(Bruno Bettelheim) Symbolic Wounds Puberty Rites

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wounds
Puberty Rites and the Envious Male / New, Revised Edition

How man masters fear

pre-literate
by trying to make woman's power his own
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Symbolic Wounds
BRUNO BETTELHEIM
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Puberty Rites and

The Envious Male
New, Revised Edition
COLLIER BOOKS
NEW YORK, N.Y.
This revised Collier Books edition is published by arrangement
with The Free Press of Glencoe, Inc.
Collier Books is a division of The Crowell-Collier Publishing

Company
First Collier Books Edition 1962
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following publishers

for permission to reproduce quotations from published works:
Allen and Unwin Ltd., The Blakiston Company, Coward-McCann,
Inc., Chatto and Windus, The Clarendon Press, Edward Arnold,
Ltd., Faber and Faber, Ltd., Funk and Wagnalls Co., The Hogarth
Press, Imago Publishing Co., International Universities Press,
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., Liveright Publishing Company, The Mac-
millan Company, W. W. Norton and Co., Oxford University Press,
Psychiatry, The Psychoanalytic Review, Routledge and Kegan
Paul, Ltd., and St Martin's Press.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-18552
Copyright 1954 by The Free Press, a Corporation

Copyright ©
1962 by The Free Press of Glencoe, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Hecho en los E.E.U.U.
Printed in the United States of America
5
Contents
Page
Preface 9
An Ancient Riddle 1
Reopening the Case 24

Challenge to Theory 37
The Blinders of Narcissism 59
Fertility, the Basic Rite 82
Ritual Surgery 90
The Men- Women 109
The Secret of Men 122
Girls' Rites 133
The Biological Antithesis 147
Appendix
Infant Circumcision 152
Australian Rites 161
References 176
Index 187
TO THE MEMORY OF
Sigmund Freud
WHOSE THEORIES ON SEX AND

THE UNCONSCIOUS PERMIT A FULLER
UNDERSTANDING OF THE MIND OF MAN
Preface
In planning and drafting this book, in collecting and

discussing the anthropological data, and in many other
ways I was greatly helped by Ruth Marquis. By the time
the manuscript was completed other interests claimed her
and Kathleen Ray stepped in to edit the text for initial
publication. For that arduous task I owe her much thanks.
When this new edition was planned, it offered a wel-
come opportunity to eliminate some of the shortcomings
I had grown aware of in the intervening years, to make
additions that I hoped would clarify my thesis, and to
correct errors that friends and reviewers had brought to
my attention. Revision also afforded a second chance to
make the book a more readable one. It was fortunate for
me that Mrs. Marquis was again able to help me with
the new edition. Thanks to her, it was brought closer to
our original plans, and enriched by what we had both
learned in the meantime. A
note of thanks to her here is
only an inadequate expression of my gratitude.
The observations on children living at the Sonia Shank-

man Orthogenic School of the University of Chicago,
which first aroused my interest in initiation rites, were
made by several staff members, to all of whom I wish to
express my appreciation.
Because I went beyond the field of my specialization
and competence in this book, the advice and criticism of
friends and specialists were much needed and valuable. I
particularly wish to acknowledge the many helpful sug-
gestions I received on the initial manuscript from Paul
Bergmann, William Caudill, Fred Eggan, Robert Fliess,
Maxwell Gitelson, Jules Henry, Morris Janowitz, Gard-
ner Murphy, David Rapaport, Fritz Redl, Jack Seeley,
Walter Weisskopf, and Fred Wyatt. They were responsi-
ble for none of the book's shortcomings (some of which
they pointed out to me), and contributed a great deal to
whatever merits it may have.
Those who later reviewed the book I wish to thank for
their helpful criticism and for their very generous treat-
ment of a novice in the field of anthropology. Some of
9
—
10 / Preface
their criticism I in the body of the text.

have discussed
But some of preferred to discuss here, since it deals
it I
with the overall method I used and not with any specific
conclusions I arrived at.
I was accused (and rightly so if such be wrong) of
"lumping all primitive peoples together" 1 and of "equating
child, psychotic and primitive man." 2 3 And it is true:
*
I am convinced that all men share certain feelings, de-

sires, and anxieties, that these are common not only to
various preliterate tribes —
as well as to children, psychotic
adults, and primitive man —
but to all of us. Both the
practice of psychoanalysis and my work with schizophren-
ics, all with members of modern Western society, has
convinced me, as it did many others before me, that one
can and does discover the same tendencies in all men. In
children and some schizophrenics they are more readily
and openly visible, while in "normal" Western adults
they may be carefully hidden.
Thus, far from wishing to draw parallels between primi-
tive man (preliterate or otherwise) and schizophrenic
youngsters, I tried to show how parallel are the primitive
wishes of all men. The parallel is just more apparent in
schizophrenic youngsters (who have radically withdrawn
from adjusting to the demands made of modern Western
man) and in those who were never faced with the problem
of rejecting these demands, whose behavior meets the de-
mands of their own society rather than rejects them.
We are hardly in need of proof that men stand in awe
of the procreative power of women, that they wish to
participate in it, and that both emotions are found readily
in Western society. As a matter of fact, some poets find
these emotions the source of some of the highest achieve-
ments of the Western mind, 4 and at least one literary critic
has reached similar conclusions. 5 My
own purpose was to
show that some preliterate societies, far from being in-
ferior to us in this respect, made the spontaneous move
from the negative experience of fear to the positive ex-
—
perience of mastering it by trying to make women's
power their own.
This, one friend and reviewer recognized, saying: "The
author, however, does not seem to me to strengthen his
case as much as he might by discussing tranvestism
for instance, among the Plains Indians —
as in part an es-
cape by men from the responsibilities of the male role
Preface / 11
with its fight and strut, while the new (berdache)
need to
role also of course avoids the 'labor' burden and the
menstrual 'curse' imposed on women. In the modern
world where this formalized escape is absent, male homo-
sexuality may serve similar purposes; but, on the whole,
men, by virtue of the very patriarchal dominance which
puts them on top, must repress the extent of their longing
for the simplicities and indisputable potentialities of being
a woman, whereas women are much freer to express their
envy of the male's equipment and roles." 6
It is exactly because that wish is so deeply repressed in
Western man, and the fear of such a wish is so great nowa-
days, that so many men escape into overt or unconscious
homosexuality.
In brief, far from "lumping all primitive people to-
gether," I am convinced that they share with all of us
certain needs and wishes that are basic to mankind. These
emotions are so basic that the more varied the societies,
the greater the vicissitudes they experience; in some so-
cieties they are elaborately repressed, denied, and covered
up; in others they are equally elaborately transformed
into social customs; or both. Again, these wishes are
primitive not as belonging to primitive persons or societies,
but in the literal sense of being primary, original, not de-
rived. Thus my book does not deal with primitive man (a
concept I have no use for) but with the primitive in all
men (which interests me greatly).
I have no quarrel with those ethnologists and anthro-
pologists who fear that if we overstress what is common
to all men we obscure the vast differences that exist be-
tween tribes and customs that may still be very alike in
externals. Theirs is a corrective position to an earlier
ethnocentrism that tried to evaluate customs by the degree
of their similarity to our own. Certainly psychoanalysis
is dedicated to the unique ways in which each of us deals
with the primitive needs and anxieties we share with all
men. The disagreement, if one exists between some of my
reviewers and me, is that I believe puberty rites to refer
to something so primitive that all men share in it; this
thesis they either disagree with or else they are simply
more interested in how differently the tendency is ex-
perienced in different cultures.
In my opinion, scientific development is often a dialec-
tic process, at least in those sciences dealing with human
12 / Preface
beings in their interactions: the overall generalizations

form the thesis; the study of specific differences form
the antithesis exploding the old generalizations (or the
other way round). In the case of initiation rites, a series
of overgeneralizations based on too little regard for de-
tail led to a psychoanalytic thesis; those functional anthro-
pologists who insisted that specific differences made the
overall thesis invalid were a much needed antithesis. This
—
book may then be viewed as an effort however inade-
quate, perhaps even premature — to arrive at a new syn-
thesis. If a new antithetical process then begins, it will
eventually bring about a new synthesis on a higher level
of understanding.
In concluding this digression into the merits or de-
merits of generalizations in relation to cultures, I refer
the interested reader to a recent controversy about Frazer,
the father of modern anthropology, which sums up the
two opposing positions. 7 As long as such controversies
continue, we may yet arrive at a higher synthesis.
Bruno Bettelheim
Symbolic Wounds
An Ancient Ri
Probably the first inventions of the human mind,

once ceased to be occupied solely with survival, were
it
some rudiments of religious ritual and belief. The origin

and primeval form of these first creations of the human
imagination will be shrouded forever in the same dark-
ness that hides the origin of man himself, the early de-
velopment of mind, and the begining of his social
his
structures. The beliefs and rituals of present-day preliterate
peoples are only the most recent phases in a long and
complex sequence, one that is unknown to us as well as to
them. We cannot speak certainly of their origin by study-
ing the characteristics they exhibit today. Still, there is
hardly a more fascinating topic for speculation; our curi-
osity leads us to wonder what were the forms of man's
first religious thoughts and rituals and what emotional
needs they were meant to satisfy.
So closely interwoven are rituals and those structures
that make for social cohesion that often it is hard to know
where the one ends and the other begins. This is par-
ticularly true of initiation rites, to which this study is
devoted.*
But whatever their origin and meaning they must arise
from deep human needs, since they seem to have sprung
up independently among many peoples, although in dif-
ferent forms. Frazer, who studied almost all rites and
myths, concluded they were the "central mystery of primi-
tive society." 1 Moreover, circumcision, which plays a
prominent part in many initiation ceremonies, is one of
the most widely distributed human customs. It seems that
only the Indo-Germanic peoples, the Mongols, and the
Finno-Ugrian-speaking peoples were entirely unacquainted
with it before modern times. 2
Even where knowledge of the operation seems to have
spread by diffusion, a people, as Ashley-Montagu re-
marked, does not simply adopt such a practice by a sort
* When I speak of initiation, here and throughout this book, I
mean initiation of the adolescent into adult life by means of specific
rituals. The many other initiation ceremonies (for example, those by
means of which an adult is admitted to a secret society) are outside
the scope of this discussion.
15
16 / Symbolic Wounds
of osmotic process. 3 Such a strange mutilation, found
among the most primitive and the most highly civilized
people, and in all continents, must reflect profound needs.
Still, I would probably not have wandered so far from
my own and entered the to me alien realm
field of interest
of anthropology if nothing more than another discussion
of initiation rites or of circumcision had been involved. I
am a stranger in anthropology, and I can do no more than
apologize for the kind of errors that will occur when one
goes outside of one's field of specialization. What began
as a short paper grew into a monograph as I found my-
self confronted with an issue that seemed to pose a central
theoretical problem of human psychology. For reasons I
will soon give, it raised the question: Under which frame
of reference can human behavior best be understood,
that of inner freedom and human autonomy, or that of
coercion by blind instinctual forces or the insensible powers
of tradition?
In many societies, especially some of the most primitive,
the initiation ritual is doubly important: first as an ex-
perience that binds the group together and second as the
tribe's most elaborate ceremonial. Because of this dual
importance, and perhaps also because of certain strange,
even awe-inspiring features, they have attracted much at-
tention from modern social scientists and psychologists.
Though a great deal has been written about them,
basically only two sets of explanations have been offered
as to their nature and meaning. One of these comes from
anthropology, the other from psychoanalysis. The first
usually interprets the rites as a total phenomenon; the
second more commonly selects a specific feature, often
the practice of circumcision, and explains the rites on
that basis.
Anthropological Interpretations
Anthropologists today view initiation as a rite de pass-
age which introduces the young into adult society. Earlier
anthropologists did not generally concern themselves with
the reasons behind the use of particular means; hence
they left unclarified the role of central and formidable
features such as circumcision and other mutilations. Stress-
ing the social aspects of initiation, these anthropologists
tended to disregard the psychological motives that might
account for the institution in general and for the needs
.
An Ancient Riddle / 17
man hopes to satisfy through particular features. But
these needs, it seems to me, are either permanent or must
recur in each generation; and since the rites survive, they
must be at least partly gratified (unless, of course, one
concludes that the rites now satisfy other needs than those
they served in the past)
Many anthropologists hold that the main purpose of
many ritual details is to separate the initiate from his old
group and, after a period of relative isolation, to intro-
duce him more effectively into the new group; others think
that the purpose of important features is to instruct the
initiate in tribal lore. Speiser, for example, although look-
ing for a psychological explanation, sees initiation as
merely an effort to speed the youngster on his road to
adulthood by transmitting to him the "vital energy" of
previous generations. 4 He does not tell us why this should
be accomplished by knocking out a tooth or by circumci-
sion or subincision. * Aware that this explanation is not
enough to account for subincision, he considers it little
more than a supplement of circumcision. Without raising
or answering the question of why a supplement is needed
and why this strange method was chosen, he tacitly admits
that such questions are justified by remarking that as yet
he cannot offer a better psychological explanation. 7
According to Miller, initiation ceremonies "are in-
tended to cut off the youth from his negligible past as if
he had died and then to resurrect him into an entirely new
existence as an adult." 8 He sees in initiation "a systematic
ceremonial induction of adolescent youths into the full
participation in social life. . Such practices represent
. .
efforts to rivet the youth securely to the regnant social

