Women don’t have testicles: The 'making' of masculinity among twenty-first century Baruya (Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea)
Résumé
Among the Baruya people of the Wonenara Valley (Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea), 'making men' used to be a spectacular endeavour, gathering together the community on a regular basis to produce the next generation of adult men and turning them, through long and painful initiations, into fearless warriors (Godelier 1986). Defining masculinity is still a relevant topic to contemporary Baruya men, although it may take different forms and avenues than it did in the past. Indeed, the more formal and definitive means of traditionally 'making men' – ritual initiations and warfare — have been modified under the influence of pacification and of the introduction of churches and of a market economy. My research shows that the male domination of the past has been eroded because its ideological underpinnings based in understandings about sexual fluids have largely evaporated in the wake of new constructions of blood and semen. Moreover, the contexts for producing Great Men and for enabling male prestige have also disappeared, lessening the practised differences between the sexes. Contrary to what has been observed elsewhere in the region, newly adopted marriage practices, such as brideprice, have not had the effect of increasing male authority over women. However, while this aspect of their society and of the 'making of men' is gone, Great Men logics are still at play among the Baruya: the disappearance of contexts and statuses does not invalidate Godelier's model, which has shifted with modernity rather than having been replaced by a different model.
Domaines
Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie
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