The Sambia: Ritual and Gender in New Guinea

by Gilbert Herdt

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.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Gender, Ethnography, Textbooks, School

Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Gilbert Herdt is a cultural anthropologist, Director of the Program in Human Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University, where he is also Professor of Human Sexuality Studies and Anthropology. His publications include nearly 30 single and edited books, and more than 100 scientific papers.

Reviews

[Sportyrod · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gender identity in culture ended up being far more fascinating than I expected. An anthropologist stayed with a remote village in Papua New Guinea to observe and find out how childhood rituals extending to adulthood related to gender identity.

Despite being a heterosexual community, heterosexual activity is banned until and slightly beyond marriage. Prior to that, there are multiple initiation stages in boys that strips dependence on their mothers and teaches them to become masculine. The initiation ceremonies are a full 10/10 in shock value if not more. There were a few people who tried to escape the rituals only to be caught and initiated more harshly.

Gender roles are common in many cultures. Men hunt, women mind the house and children etc. I don’t follow them myself but they exist. Somehow over the years, gender roles have been sutured to biological sex but that is not always the case and that’s why the author investigated this particular culture. He looked at the mechanisms behind becoming masculine. Here women are considered naturally feminine whereas boys must do certain things to become masculine (no spoilers but they are full on) or they too will remain feminine.

I am glad the author provided all the context before launching straight into the iniation ceremonies. It was classy. He could have named the book something more eye catching and front page newspaper worthy if he wanted to but instead he kept it professional.

Even though I am a non-conformer of fulfilling gender roles, and I have friends covering most of the LGBTQIA+ range, I was surprised at how limited my understanding was of gender and identity, and I thought I knew a lot. This book made me appreciate the differences in other cultures more than I possibly would have believed. I can’t fully accept tradition over wellbeing (eg FGM) and some of the initiation rituals happening here. Normally in places of extreme ritual, there is a sense of oppression like one sex (usually men) or one group having power over another for their exclusive benefit. However, in this scenario, power is transitional, and the balance tips more with age.

There are so many questions that come from this. Some regarding the judgement of other cultures and their implementation of harsh rituals on non-consenting people. Some questions about whether the ends justify the means. Lots of people are interviewed and the feeling is that their childhood was hard but it wasn’t bad. So if they’re ok, is it ok? Are they really ok?

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

there's also a documentary by the same ethnographer that follows the same lines as this book. it's truly an amazing account of one of perhaps the purest culture left on the planet. everytime i enter a culture different from my own, i am reminded of this book. i read it during my first semester of college, and it has stuck with me until today.

[RB · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Sambia are interesting. However, the authors social constructionist takes are completely silly.

[Alivia Hartz]

read for my Cultural Anthropology class🧐🧐

[Tina Estep · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book caused many people to drop out of a class (many males) and I was surprised that this was assigned to an intro to anthropology class. Regardless of that fact, I enjoyed this book like I did the others. This book goes into the initiation rites and rites of passage from childhood to adulthood, boys to men through ritual. As the title suggests, the rituals within this culture defines the change from a boy’s childhood to adulthood as well as defines his sexuality. It is important to keep in mind, that in many cultures sexuality is defined within the cultural construct. In many cultures boys, even though are born the sex male, are considered a gendered female until they go through an initiation ritual that allows him to be considered a gendered male. Without going too much into this books because it is worth the read, this book allows the readers to see how different other cultures are compared to our own and the subject of gender vs sex.

[Maria · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anthropology class book, definitely not my favorite.

[Devon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am taking a class on a Multi-Perspective of Gender Roles. The Sambia is a required reading. Review to come....

[Elham Masrouri]

Love love love love, absolutely love this ethnography