essay
The ritual meaning of homosexuality and pedophilia among the Kimam-Papuans of South Irian Jaya
Ritualized homosexuality in Melanesia • Berkley • Published In 1984 • Pages: 292-317
By: Serpenti, L. M..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
One striking feature of Kimam villages is the ubiquity of periodic ceremonials and magical rites in which older men engage in ritualized sexual intercourse with newly initiated boys and underage girls. This article discusses the relevance of these "ritualized homosexuality and pedophilia" practices by placing them in a broader cultural context, the most important being the structural duality of Kimam society, including deep-seated emic distinctions people make between the contrasting roles of women and men regarding life and death. The Kimam regard women as producers of life that is destined to die. By contrast, men produce life out of death, as revealed in men's ability to foster the productivity of yams through ritual. This power is reiterated in older men's claim to engineer men with socially-desired qualities out of young boys through the transfer of sperm from older men to young boys, either directly through sexual contact or by massaging their bodies with sperm previously collected with the help of young girls. These acts are justified as the desire to perpetuate the ritual, as well as to maintain masculine potency and power by distancing mature men from the impurity and danger of adult women and menstrual blood.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Sexuality
- Sexual intercourse
- Premarital sex relations
- Extramarital sex relations
- Homosexuality
- Regulation of marriage
- Puberty and initiation
- Organized ceremonial
- Prayers and sacrifices
- Cult of the dead
- Ethnoanatomy
- Division of labor by gender
- Techniques of socialization
- General character of religion
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Kimam
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2019
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Oceania
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Melanesia
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Teferi Abate Adem ; 2018
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1930-1962
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1955-1962
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Yos Sudarso (Kolepom) Island, Papua, Indonesia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Laurent Serpenti
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 83018015
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Sociology--Homosexuality
- Irian Jaya--Sociology--Sex roles
- Irian Jaya--Sociology--Homosexuality
- Irian Jaya--Religion--Rites and ceremonies