book reviews 259 in schools and universities in the Gender Rituals: Female Initiation in region, as elsewhere. I trust others will Melanesia, edited by Nancy C Lutke- do the same, because, haus and Paul B Roscoe. Routledge: New York and London, 1995. today i wonder Isbn 0–415–91106–0 (cloth), isbn what the difference is 0–415–91107–9 (paper), xix + 265 between one sea and another pages, tables, maps, photographs, or how to recover morning notes, bibliography, index. Cloth, and conquer doubt us$59.95; paper, us$18.95. the pulse of our separate brains has the answer it is in our becoming This volume, originally organized as a that we are one symposium under the auspices of the Brains and Paddle, Kakala, 1993, 35 Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania, adds significantly to knowl- konai helu thaman edge about female initiation through- University of the South Pacific out Melanesia and the rest of the world. It contains substantive chapters References on eight different cultural groups in Teasdale, R, and J Teasdale. 1992. Voices disparate locations in the area in a Seashell: Education, Culture and Iden- (although there is a heavy tilt toward tity. Suva: unesco and Institute of Pacific the Sepik region), and every chapter Studies. not only contributes interesting data but advances theoretical and analytical Thaman, Konai H. 1988. Ako and Faiako: understandings of ritual process in Cultural Values, Educational Concepts and Tongan Teachers’ Perceptions of Their general. Role. PhD thesis, University of the South Most impressive are the introduc- Pacific, Suva. tion, “Feminist Anthropology and Female Initiation in Melanesia,” by ———. 1993. Kakala. Suva: Mana Publi- Nancy C Lutkehaus, and the conclu- cations. sion, “ ‘Initiation’ in Cross-Cultural ———. 1995. Concepts of Learning, Perspective,” by Paul B Roscoe. These Knowledge and Wisdom in Tonga. Pros- two end pieces do precisely what intro- pects: Quarterly Review of Comparative ductions and conclusions are supposed Education 25:723–734. to do: provide the reader with a con- text within which to understand each *** chapter and its relevance to the ethno- graphic and theoretical aspects of the topic. The reader understands how and why these contributions are important. In her introduction, Lutke- haus frames the chapters that follow by exploring their main themes (eg, power, agency, and person) and by examining the intersection of three 260 the contemporary pacific • spring 1998 related factors: data from Melanesia, values attached to modes of subsis- anthropological analysis and theory, tence, and culturally specific ideas and feminist scholarship. Her explora- about the different forms of pro- tion of the intersection of these ele- creative powers that men and women ments is especially enriched by possess” (47). In comparing the consideration of the impact each has Abelam first-menstruation rites with had on the others (eg, she argues that the Iatmul naven, she concludes that Melanesian data challenge the analyti- the two are, in fact, not comparable at cal categories employed in much femi- all: “in sum, to subsume the content, nist analysis). Roscoe’s conclusion function, and meaning of these cere- addresses the implications of the fact monies under a single label, ‘initia- that most anthropological analyses of tion,’ is simply wrong” (52). Roscoe initiation have been based on male ini- continues the Sepik comparison in “In tiation data; what happens to our the Shadow of the Tambaran: Female approaches and conclusions when we Initiation among the Ndu of the Sepik shift to female initiation? Of special Basin” by comparing the Iatmul, interest is Roscoe’s discussion of com- Abelam, and Yangoru Boiken. The parative anthropology, appropriate Iatmul have essentially no female ini- here because male initiation has been tiation rite, and the Abelam have a historically important in anthropologi- single-stage puberty rite, while the cal comparative analysis. While Yangoru Boiken have an elaborate acknowledging its shortcomings (eg, it three-stage female initiation that is often leads to the imposition of inap- articulated with male initiation. propriate categories), he argues that Roscoe asks why these differences some questions we might want to exist. His conclusion is that the moti- answer can only come from compari- vation for these rituals is to equip indi- son. His contrast between comparative viduals with the attributes necessary to analysis and interpretive analysis is an achieve political-ritual renown, and important contribution to anthropo- there will be more elaborate rites for logical theory, not just ritual analysis. females wherever women are impor- The two papers in the first section tant players in political-ritual arena. (“Defining Women: Gender Images in Among the Iatmul, women participate Female Initiation Rites”) both focus on little in the political arena and among sociological comparisons in the Sepik the Abelam they are only peripherally River area of Papua New Guinea. included, while they are central among Brigitta Hauser-Schaublin, in the Yangoru Boiken. “Puberty Rites, Women’s Naven, and The next section, entitled “Achiev- Initiation: Women’s Rituals of Transi- ing Womanhood: The Life Cycle as tion in Abelam and Iatmul Culture,” Cultural Performance,” groups papers asks why Abelam have female rites centrally concerned with personhood. while the nearby Iatmul do not. After a Kathleen Barlow, in “Achieving detailed comparison, she concludes Womanhood and the Achievements of that among the Abelam, “female ‘initi- Women in Murik Society: Cult Initia- ation’ is . . . about the meanings and tion, Gender Complementarity, and book reviews 261 the Prestige of Women,” wonders if political dimensions of these rituals. anthropological descriptions and anal- “Gender Metaphors: Female Rituals as yses of women’s rituals adequately Cultural Models in Manam,” by reflect the categories and meanings Nancy Lutkehaus, contains an analysis that the women themselves have. After of how male and female sexuality must comparing the local and the anthropo- be culturally produced, promoted, and logical perspectives, she concludes that controlled in Manam. The final ethno- “these rites for women express a uni- graphic chapter, Lorraine Sexton’s tary concept of person in Murik cul- “Marriage as the Model for a New Ini- ture that is enacted differently for each tiation Ritual,” examines the way in gender” (86). Deane Fergie challenges which the ritual of marriage serves as a any simple definition of initiation model for initiating new wok meri ritual, and, in “Transforming Women: groups (women’s development organi- Being and Becoming in an Island zations) in the Eastern Highlands of Melanesian Society,” concludes that Papua New Guinea. Sexton’s analysis we must interpret the ritual surround- reveals that “ ‘initiation’ rituals for ing a woman’s first childbirth experi- adolescent males and females have dif- ence (in a group she calls the Babae) ferent goals and are not functionally both as part of a larger ritual sequence equivalent rites of passage” (206). and as a cultural performance. The Altogether, this is an impressive third chapter in this section, entitled collection of data illuminated by rich “Mythic Images and Objects of Myth and provocative analyses. The volume in Rauto Female Puberty Ritual,” by is a “must” for anyone interested in Thomas Maschio, contains an attempt ritual or Melanesia, but I recommend a to push our analysis of these rituals much wider reading. All who have an and events beyond the kind of anal- interest in ritual, feminist analysis, ysis espoused by Geertz, by situating gender, or contemporary anthropologi- them and our analysis of them, as cal theory will be well served by this Leenhardt attempted to do, in a mythic collection. dimension. nancy mcdowell The final series of chapters, “The Beloit College Female Body and Life-Cycle Rites as Metaphor,” focuses on the ways and *** contexts in which female bodies are used as metaphors for aspects of the social body. Patricia Townsend’s “The Washed and the Unwashed: Women’s Life Cycle Rituals among the Saniyo- Hiyowe of East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea” explores the way in which rituals surrounding widowhood are in critical ways a reversal of women’s initiation rituals. Townsend includes insightful analysis about the