order and are devices for the development of social cohe-
sion." 9 This is undoubtedly true; but it does not clarify,
for example, the function of mutilations inflicted regularly.
More recently functional anthropologists have paid
greater attention to the social and psychological meaning
of the rites. They describe the details and analyze the
social aspects, but by and large they do not explain why
* Through subincision of the penis "the penile urethra is laid open
from the meatus right back to the junction with the scrotum. "5 Spencer
and Gillen, who reported most extensively on Australian tribes'
practice of subincision, say that "it is certainly a most extraordinary
practice, and one which it might be thought would be frequently at-
tended with serious results; but none such apparently ever follow,
though in their native condition the operation is performed merely
with a sharp chipped piece of fiint."6
the varied types were developed in the first place and why
one device is preferred to another. Malinowski, for ex-
ample, has written at some length about the function that
initiation has for the society, as in the following statement:
"They present right through the vast range of their
occurrence certain striking similarities. Thus the novices
have to undergo a more or less protracted period of seclu-
sion and preparation. Then comes initiation proper, in
which the youth, passing through a series of ordeals, is
finally submitted to an act of bodily mutilation: at the
mildest, a slight incision or the knocking out of a tooth;
or, more severe, circumcision; or, really cruel and dan-
gerous, an operation such as the subincision practiced in
some Australian tribes. The ordeal is usually associated
with the idea of the death and rebirth of the initiated one,
which is sometimes enacted in a mimetic performance. But
besides the ordeal, less conspicuous and dramatic, but in
reality more important, is the second main aspect of ini-
tiation: the systematic instruction of the youth in sacred
myth and tradition, the gradual unveiling of tribal mys-
teries and the exhibition of sacred objects." 10
The decision as to what elements of the rituals are "in
reality more important" is Malinowski's; it seems to me
to overstress an assumed end and to understress the means
of attaining it. We are by no means certain that what the
Western observer regards as means may not really be the
end, and what he accepts as the end may be a more or
less accidental result or elaboration of the means.
Many anthropological reports on the rites of individual
tribes, particularly the more recent ones by functional
anthropologists, come much closer to what may be a cor-
rect explanation. Mead, for example, feels that in initia-
tion men try to take over the functions of women. 11 Ashley-
Montagu, 12 Bateson, 13 the Berndts. 14 and others have
recognized the important role plaved by female functions,
especially menstruation and childbearing, in the emo-
tional and ritual lives of preliterate peoples. If these inter-
pretations were all collated and applied to the rituals of
puberty, a different view of the ceremonies might emerge.
Psychoanalytic Interpretations
Certain psychoanalytic ideas on initiation and circum-
cision, though never accepted by the majority of anthro-
pologists, have spread far beyond the circle of psycho-
analysts and influenced the thinking of many nonprofes-

sional persons. Psychoanalytic investigators, in contrast to
anthropologists, have given almost all their attention to
interpreting ceremonial details. While any discussion of
initiation rites must rely heavily on anthropological field
observations, the psychoanalytic theories seem to offer a
more workable frame of reference for explaining the
nature, origin, function —in short, the meaning — of some
of the fundamental features that most interest me.
Psychoanalytic theories on circumcision and related
customs among preliterate peoples have been widely dis-
cussed, repeatedly quoted, and in recent times (by non-
anthropologists) more often accepted than not. If I find
them in need of revision, I imply no criticism of psycho-
analysis as a frame of reference or a method of investiga-
tion. On the contrary, my own efforts at understanding
these rituals are based on both.
Current psychoanalytic theory about initiation rites
takes, as point of departure, castration anxiety and the
its
Oedipal conflict. But the conclusion has been forced on
me that just as in psychoanalytic practice and theory we
have learned to go farther back into childhood, beyond
the age of the Oedipal situation, so too for any adequate
explanation of puberty rites we will have to consider much
earlier emotional experiences, including the close attach-
ment of the infant, boy or girl, to his mother; the male's
ambivalance and positive feelings toward female figures;
and the ambivalance of boys and girls,originating in
pregenital fixations, about accepting their prescribed adult
sex roles. These, it seems to me, offer a more adequate
basis for understanding initiation rites than current psycho-
analytic theory. According to that theory, the events com-
prising these ceremonies result from the fathers' jealousy
of his sons, and their purpose is to create sexual (castra-
tion) anxiety and to make secure the incest taboo.
Indeed, as mystudy progressed, I became more and
more impressed with a very different psychoanalytic prem-
ise for an understanding of the deeper meanings and
functions of initiation rites: the premise that one sex feels
envy in regard to the sexual organs and junctions of the
other.
Freud thought that all human beings are born with
bisexual tendencies, 15 and he spoke of "the great enigma
of the biological fact of the duality of the sexes." This
problem, he felt, cannot be solved by psychoanalysis,
though psychoanalysis reveals, in the mental lives of hu-
man beings, many reactions to what he called "this great
antithesis" of the sexes. 16
Once I began to view these rituals less in relation to
castration anxiety and more to the duality of the sexes,
it became ever clearer that the rites might have originated
in this antithesis, might even have been attempts to re-

solve the sexual anxiety and envy that flow from it.
Another significant contrast belongs to puberty rites.
Calling them age-grading ceremonies does not do justice
to the particular age separation they mark. The antithesis
between sexual maturity and immaturity must therefore
be considered too. Initiation rites, with very minor excep-
tions, are characterized by the fact that they come at or
around puberty; they are also called "puberty rites."
Psychoanalysts were specially captivated by circumcision,
one of its most striking features; giving most of their at-
tention primarily to that rite, they established a direct
connection between it and infant circumcision.
If they had started, instead, with the fact that initiation
occurs at puberty, more note might have been taken of
Freud's remark that it is not until puberty that the sharp
distinction between the male and female character is es-
tablished. 17 Thus the rites seem to emphasize the end of a
span of life in which this distinction is not fully established,
and to herald a new life period that should be free of
ambivalence about the adult sex role. This tallies with
the almost uniform view of anthropologists: that a main
purpose of the rites is the definite separation of childhood
from adulthood.
Once I began to consider these points, a complex but
understandable pattern emerged into which many cus-
toms reported by anthropologists seemed to fit. Other
practices, of course, do not easily adjust to such an over-
all pattern. This must be expected, if for no other reason
than because of the long history of the rites, during which
they were made to serve a variety of other functions in a
variety of cultures. Still, certain basic features that on the
surface seem to have nothing in common, such as sub-
incision in Australia and the stopping up of the rectum
in Africa,* can be explained on the basis of these prem-
ises.
* See pages 100, 128.

Two Views of Human Nature
One other aspect of this study of puberty rites should

be mentioned. In my work with asocial children, delin-
quents, schizophrenics, and severe neurotics, I have come
to see that types of behavior which appear as expressions
of the most violent hostility, of "the id in the raw," are
actually frantic efforts by the ego to regain rational con-
trol over a total personality overwhelmed by irrational
instinctual forces. This is by no means a new observation
— on the contrary, it is an accepted view of schizo-
phrenia. 18
A different perspective on human nature might emerge
if this view found wider application as a heuristic hypoth-
esis. Much that leads us to doubt man's humanity might
then look like efforts — sometimes violent, desperate, and
often unsuccessful — to affirm his humanity despite power-
ful instinctual pressure. For example, I hope to show how
likely it is that certain initiation rites originate in the ado-
lescent's attempts to master his envy of the other sex, or
to adjust to the social role prescribed for his sex and give
up pregenital, childish pleasures. If this effort succeeds,
it permits the sexes to live together more satisfactorily.
But even when such integrative efforts do not succeed,

they stand for a positive purpose, in contrast to the nega-
tivism ascribed to them in current psychoanalytic theory.
I think the prevailing psychoanalytic opinion on cir-
cumcision and puberty rites represents an unbalanced
view of the nature of human beings. It seems at least
partly the result of viewing social institutions as express-
ing mainly destructive or irrational instinctual tendencies.
This was perhaps necessary at the start of psychoanalysis,
when entrenched denial of instinctual tendencies had to
be counteracted. But it is a one-sided view and applies
only part of the theoretic framework of psychoanalysis
to the study of human nature. It reflects early theory con-
cerned mainly with the id, and not the ego psychology
which has lately come to stand in the center of psycho-
analytic speculation. Ego and superego are not "mere"
superstructures built upon the "only reality" of the id. The
human personality results from the continuous interplay
of all three institutions of the mind. Social phenomena
must reflect not only one institution, the id (in this case
the castrating father), but also the superego and, most of
all, the ego. Societal institutions are indeed ego creations
— the superego and id can only act upon the world through
the ego.
I think that the functional anthropologist who asks what
is the purpose of initiation for the well-being of society,
though he may give a too-rational answer, has put the
question correctly. We cannot be satisfied with an explana-
tion that accounts solely for the destructive, sex-inhibit-
ing, anxiety-evoking aspects of a great social institution,
even if these play an important part. I am profoundly im-
pressed with the great measure to which initiation rites
seem to arise from efforts to integrate, rather than to dis-
charge, asocial instinctual tendencies.
Our wish to think well of man has played many tricks
on scientific accuracy, and this study was not begun in
defense of man's dignity. But in my work with children I
have learned that while little good results from an un-
justly high opinion of persons and motives, much and
serious damage may result from an unwarrantedly low
opinion. If the latter prevails, valiant ego attempts at in-
tegration (which may be recognized in initiation rites
despite some of the features so astonishing to civilized
persons) may be misinterpreted as barely controlled ag-
gression acted out. I think in our discussion of initiation
and circumcision we have been far too engrossed in what
looks like destruction (damage to the genitals) and have
overlooked the more hidden fascination with pregnancy
and birth. It may be that what has been linked narrowly
and pessimistically with castration, truly a destruction
of life, will come to be seen as resulting rather from the
most constructive desires, those concerned with progeny,
with new life.
That such views were in the air when I wrote this book
may be seen from the fact that only a year later E. Neu-
mann remarked:
"When we look for the psychological conditions that
must have given to the initiation of adolescents, to
rise
the various secret rites, and to segregation, we find noth-
ing of the sort in the normal male development; while the
mysterious occurrence of menstruation or pregnancy and
the dangerous episode of childbearing make it necessary
for the inexperienced woman to be initiated by those who
are informed in these matters. The monthly 'segregation'
in the closed (i.e., taboo) sacral female precinct is only
a logical continuation of the initiation that has occurred
in this place at the first menstruation. Childbearing occurs
in this same precinct, which is the natural, social, and
psychological center of the female group, ruled over by
the old, experienced woman." 19
His views are based on such reasoning as:
"The earliest sacred precinct of the primordial age was
probably that in which women gave birth. . .Not only
.
is the place of childbearing the sacral place of female life

in early and primitive cultures; obviously it also stands at
the center of all cults that are dedicated to the Great
—
Goddess as the goddess of birth, fertility and death. In
Malekula, for example, the name 'birth enclosure' is given
both to the fence within which women give birth and to
the one surrounding the site where the male mysteries of
rebirth are solemnized." 20
It is hoped that this excursion into the far distant past
and into the lives of preliterate people living today may
hold something of value to the social scientist as well as
the clinician, both laboring in the present and in our own
complex society for the well-being of modern, civilized
man. Indeed, it was while working with modern schizo-
phrenic children that I made the observations (described
in the following chapter) that aroused my interest in pre-
literate man and eventually led me back in my thinking
to our own society.
—
Reopening the Case
Some time ago I observed a group of adolescent chil-

dren* as they made plans that reminded me of reports I
had read about primitive initiation rites. Their plans and
actions were spontaneous efforts to master some of the
anxieties brought on by the turmoil of puberty. Though
they lived in a residential treatment institution for emo-
tionally disturbed children, f this fact—
does not detract from the possible broader implications of
to my mind
their behavior.
It should also be noted that in some ways, children who
live in boarding schools or institutions are living far more
in a peer society, as an age group, than do children who
live with their families. Here, as in the initiation societies
of preliterate people, adolescent boys live with other ado-
lescent boys, and the same for the girls, supervised by
adults well attuned to the needs of such an age group. This
permits the youngsters a much greater concentration on
the most pressing emotional problem of their age: sexual
maturity, and the fears and desires that come with it.
Reinforced by each other, and the curiosity of others,
they dare to give freer vent to their fascination with how
the same problems appear among their own and the other
sex than they would rf they were not living in something
akin to an age society.
For example, without any move on the part of adults,
the girls living in the institution (much more so than the
boys) have spontaneously created what might be called a
passage sans rite. Girls already menstruating are keenly
aware when a pubescent girl is approaching her first
menses; as for the girls not yet menstruating they both
wish for and dread its onset. As soon as a girl menstruates
for the first time, she is immediately taken in by the group
who have passed that age mark. She is now one of the
"big girls" and no longer part of the "little ones."
Most of the pubescent boys are intensely curious and
also jealous of the girls' secret. The girls fan their curios-
* All around age 12, with I.Q.'s from 115 to 140, white, and of
middle-class origin.
tThe Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School of the University of
Chicago.
24
Reopening the Case / 25
ity and flaunt their secret in such a way that the nature of
the mystery becomes anything but secret.
The encouragement to follow their own inclination,
within reason, helps the groupings to form naturally; and
the free expression of common interests cement the groups
further. All this makes it easier for the children to convey
their feelings to each other and to adults, to show openly
their interest in menstruation and to engage in sponta-
neous actions.
A Spontaneous "Initiation Rite"

