Title: Anxious Pleasures
First published: 1985
Description: "Good fish get dull but sex is always fun." So say the Mehinaku people of Brazil. But Thomas Gregor shows that sex brings a supreme ambiguity to the villagers' lives. In their elaborate rituals - especially those practiced by the men in their secret societies - the Mehinaku give expression to a system of symbols reminiscent of psychosexual neuroses identified by Freud: castration anxiety, Oedipal conflict, fantasies of loss of strength through sex, and a host of others. "If we look carefully," writes Gregor, "we will see reflections of our own sexual nature in the life ways of an Amazonian people." The book is illustrated with Mehinaku drawings of ritual texts and myths, as well as with photographs of the villagers taking part in both everyday and ceremonial activities. -- Publisher description.
Subjects: Sexual behavior, Mehinacu Indians, Indians of South America, Sex role, Indians of south america, social life and customs, Sex customs, Social life and customs
Places: Brazil
LC classification: F2520.1.M44 G725 1985