From: gil@tillage.DIALix.oz.au (Gil Hardwick)
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology
Subject: Yanomami warring & sexal frustration.
Distribution: world
Date: Sun, 27 Dec 92 02:07:46 GMT
Organization: STAFF STRATEGIES - Anthropologists & Training Agents


In article <7206@ucsbcsl.ucsb.edu> 6500cga@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu writes:

 > Last: Why do we need all this to explain sexual frustration? 

There appear to be too many problems with the whole idea of "sexual
frustration" to begin; something along the lines we experienced here
in Australia with Hart and Pilling's 1960 thesis on Tiwi men(1), who
to become "big men" 'had, among other things, to accumulate a lot of
wives' (p.18) denying women their active role in the society, partly
countered in 1971 by Goodale(2).

Certainly young women were "married" to older men of the previous
generation, but a much closer examination of the whole society itself
suggests that the older men were less concerned with the accumulation
of wives than with playing an effective parental role to the children
of those wives, while those same young wives enjoyed a certain sexual
licence with men of their own age group.

Now, I do not wish to imply here any competitive striving to maintain
either genetic or dynastic inheritance by the older men, only to state
that getting juveniles to grow up and learn to behave themselves is the
focus of all the major ceremonies. The Dreaming; that is, The Law, is
also referred to as the proper way to live, where it is acknowledged
explicitly that in every generation youth confronts age.

This remains compelling, especially given the sheer existential power
of the Tiwi Mother's Club to protect the core social processes of their
community against outsiders, and given the extreme violence among the
women against other women who persistly abuse their licence to sexual
activity, and in doing so humiliate their kinfolk.

The older men will also confront young men on the same issues, albeit
more inclined to argue the pitch and toss for days whereas the women
will simply wade into the offender with fighting sticks (small clubs
made of ironwood), no further questions asked.

Of course there is a high level of sexuality, as I would describe it
as libido rather than frustration, among both men *and* women in all
societies, such that everywhere human morality is focused on defining
sexual licence and managing its consequences. Most of the problem is
getting people to use their *brains* while their hormones run rampant,
especially during their formative years.

Here it must be added that there is also a strong Catholic influence
on Australian Anthropology, most reluctant indeed to have anything
*bad* said about anybody, and so constantly criticising the empirical
data. Especially there appears to be a ban on discussing sexuality.

For all that, I would much prefer to see some work on Yanomami women
cited here, especially from fieldwork carried out by women. I simply
do not trust the usually impoverished, one-dimensional analyses done
by male anthropologists on the basis of remote statistics, which serve
more to trigger disputes with other male anthropologists than to edify
or enlighten. Again, women tend to go straight to the heart of the
matter . . .


     1. Hart C.W.M. and Pilling A.R.  1960
        The Tiwi of North Australia
        New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston

     2. Goodale J.C.  1971
        Tiwi Wives
        Seattle: U. Washington Press
--
Gil Hardwick                          Internet:  gil@tillage.DIALix.oz.au
Consulting Ethnologist                              Fidonet:  3:690/660.6
PERTH, Western Australia                         Voice:  (+61 9) 399 2401
   * * Sustainable Community Development & Environmental Education * *
Newsgroups: sci.anthropology