It all began innocuously enough with a group of these
adolescent youngsters planning their adult lives. Because
of the greater pressure of their emotional conflicts, they
were less inhibited, quicker to act on the basis of motives
that in the average child remain more carefully hidden.
Their integration was well below normal for their age, and
they played out their fantasies, which
of their intelligence and lack of restraint
——
partly because
were always
intense, colorful, and highly inventive.
The group consisted of two boys and two girls, all of
whom could be classified as schizoid, if not schizophrenic.
A third boy joined in their plans for short periods, but
the first girl was the most active of the four. She had be-
gun to menstruate, and this intensified her old sex fears,
which were aggravated by a great resentment of her
femininity. She and the two boys liked to act and were
good at it; they lived out their pretended roles far more
than any normal children would.
The second girl was somewhat further ahead toward
recovery. But once she began to menstruate, a great deal
of hostility was activated; most of this she directed against
boys, by whom she felt persecuted.
One of the two boys had a strong feminine identifica-
tion, was very anxious about it and also very afraid of
women. Consciously he hated the idea of being a boy and
wished he were a woman. The other boy saw himself as
irresistible to (and hence persecuted by) women. He felt
they were jealous of his sex, his looks, his abilities, etc.
All four children, like most adolescents, were fascinated
by and afraid of growing up, of reaching sexual maturity,
and of what it implied. The boys were particularly fearful.
Their anxiety was mixed with an inability to wait to ease—
their tension they wished they could hurry up and get it
over with. Nocturnal emissions, which they occasionally
had, did not seem to be proof enough of maturation. At
various times, before and after the episode described, the
boys confided to us their envy of girls, who at least knew
they had grown up sexually when menstruation began.
Boys, they felt, could never be so sure.
Initially it was just the first girl and the two boys who
set out to plan their lives. To them, this meant becoming

actors or entertainers, part of the world of night life,
sexual excitement, and pleasure, as represented by Holly-
wood and Broadway. Then the problem arose of how to
assure successful entrance to this fascinating world. The
first girl had an idea: They would form a secret society
that would help them to the top in spite of any resistance
from adults. Her plan was that members of the group,
both boys and girls, should cut themselves once every
month and then mix their blood. This, she insisted, would
be like a spell, ensuring success. The boys were hesitant
at first, though intrigued enough to keep going. At this
point the second girl joined the group. But after a time
all four seemed to lose interest, and the project subsided
for nearly four months.
—
Then the second girl who until now had been more or
less an outsider —began to menstruate. As soon as the
other three learned of it, their sexual fear and excitement
reached a new pitch. They reopened their talks, and the
plans became more specific, the decision finally being that
the boys would cut their index fingers every month and
mix their blood with that of the menses. The first girl's
desire that the boys should draw the blood from their
genitals never went beyond intimating that it should come
from "a secret place of their bodies." At this point it be-
came necessary to interfere so that the children's plans
might not lead to injury.
At both stages, the first girl spoke to her female counse-
lor of her great resentment that only girls had to bleed
regularly, while boys went free. To her this was another
proof of the persecution of women in general and of her-
self in particular. Finally she told her counselor (in whom
she saw a fellow victim of menstrual bleeding) rather
proudly of her plan to make men bleed every month too,
and of what power it would give all of them if they mixed
their blood regularly.
The second girl, though much less active, also told us
afterward that she felt something should be done to make
boys bleed as girls have to do.
Menstruation
Other schizophrenic girls show a different attitude
toward menstruation. Overtly, they pretend to hide the
fact that they are menstruating, considering it "disgusting"
or "dirty." Nevertheless, they manage to make everyone
aware of their menstrual periods, talk about little else and
display their sanitary napkins conspicuously.
Others just refuse to wear sanitary napkins and manage
to have their menstrual flow appear openly, as on their
dresses. And these are sometimes girls who in other sexual
matters are quite discreet. One twelve year old girl,
though very outspoken about her wish to be a boy (often
insisting she was a "he" and was to be called "he"), went
to particularly great length in advertising her menses, but
mainly when boys were around. Then she would scream at
the top of her lungs about her "dripping period," and in-
deed arranged to have her menstrual fluid drip to the
floor. But in this she was no different than others who
harbored the same wishes, simply much more conspicuous.
Despite what in many girls seems like an open recoil
from menstruation, on a deeper level the magic power
they ascribe to it holds an irresistible fascination for them.
If they wish boys to know that they menstruate, it is
often because of the power over boys they believe it con-
fers. On the most conscious level, it is the power to make
boys uncomfortable if not plainly anxious; and this not
through any deliberate act but just by a normal function
of their bodies, by just being female. This seems like magic
because it is their very femininity that makes the boys
shudder, and not anything specific they have done to
achieve such a power.
But whatever gives power is also potentially dangerous.
What can make others anxious is a potentially destructive
power; and if it can harm others it might also destroy its
owner. The girl who experiences her menses this way has
not really accepted or emotionally mastered the function,
but remains partly at its mercy. She is not in control of
her "sorcery," but at best a "sorcerer's apprentice" who at
any moment may find herself subject to her own witch-
craft.
So while some of these girls are sometimes conspicuous
in displaying their menses, other girls will delusionally
pervert this function, associated with giving life, in the
opposite direction, and the menstrual fluid becomes a
potent poison. They are obsessionally preoccupied with
the problem of how to get rid of the soiled sanitary nap-
kin and develop elaborate rituals around its disposal; they
are convinced that the menstrual discharge is so powerful
that it could poison the entire population of a city.
Many normal women, even those who do not consider
menstruation a "curse" — a curse being related to the
supernatural and hence powerful and mysterious — regard
it as something weird, and their attitude toward the men-
strual discharge is ambivalent, a mixture of fascinated

interest and revulsion. Fascinated by it, they cannot part
with it and like some of our girls, cannot bring themselves
to dispose of their soiled sanitary pads, but retain them as
tokens of their secret powers. Their precautions in saving
and hiding them are then as elaborate as those of our
girls who devise complex rituals for discarding them.
Negative feelings in girls about femininity and menstrua-
tion combine easily with hostility toward boys, in particu-
lar toward the penis. The next step is to wish that boys,
too, should bleed from their sex organs. Sometimes this
wish to see boys' penes incised (as they are in circum-
cision or subincision) is so great that it has to become
reality. And if it cannot be made real on a boy's body, it
is made real on some part of the girl's own body which
she comes to see as a penis.
One twelve year old schizophrenic girl felt most of the
time that she despised her femininity and wished she were
a boy. But at other times she believed herself to be both
boy and girl at the same time. At such times she often
acted out intercourse symbolically, using her index finger
as an erect penis and a circular object for the vagina. But
it was not her index finger in its normal condition that
became her penis; it was the finger only in erect stiffness.

This she called "my fingerbone" and differentiated it
clearly from her finger as such. Whenever she had a
fingerbone, it was a penis, and she was unable (or un-
willing) to bend it at its joints. When she used the finger
for other (even sexual) purposes, as when masturbating,
it was just a finger, easily bent.
For many months, whenever she menstruated, she

wanted to cut this fingerbone to make it bleed. Through-
out the days of her menstrual period she would obsession-
ally talk about and make efforts to do that. Several times,
despite the greatest watchfulness on our part she suc-
ceeded, and only our elaborate precautions prevented the
wounds from ever becoming serious. Thus she established
the close connection in her mind between menstruation
and incising a penis. She felt (and said) that she could
only accept her menstruation if fingerbones could bleed
too. Only slowly, as she began to accept herself as a girl
and could no longer view part of her body as a boy's penis,
did she give up her wish to cut the fingerbone. It was not
part of her body she wanted to see cut and bleeding, but
a boy's penis.
Ambivalence in Girls
Penis envy in girls is so well known and has been so

often described that its universality needs little more dis-
cussion. Our severely disturbed children merely go further
in its expression than normal girls. For example, we have
often seen a girl fill a balloon with water, press it to an
elongated form and hold it between her legs, spurting the
water out as if she were urinating through a penis.
One of our seven year old schizophrenic girls gave per-
haps a much more primitive expression to her desire for a
penis. Several times a day she pulled at the skin of the
mons veneris and at the anterior tissues of the vulva, try-
ing to elongate it, showing it off to others and saying:
"Look at my penis." This was not a substitute for mastur-
bation. Though she masturbated often and freely, that was
(to her) an entirely different experience from her efforts
to make a penis and her belief that she had succeeded.
Other girls at the School have believed during each
mentrual period that a penis was growing in them and
were deeply disappointed every month when it turned out
to be false. Such delusional association of menstruation
with the penis is perhaps parallel to a conviction some
men seem to have: that they can acquire new sexual func-
tions by bleeding from their genitals.
This hope that a penis may be acquired in and through
menstruation is an example of the positive side of ambival-
ence in girls. Many emotionally disturbed girls express
its negative side by considering the penis disgusting and
ugly. In certain severely disturbed girls the negative feel-
ing toward penislike organs goes much further. One such
girl at the School, who could never accept being feminine,
hated her clitoris, feeling it was a blemish on her body.
She felt if she could eliminate it she would become wholly
feminine and then be able to accept the fact.
Since she had to repress her desire for a penis, and
since her clitoris, particularly when stimulated, reminded
her of that desire, the result was a wish to be rid of the
clitoris. This wish was so great that she had to take elab-
orate precautions to keep from tearing it out. The fear
was not of masturbation as such, since she masturbated
freely by letting water run over her vulva, pulling her pants
up tightly or rubbing her legs together. But she dared not
touch the clitoris with her fingers because that, she felt
certain, would be an irresistible temptation to tear it out.
While this girl hated the penislike organ in herself and
tried to destroy it, other females openly attack male geni-
tals for similar reasons. Nor does the tendency occur only
in schizophrenics. We have, at the School, one preado-
lescent boy whose central trauma was that his (nonschizo-
phrenic) mother, while intoxicated, took scissors and
snipped some skin off his penis. Such extreme signs of
penis envy leading to incision are by no means as rare as
one might wish to believe.
Ambivalence in Boys
A series of observations of several younger boys may
be represented here by data collected from one seven and
one eight year old. According to their chronological age,
using standard methods, both should have been classified
in the latency period. Since they were severely disturbed,
however, the degree of sex repression that supposedly
marks that phase of development had not taken place.
Each of these boys stated repeatedly, independently of
the other and to different persons, that he felt it was "a
cheat" and "a gyp" that he did not have a vagina. They
made remarks such as: "She thinks she's something special
because she has a vagina," or "Why can't I have a va-
gina?" Referring to another boy's unhappiness, one of
—
them said, "I know why he's crying it's because he wants
a vagina." More persistent than the desire for female or-
gans, however, was the obsessional wish to possess both
male and female genitalia. They said, "Why can't I have
both?" Disappointed in this desire, and envious of women
because women, they felt, had the superior sex organs,
both boys frequently expressed a wish to tear or cut out
the vaginas of girls and women.
A third schizophrenic seven year old boy ritualized
dramatically his desire for both male and female sex ap-
paratus. He was able to switch almost instantly from one
role to another. As a male, he sat on the toilet facing for-
ward, freely exposing his penis; as a female, he sat hiding
it, with his face to the wall. For a long time he did not
urinate standing up; this would have been too profound a

commitment to the male role. As a male, he freely and
openly masturbated only his penis; as a female, he just as
freely practiced only anal masturbation. As a boy he used
his own name, as a girl he used a make-believe name;
sometimes it signified himself as a girl and at other times
as a clown who was simultaneously male and female.
Many of our very disturbed boys, without going quite
so far, also insist that they have vaginas, refusing to ac-
cept the fact that girls have two lower body openings.
They insist that the rectum and the vagina are one and
that girls, like themselves, have only a single opening.
In other boys of varying ages who by and large accept
their masculine role, we have often observed a hostility
toward female sex characteristics just as violent as those
of the boys who wish for vaginas. While these boys do not
say they wish for female sex organs, they have many fan-
tasies about cutting off and tearing out breasts and va-
ginas. Certain extremely disturbed boys have for months
spoken of (more accurately, screamed about) little other
than this consuming desire.
More benign but often just as pervasive in boys are the
desire to be able to bear children and the feeling of being
cheated because it cannot be done.* Such intense envy of
* Wolff stresses the frequency with which he observed envy of
pregnancy in boys.i Reik reports observations of Abraham showing
the lengths to which men may go in this envy. One patient, imitating
menstruation, suffered so severely that every four weeks he had to go
to bed for several days; a fifteen-year-old boy passed through a
simulated pregnancy closely resembling a real one.2 Recently Rangell
devoted a paper to "The Interchangeability of Phallus and Female
Genital." One of his patients fantasied his penis as a vagina and
imagined that by inserting objects into the penis he was playing the
feminine sexual role. Rangell remarks on the frequency with which
boys, either in fantasy or reality, insert objects into the penis, often
accompanied by masturbatory acts and fantasies of receptivity and
female identification. Women, on the other hand, imagine that the
female sexuality is by no means restricted to women's
primary sex appartus and functions. We have observed
several boys tormented by the desire to possess female
breasts. The wish to be able to nurse themselves (which
they are convinced women can do) was only part of the
motive. They were envious of breasts independently of
lactation —
that is, as sources of power and strength in
themselves.
A riddle they repeatedly asked was: "What is the
strongest thing in the world?" And they never failed to
supply the answer: "A brassiere, because it holds two huge
mountains and a milk factory." Girls never seemed in-
terested in the riddle, but the preadolescent, emotionally
disturbed boys were nearly always fascinated.
Circumcision
The wish to have a cirmumcised penis is very different

from these boys' obsessive interest in female sex char-
acteristics and functions. At the Orthogenic School, a ten
year old uncircumcised boy, living with a group who had
been circumcised in infancy, wanted the operation very
badly.
Eventually we had to arrange for his circumcision be-
cause of adhesions. When told about it he was happy but
anxious, as was to be expected. He spoke at great length
about his fear of the pain of the operation. But after it
was over he also admitted that he had feared the doctor
would make a mistake and cut off too much or all of his
penis. He told us anxiously that he thought he had heard
about persons born "a girl and a boy at the same time,"
and how the "doctor had to cut it off" to make the person
a girl. Thus he showed his great castration anxiety.
But powerful as his fears were, still more impressive
were first his wish for the operation and afterward his
pride in what he called his "new penis." This emotion
vagina is the same organ as the penis, as reflected in the statement

of a female patient who said: "In the male the organ sticks out . . .
in the female t K e same organ goes in . .

