The Sambia: Ritual and Gender in New Guinea (Case Studies in Cultural Anthropology)
by Gilbert H. Herdt
Category: Social Science

This cultural and psychological study of gender identity and sexual development in a New Guinea Highlands society includes initiation rites and socialization studies, and contrasts the Sambia with other societies, including our own. Sambia boys experience ritualized homosexuality before puberty and do not leave it until marriage, after which homosexual activity is prohibited. The implications are developed cross-culturally and contextualized in gender literature.