Bruce Bagemihl - Biological Exuberance

25

Herdt, Guardians of the Flutes, p. 94; Schwimmer, “Male Couples in New Guinea,” p. 271; Van Baal, J. (1984) “The Dialectics of Sex in Marind-anim Culture,” in Herdt, Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia, pp. 128-66.

26

Herdt, Guardians of the Flutes, pp. 87-94; Poole, “The Procreative and Ritual Constitution of Female, Male, and Other,” pp. 205, 217; Sorum, A. (1984) “Growth and Decay: Bedamini Notions of Sexuality” in Herdt, Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia, pp. 318-36; Lindenbaum, S. (1984) “Variations on a Sociosexual Theme in Melanesia,” in Herdt, Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia, pp. 83-126.

27

An echo of these beliefs can also be found in native North America: the Cherokee maintain that female opossums (a North American marsupial) are essentially parthenogenetic, i.e., they reproduce without males (Fradkin, A. [1990] Cherokee Folk Zoology: The Animal World of a Native American People, 1700-1838, pp. 377-78 [New York: Garland]).

28

Herdt ( Guardians of the Flutes, p. 91) tentatively identifies this as the “crested bird of paradise”; however, the description of its round display platforms (constructed of twigs and straw, with a central pole) strongly suggests that this is actually a species of bowerbird. Most likely it is MacGregor’s bowerbird ( Amblyornis macgregoriae ), whose “maypole” bower type matches this description, and whose orange crest also fits the description of this species provided by Herdt. For further details, see Gilliard, E. T. (1969) “MacGregor’s Gardener Bower Bird,” in Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds, pp. 300-311 (Garden City, N.Y.: Natural History Press); Johnsgard, P. A. (1994) Arena Birds: Sexual Selection and Behavior, pp. 206, 211-12 (Washington, D.C., and London: Smithsonian Institution Press). Among the Kaluli people, the (male) Raggiana’s Bird of Paradise and other brightly colored birds are also considered female; men adorn themselves with their plumes to acquire the beauty of these supposedly feminine creatures (Feld, S. [1982] Sound and Sentiment: Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expression, pp. 55, 65-66 [Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press]).

29

Although Poole (1996:205) identifies this only as the “night bird,” it is most likely a species of nightjar (family Caprimulgidae), frogmouth (family Podargidae), or owlet-nightjar (family Aegothelidae).

30

Herdt, Guardians of the Flutes, pp. 131-57; Gardner, D. S. (1984) “A Note on the Androgynous Qualities of the Cassowary: Or Why the Mianmin Say It Is Not a Bird,” Oceania 55:137-45; Bulmer, R. N. H. (1967) “Why Is the Cassowary Not a Bird? A Problem of Zoological Taxonomy Among the Karam of the New Guinea Highlands,” Man 2:5-25; Juillerat, B., ed., (1992) Shooting the Sun: Ritual and Meaning in West Sepik, pp. 65, 282 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press); Feld, Sound and Sentiment, pp. 68-71; Tuzin, D. (1997) The Cassowary’s Revenge: The Life and Death of Masculinity in a New Guinea Society, pp. 80-82, 94, 209-10 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Some Australian Aboriginal peoples hold parallel beliefs about a related bird, the Emu, being all-female or having ambiguous or simultaneous genders (Maddock, K. [1975] “The Emu Anomaly,” pp. 112-13, 118, 121, in L. R. Hiatt, ed., Australian Aboriginal Mythology, pp. 102-22 [Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies]).

31

Gell, A. (1975) Metamorphosis of the Cassowaries: Umeda Society, Language, and Ritual, pp. 180, 182, 184, 225-26, 233-34, 239-40, 250, L.S.E. Monographs on Social Anthropology no. 51 (London: Athlone Press); Gell, A. (1971) “Penis Sheathing and Ritual Status in a West Sepik Village,” pp. 174-75, Man 6:165-81.