."3 Similar ideas are
frequently expressed by boys and girls at the Orthogenic School. Both
have called t e vagina an "inside-out penis," and the penis an "inside-
:
out vagina." Parallel observations have been made by Ferenczi^ and

others. Many little boys, on first learning that women bear children, try
to maintain that this is true only for girls and that boys are borne by
their fathers.^
overshadowed his castration anxiety throughout. As soon
as the wound was healed he displayed to everybody the
penis he had always tried to hide. As soon as the bandage
was taken off he declared, "I think my penis is very hand-
some and elegant now." With great pride he told how
much better it functioned, how when urinating he could
make a bigger and better stream and direct it wherever he
chose. Now he fully enjoyed masturbation, which before,
because of adhesions, had been partly painful. He summed
up his feelings by saying, "Boy, I can do anything now."
Circumcision showed him the organ's importance. The
freed glans represented a newly won masculinity. Circum-
cision had indeed provided him with a better penis and
with sexual pleasures not available before.
Similar observations were made by Nunberg during
the analysis of an adult. The patient had experienced cir-
cumcision as a reassertion of his manliness in general and
of the importance of the penis in particular: "The painful
sensation around the glans after circumcision drew nar-
cissistic libido to the penis. As a consequence, the patient
became more aware of his genital than heretofore. The
experience of circumcision increased penis consciousness
6
as if it were a demonstration of the organ's importance."
If not inhibited, boys ("normal" as well as emotionally
disturbed ones) like to show off their penes with what
might be called "phallic pride." Competitions to see who
has the biggest or best penis become a matter of impor-
tance, including contests to prove who can urinate higher
or farther. These are perhaps remnants of the phallic
phase of development in which, it is claimed, the boy has
"identified himself with his penis." 7 But they also indicate
the desire to know who is further ahead in development,
who is more manly and less childish. Exhibiting the glans
freed from the foreskin is part of such efforts to assert
manliness, and in this the circumcised boy is at a definite
advantage: his glans always shows, and is often taken as
a sign of greater masculinity.
In this respect, too, Nunberg's observations corroborate
those made of our children. He says "by the circumcision
the glans penis is freed ... a new penis is born which
looks like a phallus in erection with retracted foreskin." 8
Since this book first appeared, I have had several com-
munications from male readers telling of experiences they
had as adolescents; how they spontaneously formed groups
to prove to themselves and each other that they had
reached sexual maturity, how without group corroboration
they could not feel certain about it. If what they write me
is true, and I have no reason to doubt it, then short of
circumcision and subincision, many of the customs that
are part of initiation rites among preliterate societies also
take place spontaneously and sporadically among normal
adolescents in Western society.
How some gangs intimidate new members before admis-
sion is well known. So is the custom that to pass muster, a
boy must join in the group's common cohabitation with
one or several girls. This, of course, resembles the custom
that the newly initiated must immediately have intercourse
with a woman.
As I write this, the Chicago papers report two assaults,
one resulting in murder, where the two boys who com-
mitted the crimes claim that the motive was to prove their
daring to a gang they wished to join. Without such a show
of brutality, they claimed, the gang would not find them
acceptable. This recalls those tribes where the slaying of a
man is required proof of having reached male maturity.
Of these various communications I shall report only the
one I was fully able to verify. In Havana, Cuba, pubertal
boys about twelve years of age spontaneously formed
groups which required that new members be able to retract
their foreskins and project the glans (the boys were not
circumcised). Those who could not do so were rejected
as too young or too weak to join. If younger boys could
not meet this requirement, some of the older boys taught
them for about a week in a daily practice of retracting
the foreskin. Often the procedure was very painful because
of phimosis. But if after a week such a boy could project
the glans, he was judged strong and masculine and became
part of the group; if not, he was permanently excluded.*
Here, then, is a counterpart among normal Western
boys to the spontaneous initiation society that sprang up
among youngsters at the Orthogenic School. These normal
boys voluntarily took on a painful manipulation of their
genitals to prove they had reached sexual maturity, since
the proof of maturity rested on showing that the glans
could appear freed of its foreskin.
* I am indebted to Dr. Jerome Kavka of Chicago for this report.
Transvestism
Dressing up in bizarre costumes at Hallowe'en is part

of this children's holiday throughout our society. On this
day they are permitted to act out their asocial and de-
structive desires more freely than usual. At the Orthogenic
School, children are at liberty to dress up throughout the
year, and do so often. But, in line with custom, they dress
up even more freely on Hallowe'en. Hence, observations
made on this holiday may stand for many others through-
out the year.
Our younger children, like normal children, masquerade
as ghosts, witches, robbers, wild men, princes, animals, etc.
Some children of all ages are too anxious to change them-
selves at all, or they may compromise with some token
distortion of their normal appearance.
To our surprise, however, we have learned that pubertal
children do not necessarily follow this pattern. If they
have been with us for several years and have become able
to use their relative freedom to express their desires, they
seem to develop a very different pattern. Girls tend to
dress up either as very masculine or sexually attractive
boys or as extremely seductive women. If they disguise
themselves as boys they make their desires clear by add-
ing guns, fishing poles, swords, daggers, and other mascu-
line implements or penislike tools and gadgets as an im-
portant part of the costume.
Boys, beginning about age eleven and even more at
twelve and thirteen, like to dress as girls or women, em-
phasizing the breasts (only the largest pillows for padding
will do) Some even dress up as women in the last stages of
.
pregnancy. Interestingly enough, we have never seen the

genuine transvestites — and we have a few among our
children— dress in this way at Hallowe'en. They either
do not wear costumes at all (perhaps it would hit too
close to home for comfort) or they are satisfied with a
single female garment or with using lipstick and rouge.
Often the boys who ordinarily display their masculinity
—
most emphatically boys good at sports, former delin-
quents who have to be restrained in their daring exploits
— make the most effective appearance as women at Hal-
lowe'en. Some of them masquerade so well that people on
the street take them for girls. But the motivations are not
simple. The disguise represents a desire to be, and to
find out how it feels to be, a woman. But it is also an
anxious and hostile caricature of women.
The important facts to note are that boys who in their
latency did not dress up as girls or women begin to do so
after entering puberty, and that nearly all the boys who
come to feel free enough do so at least once. Furthermore,
while our children often dress up, they do not let them-
selves go quite so far in playing the role of the other sex
as during the special liberty of Hallowe'en.
These, then, are some of our observations of spontane-

ous, freely chosen behavior among modern disturbed
children of pubertal and prepubertal age.
My in initiation rites began with a desire to
interest
understand the motives of the four pubertal children dis-
cussed in the last chapter. Their anxiety at our expected
disapproval of their plan made us doubly eager to under-
stand, since these were children for whose welfare we had
accepted responsibility. But first, for the sake of readers
who may not be acquainted with the psychoanalytic theory
connecting circumcision with castration anxiety, the theory
is restated.
Among the theoretical formulations of psychoanalysis

may be found allusions to castration as a historical event,
with circumcision as a ritual substitute for it. Thus: "Cir-
cumcision is the symbolical substitute of castration, a
punishment which the primeval father dealt his sons long
ago out of the fullness of his power; and whosoever ac-
cepted this symbol showed by so doing that he was ready
to submit to the father's will, although it was at the cost
of a painful sacrifice." 1
Circumcision is thus cited as supporting evidence for
the historical theory that would otherwise rest on shaky
ground. Castration and circumcision then serve to explain
both anxiety about sex and the boy's fear of and submis-
sion to the father. It is this fear that links circumcision to
the Oedipus complex, one of the main theoretical con-
structs of psychoanalytic theory.
Freud himself seems to have felt less than certain at
times about the validity of his theory. Describing how he
arrived at his speculations on the primal father, he said:
"When I further took into account Darwin's conjecture
that men originally lived in hordes, each under the domina-
tion of a single powerful, violent and jealous male, there
rose before me out of all these components the following
hypothesis, or, I would rather say, vision. The father of
the primal horde, since he was an unlimited despot, had
seized all the women for himself. . .
." 2 Freud here im-
plicitly recognizes that it is questionable to reconstruct

prehistoric events, whether in the past of the individual
or the species. He then reduces his own hypothesis to the
37
status of a vision, though he would have preferred to think
of itas a hypothesis.
seemed to conclude that such caution
Later, however, he
was unwarranted and stated his opinion repeatedly, and
indeed apodictically. "We have conjectured," he said,
"that, in the early days of the human family, castration
really was performed on the growing boy by the jealous
and cruel father, and that circumcision, which is so fre-
quently an element in puberty rites, is an easily recogniz-
3
able trace of it."
In his last statement on psychoanalytic theory, Freud
wrote, "The possibility cannot be excluded that a phylo-
genetic memory trace may contribute to the extraordinarily
terrifying effect of the threat —
a memory trace from the
prehistory of the human family, when the jealous father
would actually rob his son of his genitals if the latter inter-
fered with him in rivalry for a woman. The primeval cus-
tom of circumcision, another symbolic substitute for cas-
tration, is only intelligible if it is an expression of subjec-
tion to the father's will. (Compare the puberty rites of
primitive peoples.)" 4
The reference to memory traces as a contributing fac-
tor seems to suggest that Freud was not fully convinced
that the child's own experience —
his parents' threats, their
interference with masturbation, their disapproval of his
sexual interest, or even his observing the genitalia of the
other sex —
were sufficient to explain the "extraordinarily
terrifying" fear of castration.
It is this stipulated connection between castration anx-
iety and circumcision in puberty rites that makes initia-
tion important for psychoanalytic theory; otherwise the
interpretation of the rites, though interesting, would have
little bearing on the central body of psychoanalytic
thought.
In regard to memory traces as they supported his con-
structs, Freud said:
"In studying reactions to early traumata we often find
to our surprise that they do not keep strictly to what the
individual himself has experienced, but deviate from this
in a way that would accord much better with their being
reactions to genetic events and in general can be explained
only through such an influence. The behavior of a neurotic
child to his parents when under the influence of an Oedi-
Challenge to Theory / 39
pus and castration complex is very rich in such reactions,
which seem unreasonable in the individual and can only
be understood phylogenetically, in relation to the experi-
ences of earlier generations. ... In fact it seems to me
convincing enough to allow to venture further and assert
that the archaic heritage of mankind includes not only
dispositions, but also ideational contents, memory traces
5
of the experiences of former generations."
The belief in memory traces as transcending the indi-
vidual's experience and as derived from a racial uncon-
scious is particularly significant if it becomes the only way
of understanding something so central but otherwise ob-
scure as castration anxiety. If this symptom, as it now
exists among neurotics, cannot be fully explained except
on the basis of memory traces of actual castration by a
primal father, then it becomes essential to know if that was
a historical event.
What psychoanalysis actually reveals is simply that
boys attach their first genital affection to those maternal
adults who take care of them. They develop their first
sexual rivalry against those whom they see as owners of
the maternal figures. Erikson (and some other psychoana-
lysts) feels it is wrong to conclude, as Diderot did, that
if the little boy had the power of a man he would rape his
mother and murder his father. If he had such power he

would not be a child and v/ould not need to stay with his
parents —in which case he might simply prefer a younger,
more attractive or more available sex object. 6
I believe that the fear of the father, including the fear
seen in modern castration anxiety, can be fully explained
by the small child's helpless dependence on his parents
and by the scarcity of appropriate libidinal objects in the
modern small family. In addition, the life spheres of father
and child are usually widely separated from each other,
which makes the father seem still more distant, powerful,
and ominous.
The violence of the child's wishes is as yet little related
to an understanding of what he can do; they are not con-
trolled by his ego or tempered by any knowledge of what
might or might not really happen, or of what others might
allow him to do. This violence of his wishes comes at an
age when he does not yet clearly distinguish between fan-
tasy and reality, between wishes and their fulfillment.
That makes him afraid that his parents will retaliate in
kind, and the fear is not reduced by any realistic knowl-
edge of what action his parents might take. An unmanage-
able conflict is thus created between the child's dependent
needs and desires and his hostile wishes against those he
depends on for their satisfaction. This conflict then in-
it increases his fear of retaliation.
tensifies his hostility as
The observation of sex differences arouses other fears,
often aggravated by inhibition of masturbation and by
parental disapproval of sexual interests, if not actual
threats; all of these lead to fear of losing the penis and thus
heighten castration anxiety. The way out of this impasse
is often a repression of sexual desires or of hostility, or
both; there are also any number of other neurotic solu-
tions to this, the so-called Oedipal conflict.
In a society in which threatening father figures enjoy
great status because of religious precepts and sanctions,
and in which sex is shrouded in secrecy, no theory of
memory traces or of historic castration seems necessary
to explain castration anxiety. I suggest that they result
from a psychological process that projects recent emotional
experiences, and views them as events that supposedly
happened in the distant past. Another factor may be the
wish of some psychoanalysts to see certain events in the
life of the child as based on phylogeny rather than ontog-
eny. This supposed parallel has been carried too far in

psychoanalytic theorizing, and the use of biological models
in psychoanalysis in general should be re-examined. I
think it likely that a deceptively pat biological model has
helped to establish as fact the hypotheses of the primal
horde and of circumcision as symbolic castration, and has
led to other errors in psychoanalytic thinking.
After Freud
Beyond the work

