis is an examination of the evolution of the anthropological understandings of gender relations and the social and political positions of women in several New Guinea societies. Since the 1950's the question of sexual inequality and the domination of women has permeated the discourse of gender in the ethnography of Papua New Guinea, particularly the Highlands. Key pieces of ethnographic literature produced from the 1950's to the present were examined, beginning with the "sexual antagonism" model of the 50's and 60's (Read, Meggitt, Langness), followed by the "women as persons" model of the 1970's (Faithorn, Feil, Strathern), the model of "sexual complementarity" proposed by Lowlands ethnographers (Weiner, Errington and Gewertz), the symbolic "deconstruction" of domination (Strathern, Lederman, Biersack), and the recent neo-marxist "reconstruction" of domination (Josephides, Godelier). All the studies examined deal in some measure with the degree to which women may be said to be dominated by men. Thus, women's exclusion from or participation in. political affairs, the nature and degree of women's access to "male" political power or their possession of other sorts of powers, their state of personhood and the question of whether or not they may be dominated are central themes in the discussion. The ethnographers who judged that women were not dominated, perceived, in several instances, female participation in apparently male activities (Faithorn, Feil), and in another instance, female autonomy deriving from women's ability to circumvent male political advantage and denigrating gender ideology (Strathern). The Lowlands ethnographers identified a male-female complementarity produced by equal but different gendered interests and powers (Weiner, Errington and Gewertz). More recently, ethnographers (e.g., Strathern) have adopted a highly culturally relativist perspective, invoking indigenous meanings and symbolisms, and bypassing the evidence of what appears to anthropologists as "domination" (e.g., the existence of denigrating ideology, women's lack of political and property rights, violence perpetrated by men against women). These interpretations suggest that "domination" is a cultural construction dependent on the definition of person. In addition, gender ideology is considered to be a symbolic code that serves as a moral evaluation of social behaviours. Thus, the devaluation of "femaleness", while passing judgement on certain forms of social action, does not enact the denigration or the domination of women. In contrast, neo-marxist ethnographers in the 1980's (Josephides, Godelier) rely on Western-based definitions of person and domination, and imply that these and the concept of appropriation (of property or products of labour and of the qualities of persons) are cross-culturally applicable. They argue that Highland women were indeed dominated and that this domination was an independent and observable reality. Both recent views of the status of Highland women (symbolic and neo-marxist) are limited. While the symbolic studies suggest an indigenous model of culture as mental structure, the neo-marxist studies suggest an anthropological model of power, control and domination. In the conclusion of the thesis I suggest that anthropologists must devote less attention to apparently permanent ideological or material structures and states of inequality or fixed status, and greater attention to the processes of domination and of women's contestation, taking women's own perspectives into account. V TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ii INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1: SEXUAL ANTAGONISM Introduction 12 Defining the Sexual Antagonism Model 14 Lechers and Prudes: A Sexual Antagonism Typology 26 Sexual Antagonism in the Eastern Highlands 35 Critique of Sexual Antagonism 43 Conclusion 56 CHAPTER 2: WOMEN AS PERSONS Introduction 57 Melpa Women: Domestic Persons 59 Kafe Women: Political Persons 69 Enga Women's Role in the Tee Exchange 74 Critique: Inclusion and Exclusion 83 Conclusion 96 CHAPTER 3: GENDERED DOMAINS AND SEXUAL COMPLEMENTARITY Introduction 99 Trobriand Women's Socio-cosmic Power 103 Male-Female Complementarity in Chambri Society 117 vi Complementarity and Personhood 128 Conclusion 138 CHAPTER 4: DECONSTRUCTING DOMINATION: PERSON AND GENDER AS IDEOLOGY Introduction 141 Melanesian and Western Persons 144 The Misuse of a Western Concept of Person 149 Subjects, Objects, Women and Property 155 Gender as a Symbolic Code 162 Melpa Gender Symbolism 164 Paiela and Mendi Gender Ideologies 168 The Melanesian Aesthetic 175 Critique 181 Conclusion 196 CHAPTER 5: RECONSTRUCTING DOMINATION: NEO-MARXIST PERSPECTIVES Introduction 200 Male Domination and Material Appropriation 203 The Kewa 206 The Appropriation of Women's Products 208 The Political Position of Kewa Women 214 Kewa Gender Ideology 222 Critique of Josephides 226 The Ideological Appropriation of Reproduction 230 The Baruya 232 vii The Political Position of Baruya Women 234 Initiation: a Mechanism of Male Domination 237 The Ideological Justification of Male Domination 239 Critique of Godelier 243 Conclusion 255 CONCLUSION 259 BIBLIOGRAPHY 278 1 INTRODUCTION The Cultural Construction of Gender Margaret Mead's early studies of women and gender roles across a range of New Guinea societies made a significant contribution to anthropology's inquiry into cultural differences, human behaviour and social relations. Mead's data has not escaped critical re-examination and her naive authority and ahistorical approach have been criticized (see Clifford 1988:230-3, Errington and Gewertz 1987, Freeman 1983, Gewertz 1981, 1984). However, her perspective on the sexes and the underlying premise of Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935), that is, that male and female behaviour and gender relations are largely socio-cultural constructions, has endured. Supported by many recent analyses more sophisticated than Mead's, this premise has become a powerful analytical tool with which to examine how men and women in particular societies constitute themselves and their beliefs about the sexes. The idea that "gender" is constructed within a particular set of cultural coordinates and historical circumstances (see Ortner and Whitehead 1981, Strathern 1981a) has provided a grounded basis for examining the social positions of women and men, their roles and inter• relations. In Melanesian ethnography, it has also provided 2 a new perspective for examining these in relation to production, exchange, forms of social and political action, notions of power, concepts of personhood, gender ideologies and symbols, and ideas of male domination and sexual inequality. In this thesis I examine the discourse of sex and gender in Melanesian ethnography with a view to illuminating anthropological understandings of gender relations and the social and political positions of women in several New Guinea societies. I evaluate the anthropological discourse of gender relations and explore ethnographers' adjudications of women's status, attending particularly to notions of power, the question of women's domination and the absence of women's perspectives. In the chapters of this thesis, I examine a series of models of gender relations and women's status. Before proceeding to an overview of these models, I briefly review the problematic ideological bases of anthropological constructions of gender. Androcentrism and the Construction of Gender ... there is a profound reluctance on the part of the discipline to come to terms with the social contribution of women to their society and to develop theories which accommodate women as social actors in their own right ... we know too little of the female half of society to argue for 3 male dominance as an enduring, timeless reality (Bell 1983:246). In the course of this century of modern anthropology, both prior to and subsequent to Mead's seminal work in the 1930's, social scientific perspectives on the sexes and their relations have been strongly moulded by Western beliefs. Nineteenth century social theory and post- Victorian concerns with sexuality, "natural" sexual polarity, the domestic/public dichotomy, the definition of the family and ideas of appropriate social roles for the sexes have all held sway over the anthropological reading of gender (see Coward 1983, Rosaldo 1980). To date, there has been very little in the way of feminist-informed descriptions of entire societies, and the anthropological
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