32

These individuals are “born with labial folds, reared as girls, and then recognized as being the descendants of Yomnok when distinctive but diminutive male genitalia descend into view on the eve of puberty.” This type of intersexuality (known medically as 5-alpha reductase male pseudo-hermaphroditism) also occurs fairly frequently among the Sambia, where it is recognized as a “third sex” (Poole, “The Procreative and Ritual Constitution of Female, Male, and Other,” pp. 209, 218; Herdt, “Mistaken Sex”). The species of echidna referred to is probably the long-beaked echidna, Zaglossus bruijni; for more on indigenous views of echidnas in New Guinea, see Jorgensen, D. (1991) “Echidna and Kuyaam: Classification and Anomalous Animals in Telefolmin,” Journal of the Polynesian Society 100:365-80.

33

Poole, “The Procreative and Ritual Constitution of Female, Male, and Other,” pp. 197, 203-5, 209-10, 216-17; Poole, F. J. P. (1981) “Transforming ‘Natural’ Woman: Female Ritual Leaders and Gender Ideology Among Bimin-Kuskusmin,” pp. 117, 120, 153-60, in S. B. Ortner and H. Whitehead, eds., Sexual Meanings: The Cultural Construction of Gender and Sexuality, pp. 116-65 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press); Poole, F. J. P. (1982) “The Ritual Forging of Identity: Aspects of Person and Self in Bimin-Kuskusmin Male Initiation, pp. 125-31, in G.H. Herdt, ed., Rituals of Manhood: Male Initiation in Papua New Guinea, pp. 99-154 (Berkeley: University of California Press).

34

Layard, J. (1942) Stone Men of Malekula, especially pp. 482-94 (London: Chatto and Windus); Allen, M. (1981) “Innovation, Inversion, and Revolution as Political Tactics in West Aoba,” in M. Allen, ed., Vanuatu: Politics, Economics, and Ritual in Island Melanesia, pp. 105-34 (Sydney: Academic Press); Allen, M. R. (1984) “Ritualized Homosexuality, Male Power, and Political Organization in North Vanuatu: A Comparative Analysis,” in Herdt, Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia, pp. 83-126; Battaglia, D. (1991) “Punishing the Yams: Leadership and Gender Ambivalence on Sabarl Island,” p. 94, in M. Godelier and M. Strathern, eds., Big Men and Great Men: Personifications of Power in Melanesia , pp. 83-96 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

35

Baker, J. R. (1925) “On Sex-Intergrade Pigs: Their Anatomy, Genetics, and Developmental Physiology,” British Journal of Experimental Biology 2:247-63; Baker, J. R. (1928) “Notes on New Hebridean Customs, with Special Reference to the Intersex Pig,” Man 28:113-18; Baker, J. R. (1928) “A New Type of Mammalian Intersexuality,” British Journal of Experimental Biology 6:56-64; Baker, J. R. (1929) Man and Animals in the New Hebrides , pp. 22, 30-31,115-30 (London: George Routledge & Sons); Jolly, M. (1984) “The Anatomy of Pig Love: Substance, Spirit, and Gender in South Pentecost, Vanuatu,” pp. 84-85, 101, 104-5, Canberra Anthropology 7:78-108; Jolly, M. (1991) “Soaring Hawks and Grounded Persons: The Politics of Rank and Gender in North Vanuatu,” pp. 54, 59, 67, 71, in Godelier and Strathern, Big Men and Great Men, pp. 48-80; Rodman, W. (1996) “The Boars of Bali Ha‘i: Pigs in Paradise,” in J. Bonnemaison, C. Kaufmann, K. Huffman, and D. Tryon, eds., Arts of Vanuatu, pp. 158-67 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press); Huffman, K. W. (1996) “Trading, Cultural Exchange, and Copyright: Important Aspects of Vanuatu Arts” and “Plates and Bowls from Northern and Central Vanuatu,” pp. 183, 192, 228, in Bonnemaison et al., Arts of Vanuatu, pp. 182-94, 226-31.

36

In accordance with many anthropological treatments, North American Inuit cultures are here included with the Siberian culture complex, with which they share many features. They also, of course, show a number of similarities to non-Inuit Native American peoples (as do many Siberian cultures), as well as a large number of unique features, and this arrangement is largely a matter of exposition rather than a reflection of actual or perceived cultural relationships.