of Freud, the psychoanalytic refer-
ences to and related topics are far too
circumcision
numerous to discuss in detail. I shall therefore mention
only a few representative examples.
At the time of initial writing, Nunberg's was the latest
comprehensive statement of psychoanalytic theories on
circumcision, and it contains a penetrating and convincing
analysis of a case in which the patient's reaction to cir-
"
7
cumcision was a major problem. * Nunberg introduces his
material by asserting the validity of the psychoanalytically
forged link between circumcision and castration. He states
that the "study of the puberty rites of primitives proved
that circumcision represents symbolic castration, its un-
8
derlying motive being prevention of incest. f
But in his presentation and discussion of the patient's
significant emotional experiences concerning circumcision,
an entirely different interpretation suggests itself. This
patient by no means viewed his own circumcision as cas-
tration inflicted by the father but experienced it rather in
connection with his mother, or women. He had many
dreams in which women castrated him. 9 In this connection
Nunberg comments that those of his patients who were
circumcised in childhood blamed their mothers for the
operation, hated them, and in turn felt guilty themselves;
he refers also to the many real instances of so-called "cas-
trating," aggressive mothers.
He notes that circumcision made the patient feel that his
penis had become similar to the vagina: "When I saw this
gaping wound around the head of the penis, I thought
10
that the bleeding vagina must look like that." Yet in
other contexts the patient experienced circumcision as a
reassertion of his manliness in general and of the impor-
tance of the penis in particular.
Nunberg also suggests a connection between circumci-
sion and birth fantasies. "When he at last accepted the
idea that the child is born out of the mother, he imagined
that in the hospital the child is cut out of her in a way
vaguely reminding him of the circumcision. In fact, by
the circumcision the glans penis is freed; it emerges like
an infant from the mother's womb; in other words, after
the circumcision a new penis is born which looks like a
* In his book Nunberg establishes a relationshipbetween circumcision
and bisexuality. But the patients on whom he bases his discussion are
all men (even bisexuality is discussed on the basis of psychoanalytic
experience with men only). The concept of bisexuality presupposes a
physiological basis for the difficulties each sex encounters in accepting
the sexual role. Tempting as it is to use this concept for explaining
such phenomena as circumcision, I doubt the legitimacy of such explana-
tions. They represent another example of a biological model influencing
psychological speculations and leading to confusion of the frames of
reference. Circumcision is due to psychological and social phenomena,
not to a biological bisexuality.
t All that psychoanalytic studies of puberty rites really offer are
speculations about the relation to castration and the incest taboo. No
direct evidence of this relation is presented, much less "proved."
phallus in erection with retracted foreskin. . . . The initi-
ated, the circumcised boy, is reborn without a foreskin
and is thus a man." 11
Nunberg also states that among the most significant
manifestations of the castration complex are doubts about
one's own sex as well as the wish to be, and the fear of
being, of the other sex. He notes that dissatisfaction with
one's own sex is widespread among primitive as well as
among highly civilized peoples, interpreting circumcision
as an expression of this dissatisfaction. 12 Yet in spite of
these observations, Nunberg sums up his ananlysis by
restating the official psychoanalytic theory of circumcision,
referring to Freud's speculations on primeval man.
Like Nunberg, many of Freud's followers neglect their
own observations and accept his theories on castration,
circumcision, and initiation rites as established facts, no
longer to be questioned. With the passage of years they
seem to grow more and more firmly rooted, as if the
validity of a theory were confirmed by repetition. The
casual way
which the connection between these phen-
in
omena is considered a solved problem is illustrated by
Fenichel. In the most comprehensive statement of psycho-
analytic theory, he states that "initiation rites promise
privileges and protections on condition of obedience and
enforce this condition by symbolic castration." 13
I do not criticize Fenichel, because the statement is only
incidental in a comprehensive work. It is not so much
Fenichel's own view as a faithful summary of prevailing
theory.
Another psychoanalyst, Bonaparte, in an interpretation
of Poe's writings, said: "This dread of the worst imagi-
nable mutilation, the loss of the penis, represents [the
. . .
child's] first great fear in relation to the community and,

more even than separation anxiety, determines what its
future moral code will be. The danger of castration, little
as it need be feared nowadays, doubtless once existed in
prehistoric times. Then the father of the primal horde,
originator of our earliest morals, would doubtless have
thought little of killing or castrating his rebellious sons
when they coveted his females." 14
No evidence has yet been presented to show that man
ever lived in an organization such as the primal horde, or
that such a horde was ruled by a father who was so
recognized. Even if there once was such a father, we do
not know his thoughts on any matter.
To present these speculations as facts, simply because
they originated with Freud, is not science but mythology.
The analyst rightly feels he must have the statements of
his patient to know for sure what goes on in the patient's
mind; we should be at least as wary of ascribing thoughts
to our primitive forebears.
Growing doubts
Returning now to our four pubertal children, it seemed
clear that there were four major aspects to their spon-
taneous efforts at group formation. These were (1) the
secrecy of the rite, (2) the boys' cutting themselves
monthly in a secret part of their bodies, (3) the loss of
blood by the boys and its use in parallel with menstrual
blood, and (4) the conviction that this ritual would as-
sure sexual pleasure and success in the adult world.
The more we speculated on the children's motives, the
more impressed we were with the similarity between what
they wished to do and certain features of the puberty rites
of preliterate tribes.
One factor, even more than any details, identified the
children's plan as an initiation rite: their willingness to
suffer pain in order to assure entrance to an adult society
which, they imagined, freely enjoyed sex. This made their
enterprise functionally equivalent to an initiation rite,
since anthropologists and psychoanalysts agree that pain
in initiation is the price adolescents pay for the preroga-
tives of adulthood.
But the differences between the children's known moti-
vations and those ascribed to preliterate people by psycho-
analytic theory were also very marked. The theory asserts
that circumcision at puberty is imposed by castrating
father figures on their reluctant sons, with the purpose of
forcing them into submission, particularly sexual sub-
mission.
Among our children, by contrast, itwas the girls, not
the boys, who inaugurated the plans; and it was the boys'
fear of their overpowering mothers (not fathers) that
seemed important in making them accept the girls' pro-
posals.
If symoblic castration was being arranged, women were
—
arranging Moreover, the boys were receptive to the
it.
girls' ideas, and the purpose and expected result was by

no means submission to parental demands. The children
—
knew that their parents and also we at the School who,
in a way, served as parent substitutes — were opposed to
their ritual and to their desire for sexual satisfaction in a
promiscuous entertainment world. By means of the rite,
they expected to be able to flout our adult demands
not to lose or cede the power to resist them.
Like the psychoanalytic investigators who studied pu-
berty rites, we were at first most impressed with the part of
their scheme that included bleeding from the genitals;
i.e.,an operation resembling circumcision, if not castra-
tion. So our first efforts at understanding were made in
terms of the castration complex. In this we were supported
by the fact that all four children, and certainly the two
boys, suffered from castration anxiety (along with many
other anxieties, preoccupations and delusions). Still, we
had lived with these children for several years and had
studied the psychological motives underlying their be-
havior. On the basis of what we knew about them, it
seemed certain that their project sprang up spontaneously
with the onset of menstruation in the girls, and that the
resulting behavior was entirely different from their ordi-
nary methods of dealing with castration anxiety.
Thus again and again we found our understanding
blocked. The elegance of the initiation theory and its
general acceptance (at least by psychoanalysts) continued
to tempt us to look for an explanation on that basis. But
in doing so we caught ourselves neglecting some facts,
distorting slightly but effectively certain facets of our
knowledge of the children, and explaining events in line
with theory instead of using experience to test the validity
of the theory. In short, we found ourselves trying to wring
understanding from theory instead of from facts.
When I began to study the anthropological literature on
initiation, Ifound that field observations seemed to sup-
port my growing doubts about the validity of the psycho-
analytic theory. Those field reports considered in relation
to the children's behavior suggested new hypotheses. On
the basis of these, I reviewed many other observations I
had made of children (some of which are noted in the
preceding chapter) and found that these types of be-
havior began to be more understandable.
New hypotheses
I do not attempt to establish the following hypotheses as
valid, but only to show that they are just as reasonable, or
more so, than current psychoanalytic theories on initia-
tion. They need to be tested by field studies which may
validate some, cause others to be discarded or radically
modified.
1. Initiation rites, including circumcision, should be

viewed within the context of fertility rites.
2. Initiation rites of both boys and girls may serve to
promote and symbolize full acceptance of the
socially prescribed sexual role.
3. One purpose of male initiation rites may be to
assert that men,
too, can bear children.
4. Through subincision men try to acquire sexual
apparatus and functions equivalent to women's.
5. Circumcision may be an effort to prove sexual
maturity or may be a mutilation instituted by
women, or both.
6. The secrecy surrounding male initiation rites may
serve to disguise the fact that the desired goal is
not reached.
7. Female circumcision may be partly the result of
men's ambivalence about female sex functions
and partly a reaction to male circumcision.
No single set of theories can cover more than the es-

sence of initiation rites, because by now they are infinitely
varied in form, in content, and origin. Many ritual de-
tails are explainable only by conditions that prevail in
the society they occur in. One great advantage of the ac-
cepted psychoanalytic theory is that it seems to account
for all initiation rites simply, concisely, and universally.
But this, it appears, is also the root of its major short-
comings. Because in order to maintain such economy and
elegance, certain facts have been forced to fit the theory
and others neglected.
Later, in presenting data supporting my hypotheses,*
my goal is limited. The anthropological field observations
are so numerous that it would take a lifetime to evaluate
* In which I shall not follow the above sequence because that would
mean tiresome repetition of points that apply to more than one
hypothesis.
—
them. I have found no data in the field observations or in
the psychoanalytical literature to contradict my hypoth-
eses. Where contradictions seem to exist, they are trace-
able not to original source material but to how it was
interpreted, and these I have felt free to disregard.
At this point the question may be asked: How is one

to justify basing initiation-rite theory on observations of
twentieth-century schizoid or schizophrenic children
and conversely, interpreting the behavior of such children
in terms of the actions of preliterate people at puberty?
Indeed, such a procedure is not certainly valid, having
more the character of an argumentwn ad judicium. There-
fore, although some of my next comments follow a prece-
dent set by Freud, they should not be swallowed whole.
Freud introduced his anthropological speculations by
remarking that the psychic life of the so-called savage and
semisavage races "assumes a peculiar interest for us, for
we can recognize in their psychic life a well-preserved,
early stage of our own development." This I consider
doubtful, since I do not believe that ontogeny simply re-
peats phylogeny. But when Freud goes on to say that
"Comparison of the psychology of primitive races . . .
with the psychology of the neurotic will reveal nu-

. . .
merous points of correspondence," 15 then he refers to

heuristically valid hypotheses of comparative psychology,
except that I do not believe they should be restricted to
neurotics, but extended to the psychology of all persons.
Still, is on the basis of his remarks that interpretations
it
of childhood experiences have since been used freely to

support speculations about primitive behavior and vice
versa.
Here, one might even speculate that if preliterate peoples
had personality structures as complex as those of modern
man, if their defenses were as elaborate and their con-
sciences as refined and demanding, if the dynamic inter-
play between ego, superego, and id were as intricate, and
if their egos were as well adapted to meet and change ex-
ternal reality —
they would have developed societies as
complex as ours, although probably different. Their so-
cieties, however, have remained small and relatively in-
effective incoping with the external environment. It may
be that one of the reasons for this is their tendency to try
to solve problems by autoplastic rather than alloplastic
manipulation; that is, by altering their bodies or behavior
instead of the physical environment.
Two very thoughtful reviewers took strong exception to

these remarks, one called them a delusional statement,
while the other felt repelled by my speculations. 16 Though
I have given the matter considerable thought I see no
reason to change them save to label any remarks more
clearly as speculation. Still, the reader is warned that at
least two scholars were convinced that I am here in error.
My reason for not heeding their criticism is that I do
not claim that preliterate people cannot have as complex
personalities as modern man, but only that they do not. I
do not doubt their potentialities; on the contrary, my whole
thesis is based on the conviction that fundamentally we
are all more or less alike. It is exactly because I believe
that our potentialities differ but little, that there must be
some other reason why different groups of men have de-
veloped differently. Why indeed should some groups have
questioned the human condition, tried to understand them-
selves, the world and each other, and in the process of
their quest, built complex edifices, changing themselves,
external nature, and their societies on the basis of greater
rational understanding? Why should one group of men,
over the years, small step by small step, have created
modern society, modern science, and modern technology,
and another group, for a similar period of time, remained
relatively stationary under conditions such as those of the
Australian aborigines? If this difference is not to be found
in the one group's development of an ever more complex
personality structure on a basis common to both, then I
would like to be told what else accounts for the difference.
Otherwise, we return to the belief in a basic difference of
intellectual endowment between different groups of man,
a belief that I hope has been relegated to those prejudices
we outgrew as we developed rationally and in the com-
plexity of our personality structure.
Since my comments were misunderstood by two sepa-
rate scholars, the burden of defense rests with me. Un-
fortunately I can again do no better than an argument
ad judicium, because this is an issue where knowledge
is lacking, though we continue to penetrate our ignor-
ance. For obvious reasons the following example is

taken from the relationship of parent and child which
looms so large in this book.
In settings more primitive than ours, sex may be
less shrouded in secrecy, but everything else is more
shrouded in permanent ignorance. This ignorance may
take the form of uncertainty about how a child is con-
ceived or what causes the sequence of seasons or of
rain in dry countries, so important for the regeneration
of plants and with it the availability of food (for without
sufficient rain, the child in more primitive societies may
go hungry for a year or even starve). The modern child
may know much less about sex than his preliterate counter-
part and much less about where his sustenance actually
comes from. After all, the modern city child knows that
despite the stories we read him, the farmer does not give us
our food since we buy it at the supermarket for money. But
by what secret manipulations his parents manage to assure
a recurring supply of this money —
that is a much greater
unknown to him than is food gathering to the Australian
aboriginal child. Thus the modern city child actually knows
less, issurrounded by many more mysteries he will have to
penetrate. But he knows, and here's the rub, that poten-
tially he can know the true cause of impregnation, of how
money is earned, and why the farmer is willing to sell food
for money. It is this conviction —
that you can know as
soon as you have acquired enough knowledge that gives—
such great impetus to the modern child to develop what I
call a complex personality structure. No such powerful
appeal to develop his ratiocination is made to the pre-
literate child. And since one of the secrets the child is
most curious about, sex and intercourse, is no secret to
him, a great stimulus to find out about secrets in general
is lacking. As for the modern child, his wish to unravel
it may create the desire to unravel other secrets, too. Such
a desire is supported by the conviction of society (includ-

ing the mass media) that through higher learning all
secrets can become known. And this, particularly if the
child has learned what lies behind the great secret of sex,
may give him the courage to explore many others on his
own.
Observations such as this one are what led me to con-
nect complex society with complex personality structure,
including complex psychological defenses, and defenses
against them. They led me to assume that while in prirni-
tive society more of the basic facts are known to the child,
this knowledge removes an impetus to develop a very
complex personality structure. In short, I believe that
primitive children could develop personalities as complex
as ours, but their conditions of life give them little reason
to do so.
Roheim has said without qualification that the Aus-

17
tralian's culture is autoplastic. (He did not, however, ap-
ply the concept to circumcision.) In our own society we
may see a small child frustrated in his efforts to master a
toy or a situation hit himself or bang his head against the
floor; he does not stop to reason out if the frustration be-
gan in the external world or in his emotions. Similarly,
persons in preliterate societies often act as if external
reality can be met only by resignation or by doing some-
thing with or to their bodies. Further, the small child tries
to become like his mother, not by adopting her way of
behaving or trying to live by her values, but by wearing
her clothes. In the same way some preliterate peoples
tend to copy externals rather than internalize less visible
characteristics. When men by subincision make themselves
resemble women, the obvious reason is that they are try-
ing to be women. Only if the data themselves rule out
such an interpretation must we search for another.
Another indication of the relatively undeveloped state
of the primitive's ego is that the superego seems at times
extremely cruel and at other times hardly able to assert
itself. How valid such comparisons may be is, of course,
not established. But if the theory of comparative imma-
turity, of a relatively poor personality integration is cor-
rect, then the net result may be that the barriers against
expression of certain tendencies are low. Thus in pre-
literate cultures a person might act out freely what in
Western man would be taken for signs of personality dis-
integration; he may ritualize desires that in "normal" per-
sons in our culture must be deeply repressed or else in-
tegrated and sublimated, that can at most be expressed
only in fantasy.
I was further guided by the assumption that motivations
which in "normal" persons are unconscious are often ex-
pressed openly by schizophrenic adults, and that "normal"
children show behavior that in "normal" adults remains
hidden. Therefore it seemed reasonable to conclude that
the content of the unconscious is apt to be most visible
in the behavior (and statements) of schizophrenic chil-
dren. Fenichel, as a matter of fact, goes so far as to say
that "in schizophrenia 'the unconscious is conscious,' " 18
and in all probability this is even truer of schizophrenic
children than of schizophrenic adults.
Although psychoanalytic theory holds that the uncon-
scious remains relatively or wholly untouched by the
process of civilization, I am not convinced. Only a full
study of the unconscious of preliterate peoples would per-
mit definite opinions on the matter. What I do believe is
that if persons in entirely different settings develop similar
types of behavior in response to a like challenge (in
this case the onset of puberty), they are motivated by
similar desires; this seems the more likely if the known
facts should support rather than contradict such notions.
Still our children's behavior can only suggest a review
of our theories on the motives of preliterates: it does not
tell us what these motives are.
One cannot, for example, ignore the fact that the boys
at the Orthogenic School suffered from sex fears that
were probably much stronger than those of preliterate
adolescents, and that this affected their motives.
The desires and motives of the boy who so warmly
praised the advantages of circumcision were very different
from those of the two who joined the secret society. His
case does not permit unequivocal inferences, because,
he was living among boys who had been circumcised
first,
since infancy, and, second, painful adhesions interfered
with functioning of the penis. From this we cannot
full
draw conclusions about the emotions of boys in preliterate
societies toward circumcision, if they are not suffering
from adhesions. What his behavior does show is that liv-
ing among circumcised men may make circumcision ap-
pear very desirable, and this condition obtains in most
societies that include circumcision among their initiation
rites.
As
for the anthropological literature on initiation, while
it supports some of my conjectures about the children's
behavior, it supports them only equivocally. There is no
easy parallel between the behavior of youngsters in our
highly civilized twentieth-century —
children who have
grown up in a more or less patriarchal and sex-repressive
society —
and that of children reared in a society granting
relatively great, oftenfull, sexual freedom. Symptoms
cannot justifiably be compared out of context, particu-
larly when they originate in vastly different social and
psychological fields. So here, too, while my experience
led me to challenge the accepted interpretations of certain
aspects of initiation rites, and to elaborate and qualify
others, it offered mainly the stimulus to investigate further.
Some Initial Comparisons

What, then, were the points of resemblance between the
study of initiation as reported by field workers and the
examination of the conduct of our children?
The first point of resemblance was that through their
planned secret society these four pubertal children, like
the novice at initiation, tried to move themselves by a
magical act once and for all out of childhood into adult-
hood. For the girls this required that they find ways to
accept the feminine role, a task that first menstruation
often suddenly and traumatically imposes on the matur-
ing girl. To make at least this aspect of femininity —
the
—
one of most concern at the moment more acceptable,
they created a situation in which menstruation was no
longer a liability of their sex alone. If this also made the
boys more similar to themselves, they might seem less
fearsome, less different and strange.
Other attitudes toward menstruation can also be ex-
plained in part by the search for ways of accepting the
feminine role. Viewing menstruation not as something
debilitating but as something that confers extraordinary
magic powers may make genital sexuality more accept-
able. The new power again makes men seem less enviable
and dangerous and sexual intercourse with them less
hazardous. All of which makes it easier for girls to give
up the pregenital, pre-Oedipal strivings that Freud was
the first to recognize, calling it the child's polymorphous-
perverse disposition. 19
Retaining soiled sanitary pads, etc., may represent a
desire to retain proof that sexual maturity has been
reached; where it results from the contrary wish to remain
a child, then menstruation is viewed as disgusting.
Another point of resemblance is the woman's desire for
male genitals which is seen in both initiation rites and in
our children's behavior. The girl who pulled at her skin
in the genital region hoped to develop a penis. She did
not, however, give up either her vagina or the future
ability to bear children, which she frequently acted out.
Unlike the four adolescent children, she was not motivated
toward greater sex maturity or adult independence. Her
actions, like those of the younger boys, originated in the
desire to find fulfillment in both sexes, either simultane-
ously or in rapid succession. She reminded me of those
African girls who, at about the same age, manipulate the
clitoris or labia or both so that they become enlarged and
pendent (I am tempted to say) like a penis.* This distor-
tion of the female genitals is required by tribal custom
among several peoples. At present it is not imposed by
men but is insisted upon by women, contrary to some
widely held notions. The field reports do not suggest that
the little girls conform to custom unwillingly.
The opposite of this is extirpation of the clitoris, an
operation that forms part of the initiation rites of girls in
several tribes. Although excision is usually performed by
women and not by men, the general assumption is that
the custom is forced on women by men. The desires of
our little boys indeed suggest that some men would excise
part of the female sex organs if not prevented. But the
example of the girl who had to prevent herself from tear-
ing off her own clitoris raises a doubt as to whether even
this far-reaching mutilation may not also be reinforced in
part by spontaneous desires in women.
The "initiation" ritual of our adolescents, specifically
the required cutting of the boys' genitals, was originated
by a girl. It remains to be seen whether the rites of pre-
literate people in which an analogous operation on the male
genital takes place may have similar origins.
The delusional relating of menstruation to the penis, as
demonstrated by one of our girls, parallels certain beliefs
of Australians regarding the subincised penis. Just as this
girlfantasied that in menstruation she acquired a penis, so
the Australian aborigines believe that in bleeding from
their penes they acquire vulvas. Though no direct connec-
tion exists, the two types of behavior seem to express
parallel unconscious tendencies.
Our boys, like their preliterate counterparts, seemed to
want proof as definite as menstruation that they, too, had
reached sexual maturity. They may also have tried to
* Their behavior is described on pages 143-144.
lessen their anxiety about women by pleasing or submit-
ting to them. The act by which they hoped to do this was
important in itself, since it would reproduce in them some-
thing similar to menstruation; this, they may also have
felt, would give them a better understanding of women's
sexuality. For the boy who wished for circumcision, the
circumcised penis with the now permanently freed glans
may have served as well as menstruation to assure him that
his sexual maturity had been attained.
Parallel to women's envy is the desire of men to possess
female genitals in addition to their own. The boys who
wished this so intensely were considerably younger than
the adolescent boys who took part in the "initiation" plans.
But the age difference may not be specially significant,
since we have observed similar desires, though less frankly
expressed, in adolescent boys. The egos of the two younger
boys were undeveloped, and they were much more primi-
tive in their reactions than the four adolescents. Unrelated,
utterly unable to form attachments to adults or other
children, they could not act purposefully or even play
for any length of time. No force would have been needed
to make them change their bodies and acquire vaginal-like
openings. If we had not restrained them, they might well
have experimented along the lines of subincision.
These boys were less concerned than the adolescents
with sexual maturity and menstruation. They wished to be
of both sexes; to have vaginas like —
hence to be like the —
powerful, feared, loved, and hated women. Concomitant
with this desire was the powerful urge to extirpate women's
sex organs. Thus the desire to possess a vagina may repre-
sent identification with women, while the wish to excise
it seems to result from the hatred and anxiety generated
by women and from the desire to overpower them.

The rituals of many preliterate peoples seem to repre-
sent a gratification of both these desires: Through subin-
cision men operate on the penis so that it comes to re-
semble the vulva. In the so-called circumcision of girls the
clitoris and sometimes the labia are excised.
Still another point of resemblance lies in the desire of
males to bear children and to participate in other female
functions. The boys' hostile feelings toward women's
genitalia were violent and destructive, rather than con-
structive. The desire to bear children is more positive; it
may be viewed as constructive even when expressed by
boys and combined with an envy of women because they
can do so. Though few boys go so far as to act out preg-
nancy, we have several times observed it. But the re-
enactment of childbirth is a very nearly universal feature
of initiation rites and "pregnant" boys are to be seen at
Hallowe'en.
Our children's Hallowe'en costumes suggest a final
area of resemblance to initiation rites, since masquerading
as a person of the other sex, or at least wearing their
clothes, is part of numerous rites. Among some tribes
transvestism occurs only on very special occasions. Among
others, initiation customs not only permit but require it.
Transvestism seems another indication of the pervad-
ing desires of both men and women to share the sexual
functions and social role of the other sex. It also seems
to assure the child that with the reaching of sexual matur-
ity not all of his desire to share the prerogatives and pleas-
ures of the other sex must be given up once and for all.
Dressing up at Hallowe'en in the clothes of the other sex
seems not only to represent the wish to play the other
sex's role; it is also reassurance that from time to time
this will be permitted. Thus the overmasculine boys who
disguise themselves so well as women can occasionally
show openly the degree to which their masculine assertion
is a defense against strong wishes to be feminine. The be-
havior of those very unintegrated children who wish to
have both male and female sexual organs takes forms that
are socially less acceptable. Their desires seem to reveal
not only their infantile refusal to commit themselves to
any definite sexual role, but their envy of anyone who can
do so. Yet even their behavior has integrative connota-
tions, to the extent that it lessens their envy and permits
them to live in peace with themselves. Still their way of
doing it is obviously destructive and cannot lead to higher
integration.
Resolving Antitheses
Our observation of these children suggested that a view

of puberty rites integrating psychoanalytic and anthro-
pological speculations is quite possible. In our youngsters'
spontaneous behavior we saw a number of parallels to
initiation ceremonies, including efforts to master their
envy of the other sex, to gain adult status, and so forth.
That their plans were ineffective or potentially dangerous
alters nothing. Thoughthe children were responding to
irrational pressures, the solutions they arrived at seemed
constructive to them. This puts them on an entirely dif-
ferent basis than if they had resulted from adult efforts to
create sexual anxiety and reduce the children to submis-
sion.
While their behavior grew out of threatening adult at-
titudes (in cases, their parents'), it was never the
most
wish of adults that they manipulate their own genitals or
those of the other sex. This desire arose while the chil-
dren were living with nonthreatening adults at the Ortho-
genic School. Whatever the origin of their anxiety, the
wish to alter their genitals was not externally imposed
against their will.
All this suggests that initiation rites may not result only
(or even mainly) from hostile feelings of adults toward
the young; that the experience does not primarily inhibit
sex enjoyment in the young or their enjoyment of the new
adult role. On the contrary, as a means of enabling youth
to express some of their ambivalence about growing up, it
seems intended to help them accept the adult role of their
sex and to succeed in living henceforth in accordance
with it.
Like the spontaneous actions of the children we ob-
served, initiation ceremonies may be meant to foster per-
sonal and social integration in a difficult transitional period
of life. They should then be understood as efforts of the
young, or of society, to resolve the great antitheses be-
tween child and adult and between male and female; in
short, between childish desires and the role ascribed to
each sex according to biology and the mores of society.
Whether or not they succeed is another question.
In this sense, what psychoanalysis has viewed so far as
originating mainly in the id or the unconscious, as express-
ing unintegrated, destructive tendencies, may be much
more an expression of the ego, which is trying, through
ritual, to bring order to chaotic instinctual desires and
fears.
The Androcentric Veil
I hope that one further application of my remarks to

psychoanalytic theory and clinical practice will be obvious.
They suggest that certain psychological phenomena have
not had the attention they deserve. Particularly, penis
envy in girls and castration anxiety in boys have been
overemphasized, and perhaps a much deeper psychologi-
cal layer in boys has been relatively neglected.
If in this book I speak mainly about the male envy of
female sex functions that is because it is less often dis-
cussed and not because "penis envy" is any less common.
It seems that in anysociety, envy of the dominant sex is
the more easily observed. In societies where men play the
more important role, the envy of males and with it of the
penis is more readily admitted, more openly expressed
and more easily recognized; the consensus is that it is
desirable to be a man. This drives underground men's
envy of women since it is contrary to professed mores
and therefore looked upon as unnatural and immoral.
If a tribe in which this condition exists is studied by an
investigator reared in a society of similar bias, the bias
of the tribe and of the investigator may reinforce each
other; he can easily recognize women's envy of men, but
the reverse of the coin may be overlooked or distortingly
minimized. We might ask ifone of the reasons why boys'
initiation rites are usually much more complex than girls'
is that in many societies women can express their envy of
men openly, while men's comparable envy can be ex-
pressed only in ritual.
Though male envy has not gone unrecognized, it has
received relatively notice in the psychoanalytic litera-
little
ture. To my knowledge, it was first discussed by Groddeck.
Landauer referred to it in connection with his theory that
it was men's disappointment at their inability to create
human beings that led them to intellectual creation, 20 a

theory Chadwick had expressed earlier. 21 Klein comments
that "the femininity complex of men seems so much more
obscure than the castration complex in women, with which
it is equally important," and that the boy's identification
with his mother often results in "an attitude of rivalry

towards the woman, with its blending of envy and hatred;
for, on account of his wish for a child, he feels himself at
a disadvantage and inferior to the mother." 22 Zilboorg
speaks of the "woman envy on the part of man, that is
psychogenetically older and therefore more fundamental" 23
than penis envy.
More recently, Fromm referred to it, 24 and Jacobson
devoted a paper to a discussion of boys' wish to bear
children, mentioning the fact that among her male patients
she had "occasion to observe ... an intense and persistent
—
envy of female reproductive ability an envy which is
25
often disguised by a seemingly normal masculinity."
Psychologists who follow Jung are familiar with the im-
portance of the mother archetype (the Great Mother) and
its consequences for male desires and anxieties, a point
26
of view more recently presented by Neumann. But neither
these nor, to my knowledge, other authors have investi-
gated the relation between mother figures and adolescent
circumcision; between initiation rites and the youngsters'
feelings about their own and the other sex; or about the
need to accept the sexual role prescribed by society.
It is known, of course, that castration anxiety in
well
boys from fear not only of father but also of
results
mother figures. I hope that the present contribution to
the theory of castration anxiety will be a greater emphasis
on the influence of women in circumcision and other fea-
tures of initiation rites (seen directly because women
wanted circumcision to take place, and indirectly through
the boy's identification with his mother) and a recognition
that it is by no means certain that circumcision originated
with the father figures.
The interpretation of initiation rites presented here
emphasizes in individual psychology and in certain social
institutions the importance of pre-Oedipal experiences,
particularly insecurity about and dissatisfaction of both
boys and girls with their own sex, and their envy of the
other sex. Were we to recognize the importance of such
tendencies, and of the effect of maternal figures in creat-
ing a desire for female sex functions, and also castration
anxiety in the male, it might lead us to reinterpret certain
of our social institutions and clinical observations.
The need for such reinterpretations has been recognized
and commented on in the literature. Zilboorg felt that the
true bio- and psycho-sociological role of woman has not
been fully understood by psychoanalysis; that while Freud
was aware of the problem in most of his studies, he was
hampered by his masculine bias. 27 He adds, "There is no
doubt that further and deeper studies of man's psyche
will yield a great deal of enlightening data, as soon as one
learns to discount the androcentric veil which has hereto-
fore covered a number of important psychological data," 28
and, "When it is resolved not to overlook how much
feminine there is in the masculine attributes of that which
was heretofore marked as most primary and unquestion-
ably most masculine, and when the fundamental envy
with which man treats woman ... is borne in mind, then
I am certain that clinical observations will become en-
riched with new material which heretofore was obscured
by androcentric bias." 29
I hope that this study may lessen the male-centering
propensity and shed new light on the psycho-sociological
role of woman; that indicate how much more that is
it may
feminine exists in men than is generally believed, and how
greatly woman's influence and strivings have affected so-
cial institutionswhich we still explain on a purely mascu-
line basis. ThoughI have chosen for more detailed analysis
only the relatively narrow area of puberty rites, it should
be remembered that similar factors lie behind many other
aspects of human behavior and our social institutions.
The Blinders of Narcissism
Two major factors underlie what I believe to be a too

narrow interpretation of initiation rites and especially of
circumcision. The fact that these rituals take place in a
setting far removed from our own seems to be largely
responsible for both.
The first factor is a readiness (because of this alien at-
mosphere) to view the rites within a narrow if not sterile
conceptualization, once a plausible explanation has been
offered. The reduction of complex rituals to such simple
terms would never be accepted for our own culture. The
common anthropological interpretation of initiation rites
— that they are primarily if not entirely rites de passage
— seems an example of a valid but too narrow concep-
tualization. It may, for instance, account for the relative
neglect of such features as the circumcision or excision of
girls.
The second factor is a tendency to deny the alien by
bringing to the study more or less fixed ideas, derived
from our own culture, of the probable motives and emo-
tional results of action.
I believe that the prevailing psychoanalytic interpreta-
tion of initiation was influenced by both these factors. As
a result, psychoanalytic theory has been mistaken for, or
been allowed to distort, fact. This is primarily a problem
in the psychology and sociology of knowledge —
that is,
any event may be experienced and its meaning understood
in vastly different ways in different societies.
The Sociology of Theories
Kris has stressed the threefold significance of psycho-

analysis: as therapy, as psychological theory, and as a new
and unique method of observing human behavior. 1 It is
to the method of observation, he pointed out, that we owe
most of the clinical hypotheses on which psychoanalysis
rests. 2
Freud's new method of observing himself and his
patients developed earlier than therapy, and both observa-
tion and therapy were needed before a theoretical system
could emerge. The publication of true psychoanalytic
59
material began with Freud's observations of hysterical
patientsand his analyses of his own dreams and those of
persons who had been treated in analysis. The theoretical
papers on metapsychology crowned all his previous work.
These phases of growth may be seen in all sciences.
New methods of observing and interpreting come first.
These lead to the development of new systems of thought
by bringing into meaningful order many familiar facts
that were previously neglected, viewed in isolation, or
simply misinterpreted. The next stage is more systematic
observations and, finally, a theoretical system.
At same time, the history of science provides many
the
examples in which a theoretical system, once developed,
comes to impinge on the quality of observations. Data that
fits the system may be overstressed, while others that are
equally valid but contradictory to theory are ignored. The
result is a literal distortion of observations to make them
conform to the established system. Then the system be-
comes more and more sterile and eventually may block in-
stead of help us to understand. Theoretical systems, there-
fore, may be said to be useful only so long as they remain
open to constant modification in the fight of new and care-
ful observations.
The early rejection of psychoanalysis is only one of
many examples in which the understanding of data pro-
vided by a new method of observation and interpretation
was blocked by an ossified theoretical system. Freud him-
self was fully aware of this, long before he suffered from
the rejection of his own discoveries because of it. Praising
Charcot in one of his earliest papers, he says: "Charcot
never tired of defending the claims of the purely clinical
task of seeing and classifying phenomena, as against the
encroachments of theoretical medicine. One day a small
group of foreign students annoyed him by raising
. . .
objections to his clinical innovations. 'That cannot pos-

sibly be,' one of us interrupted him, 'that contradicts the
theory of Young-Helmholtz.' He did not reply, 'So much
the worse for the theory, clinical facts rank first,' and so
forth. But he did say —
leaving us deeply impressed, 'La
theorie, c'est bon, mais ca n'empeche pas d'exister.' " 3
[Theory is fine, but it does not prevent (facts) from
existing.]
To date, only an occasional psychoanalytic paper in-
dicates that theory may be encroaching on the evaluation
The Blinders of Narcissism / 61
of observations. On the whole, the first aspect of psycho-

analysis —
its function as therapy — is an adequate safe-
guard. The patient's productions in treatment allow the

psychoanalyst to observe critically and afresh, without
hindrance by convictions based on theory. Even if he
should now and then be guided by theory instead of by
spontaneous "sympathy of the unconscious," the free as-
sociations of the patient, if not interferred with, will soon
correct him.
Nunberg's book on circumcision4 reveals the vitality of
direct psychoanalytic observation of patients, but it also
shows signs of encroachment by theory on how observa-
tions are interpreted. No bias entered into Nunberg's
analysis of the case on which his book is mainly based.
The feelings of the patient that ran counter to psycho-
analytic theory were recorded and discussed with great
insight. But in his speculative reasoning about the history
of mankind, Nunberg failed to do justice to his own case
material, because he accepted the link between circumci-
sion and castration by the father as proved.
The danger of a theoretical system's infringing on its
own method of observation is therefore present in psycho-
analytic theory, and most particularly so when theory is
applied to such areas as sociology and anthropology. There
it cannot be checked against fact by free association or
the interpretation of dreams, and the observer may work

in settings with which he lacks a quick and natural em-
pathy. It is always tempting to cover up an absence of
spontaneous observation by theorizing. If the investiga-
tor brings to the field strong convictions on the universal
validity of certain theoretical speculations, he may take
theory for fact. When this happens, he may treat observa-
tions as if they were facts of a lower order, acceptable
only if they fit the theory or if he may so interpret them
that they seem to fit.
In any on which Freud expressed himself
subject
strongly, the danger of distortion is increased. Freud has
so often proved to be right and his critics wrong that there
is an understandable reluctance to disagree with his inter-
pretations. This is particularly true of any phenomenon

connected with so central a concept of his system as cas-
Still, Freud's excursions into sociology and
tration anxiety.
anthropology, though full of brilliant insights, occasion-
ally fall short of scientificaccuracy. Schmidl has discussed
Freud's tendency, in his sociological and anthropological
treatises, to neglect important parts of the literature or to
emphasize only those findings that support his theories.
He also offers a plausible hypothesis as to why Freud did
so little justice to the sociological literature and what mo-
tivated him in the first place to deal with sociological and
anthropological problems. 5
A related distorting factor (to which I shall refer only
briefly) also influences the psychoanalytic interpretation
of historical and social phenomena. This is the failure to
distinguish between psychoanalytic fact and historical fact.
For example, when the son, on the basis of his neurosis,
fears that his father may castrate him, the father becomes
a castrating father —
but this is so only in the mind of his
son. In reality, the son's anxiety tells us much about him-
self but only little about his father, who may very well
be a kind man, as was Freud's friend, the father of "little
Hans." 6 If in reporting such a case no clear distinction is
made between the two kinds of "facts," the reader may
infer that the child's reactions to his parent present a true
picture of the parent or of his intentions. I believe that
in interpreting puberty rites and circumcision we too have
failed to separate the fantasies of patients from historical
reality.*
Bias in the Observer
The way in which an event is experienced, even more

than objective content, may be important for its psycho-
its
logical consequences. Emotional reaction to an event de-
pends a great deal on how the person has been prepared
for it, on the anticipations he brings to it, on his a priori
expectations. Therefore if we wish to understand how the
adolescent boy in preliterate society experiences circum-
cision, we must know with what attitudes he approached
it. Since circumcision is said to activate castration anxiety,
we should know whether these boys are conditioned to

look forward to initiation as an experience creating such
anxiety. The question to be asked is: Do the boys really
experience fear about sexual matters? (Anxiety in antic-
ipation of surgery as surgery I set aside for the moment.)
When it comes to initiation and circumcision, the psy-
* This book may not be entirely free of such errors.
choanalyst or the psychoanalytically oriented anthropolo-
gist is likely to be a biased observer. The psychoanalyst
has observed patient after patient in whom ravaging cas-
tration anxiety originated in father figures who were ex-
perienced as overpowering. When he is confronted in
reality with father figures who circumcise their adolescent
sons, he may be ill equipped to viewanything but
this as
a source of deep castration anxiety for boys. But these
adolescents knew a very different childhood from that of
the analyst's patients. They may therefore have experi-
enced sex in a very different way.
In discussing the castration complex Freud wrote "An- :
other element of that stage is invariably, I believe, a

masturbatory stimulation of the genitals, the masturbation
of early childhood, the more or less violent suppression
of which by the persons in charge of the child sets the
castration complex in action." 7 But what activates the
castration complex in societies where no such suppression
takes place? Is a "castration complex" that results from
the open observance of sexual intercourse, or of the
visible anatomical sex differences, really the same as the
castration complex we see in neurotics who are kept from
freely observing sex differences and activities, who learned
that everything pertaining to sex was embarrassing to their
parents, and whose sex activities were forcefully inter-
fered with by their sex-anxious parents? If sex freedom
for children exists in one society and sex inhibition in an-
other, what can be the content of a castration complex
that supposedly exists in both?
If, indeed, the purpose of initiation rites is to enforce
the incest taboo, they occur much too late in the child's
life. Among the tribes that have the most elaborate rites,
children begin to have sexual intercourse at an early age, 8

long before the ceremonies take place. Also, a rite that is
immediately followed by indiscriminate cohabitation with
mothers and mother substitutes, 9 among others, cannot
be said to be successful in enforcing the incest taboo.
Their Mores and Ours
Unfortunately, we have detailed description of Aus-

traliannative sex behavior only for Western Arnhem
Land. To my knowledge, only the Berndts have written a
book-length report devoted entirely to the subject. Their
report, however, demonstrates convincingly the absence of
repressions that lead to castration anxiety. Although the
Beradt's point of departure is different from mine, they
too stress that ideas derived from another society are mis-
leading if we wish to understand what sex means to per-
sons in preliterate cultures. 10
Among the Australian aborigines, whose society is one
of the most primitive known to us and whose initiation
rites are very elaborate, sexual behavior is not a topic
veiled in deliberate obscurity or virtually ignored by the
community. Except in the presence of certain tabooed
relatives, the physical relations between men and women
are spoken of freely, without embarrassment and with ob-
vious pleasure, even in front of children. From an early
age, native children are familiar with copulation. Sex is
considered a normal, natural, and most important factor
in human life. There is no attempt to keep anything about
it secret from young persons. 11
The Berndts describe how children are allowed to in-
dulge sexual desires without criticism. They may be in-
vited by a mother, older brother or sister, or some other
person to have sexual intercourse with an adult or a child
of the same age standing nearby. Their sexual organs may
be played with or their sexual potentialities discussed at
length and in detail in their hearing by older persons. 12
At an early age they learn of the sexual act by direct ob-
servation, and they imitate adult sexual activities among
themselves, publicly when they are very young and some-
what more privately when they become older and more
self-conscious. With increasing age the child's sexual be-
havior, though remaining as free, comes to resemble adult
sexual activity more closely.
Kaberry, Ashley-Montagu, and indeed most writers on
Australian ethnography have commented on the general
absence of threatening parental attitudes in the education
of Australian aboriginal children. The aborigines accept
the behavior of their children and treat them with excep-
tional kindness, affection, and consideration. Childhood
13 14
is on the whole a happy period. In these tribes, there-
-
fore, children do not undergo the experiences that create

castration anxiety in Western culture. Not only is the
child treated with love and tolerance but, what counts
most in terms of castration anxiety, his instinctual desires
are satisfied, not repressed.
Unlike the child in the American small family, the
Australian aboriginal infant is not presented with a very
limited number of libidinal choices, nor does the mother
play the special role in child-rearing that is reserved for
her in our society. From an early age, aboriginal children
know about and understand the marriage classes. The boy
knows almost from infancy that while he cannot marry
his mother, there are other females who are specially
suited and available as wives for him. The emotional
closeness of the modern Western family, with its restric-
tions concerning cleanliness, movement, noise, and touch
— all of which set the stage for castration anxiety are —
absent.
Just asthe Australian deities are less fear-inspiring
than the God
of Christianity and Judaism (though that
image is becoming less threatening in Western culture),
so also the Australian fathers appear less threatening to
their sons.* Durkheim thinks that most preliterate people
do not experience their deities as chiefly vengeful or
threatening. 16 Anthropological evidence suggests that
parent-child relations are similarly more direct, compre-
hensible, intimate, and less demanding among the Aus-
tralian aborigines than in our culture.
Some reviewers have correctly pointed out that it is
nevertheless conceivable that some preliterate societies use
circumcision in the sense of symbolic castration. 17 This
may certainly be so, although the evidence has escaped my
attention despite a careful scrutiny of the literature. But
even if it were, we would still have to ask: What were the
psychological origins of the custom, and what connota-
tions were attached to it only afterward? That circumci-
sion, even whereit is desired, can still arouse castration
anxiety, had already noted (see p. 32). Thus my

I
intention was not to deny that castration anxiety is con-
*Freud has amply discussed the reasons why the God of the Old
Testament is particularly apt to cause anxiety in the believer. I may
add that He is much more fear-evoking than even the most threaten-
ing deities of preliterate peoples, because of His complex, if not contra-
dictory, nature, and because He is less anthropomorphic and therefore
less possible to conceptualize — His followers are not even permitted
to form an image of Him. This extremely threatening quality of
the God of the Old Testament has been discussed imaginatively and
impressively in the first chapters of a new book by Jung.io
nected with circumcision, but to suggest that it is only
incidental to other psychological desires.* Which merely
raises again the question of what forms the essence of
castration anxiety. If castration anxiety means the fear
of losing sexual pleasure and potency, it certainly does
not mean an experience that brings exactly the opposite,
namely satisfying sexual relations, and with it pleasures
not available before circumcision.
A symbolic castration that is not experienced as such is
no symbolic castration for the person experiencing it. It

may be that for the person inflicting it, but from what
still
field observers report, those who inflict circumcision on

boys are not motivated by anger or envy, or the wish to
create fear in the boys.
Still, my criticism of psychoanalytic theory would not
be invalidated if in some instances that theory turned out

to be valid; on the contrary, one of my main quarrels with
explaining circumcision as symbolic castration is its claim
of universality and its neglect of contrary evidence. If in
my efforts to debunk it I have fallen into the error of
making too sweeping generalizations, I am grateful for the
chance to correct myself.
Relevance of Social Structure
The psychoanalytic image of the threatening father does

not seem to fit the casual organization of primitive society
either. For survival, these small groups depend on the
contribution of every person to food gathering and other
tribal activities. They are too little organized in inferior
and superior classes to be able to afford huge ceremonies
organized for the advantage of one subgroup alone.
Westerners once believed that these tribes were ruled
autocratically by the elders who imposed an iron rule on
the young. But it was in nineteenth-century European so-
* That the Tiv of Nigeria use the same term for circumcision and
the castration of animals proves only that the two are connected in
present-day linguistic practice; it does not prove that they had the
same origin, since circumcision occurs in societies such as in Australia
which neither breed nor castrate animals. That circumcision is the older
of the two practices even among the Tiv is suggested by the fact that
the term "ichongo," used for both circumcision and castration, comes
from the verb "tsongo," which means to circumcise. 18 Thus circum-
cision was not derived from castration, but the other way round; once
castration began to be practiced, the older word for circumcision was
used to name both.
—
ciety that the boy chafed under the control of the distant,
sex-forbidding, and omnipotent father. In many preliterate
societies there is no such gap, no alienation between father
and son, between old and young. The Australian headman
is no boss, no powerful father, nor in any sense a chief
indeed, there exists nothing like the office of chieftain
among the Australians. The headman has no power be-
yond the respect he commands. 19
This raises the question of what is meant by one group's
social ascendancy over others in a given society. Who
rules, for example, in a capitalist society? The nominal
owners of the largest sums of capital, or the owners of
the means of production? Or are the true rulers the ad-
minstrators of large enterprises and not the owners of the
shares? And what about the political rulers who may con-
trol both administrators and capitalists? Fortunately this
complex question need not be answered here.
The psychoanalyst chooses other characteristics than
those the economist or political scientist looks for in de-
ciding who wields power. It may be hard to identify the
ruling group, but it is easier to recognize the subordinate.
Its members seem to depend for satisfaction of their in-
stinctual desires on the permission or sufferance of their
superiors. The superiors impose limitations on the id, set
up examples for superego formation, decree what activi-
ties are acceptable sublimations, and so forth. This seems
most clearly demonstrated in the small subsociety of the
modern family. There the parents, while enjoying instinc-
tual gratifications themselves, have the power to deprive
the child of them. Often parents impose not only their own
superego demands, but even more rigid standards than
they themselves obey.
If a similar analysis is applied to many preliterate so-
cieties, however, the superior status of the elders becomes
even more doubtful. Studies such as those of Kaberry and
the Berndts indicate that Australian aboriginal children
are at least as free as adults to gratify oral, sexual, and
kinesthetic desires and to discharge their aggressive ten-
dencies. 20 21 Superego demands imposed on them in the
-
form of mores are in some tribes less stringent than

social
those the parents obey.
It may be that adolescents in preliterate societies could
have resisted initiation rites if they had wanted to. More
accustomed to meeting adult tasks than adolescents in
our society, they may have felt less dependent on or over-
awed by adults. Anthropologists have indeed reported
cases of youngsters' avoidance of initiation, 22 although this
is the exception. Nowadays, those who wish to certainly
can; but again only rarely do they do so.
Among some tribes of South Africa, initiation can only
take place at the boy's own request, indicating that the
choice rests entirely with him. If he is timid, retiring, or
intellectually immature, he may never make the request.
Though his father may
hint that "it would be a good year
for the ceremony," he refrains from suggesting that he
wants the boy initiated. 23 Among other tribes where the
first request for initiation also comes from the boy himself,
he may begin the ceremony but then refuse to go on to
circumcision. He is not coerced, and the ceremony must
wait until he has gathered the necessary courage. 24
The avoidance of initiation, where it occurs, is usually
explained as a result of the disintegrating influence of
contacts with missionaries and Western culture. So far as
I am aware, however, there is no evidence that the avoid-
ance of initiation did not occur as frequently before there
were anthropologists to observe it. Perhaps the insistence
that tribal law breaks down only as a result of cross-
cultural influences is another example of field observations
that are distorted by preconceived theoretical notions. Ob-
servers, believing in the perfect integration of remote pre-
literate societies, interpret deviations from the norm in
accord with this idea; in reality, deviations may have oc-
curred throughout history.
In this case, to place the blame on outside influence
seems particularly dubious. For at the same time, among
the same people and subject to the same outside forces,
circumcision in Africa 25 and circumcision and subinci-
sion in Australia 26 are actually spreading, not decreasing.
White influence reduces the influence of the tribal elders
and this might, by itself, explain how some boys come to
evade the surgery. But the same white influence
ritual
leads to the diffusion of circumcision. "Circumcision was
opposed by the chiefs, but since the waning of their power
under European influence their opposition has not pre-
vented the spread of the custom." 27 Circumcision in this
case clearly occurs because of the people's desire for it,
not because of pressure from above.
.

Initiation as a Learning Experience
Because many puberty rites include both circumcision

and the teaching of tribal lore, circumcision is interpreted
as ensuring obedience to tribal precepts through the threat
of castration. This explanation seems to represent post
hoc, ergo propter hoc reasoning, making causal connec-
tions where no causal relations exist. Moreover, such an
interpretation cannot cover all initiation rites, not even all
that include circumcision, because in many tribes no ex-
plicit teaching takes place.
There is even reason to doubt that learning or teaching,
whether in regard to the incest taboo or to tribal lore, is
an intrinsic feature of initiation. From his comparative
study of tribal initiation, Loeb found four essential ele-
ments in the rites. He does not include the teaching of
precepts among them. 28
In reading anthropological accounts, one is struck in
many cases with how little, or what insignificant, teaching
and learning actually occurs (unless one considers the
acting out of instinctual tendencies as chiefly a learning
experience )
At least a few field workers have concluded that the
teaching occurs more in the minds of white observers
than in the experience of those who take part in the rituals.
Firth, for example, observed: "But of explicit instruction
in tribal lore and manners there is usually, I think, less
than is imagined, and what is given is by no means a pri-
mary feature the insistence on the educative aspect of
. . .
initiation comes, fancy, from the attempt to justify rites

I
which on first observation were described as being cruel,
barbarous, degraded, and meriting abolition. When it was
learnt, as in Australia, that moral and religious instruc-
tion was imparted at this time, this was grasped as an
argument in favour, and sometimes exaggerated." 29
This suggests that to view initiation rites as an educa-
tional (or superego-enforcing) experience may be a de-
fensive reaction by which observers protect themselves
against an experience that evokes quite a bit of anxiety.
I believe that deep emotional needs of both initiators
and initiates, not the desire to teach and to learn, find
some degree of satisfaction in initiation rites. But even if
we accept for the moment the theory that an important
lesson is taught, it does not follow that the experience is
therefore entirely progressive or entirely inhibiting.
Among anthropologists, initiation rites are considered
predominantly progressive phenomena. To the psycho-
analyst, they can as easily be considered either regressive
or id-motivated. Probably they are all of this. Some parts
of the rituals, such as learning tribal customs, may have
mainly progressive meanings and accord with ego and
superego strivings. Others, such as subincision, may be the
result of a "regressive" breaking through of pregenital de-
sires and serve mainly to satisfy id strivings. Still others
may be both at once.
If, as I believe, man's envy of the other sex is a major
factor, the participant may well act out such "regressive"
tendencies; but where the ceremonies result in a better
adjustment to his own sex role, this constitutes an in-
tegrative, progressive aspect. This explanation in terms of
motivation and function, if valid, suggests that attempts
to explain the rites on a unilateral basis are again too
narrow.
Almost any central institution of society, while it may
serve the needs or desires of one sex more than the other,
must to some degree satisfy certain needs of the other
sex in order to survive permanently. Those satisfactions
need not be primary or basic, but may be the consequence
of custom. For example, certain passive desires may be
activated in women who begin to live in a patriarchal
society. But once aroused, they need to be satisfied. That
such a society frustrates many of women's active desires
goes without saying. Still, it could not have continued
to do so had it not also met some of women's passive
wishes.
An such as adolescent circumcision may well
institution
few (elders or women), but
satisfy the hostile desires of a
it must also satisfy certain needs of many more. The
adolescent's masochism, or his wish to identify with women
or with adult men, may be among them. Obviously an
institution may serve the constructive desires of one
group and the destructive desires of another; may serve
the ego tendencies of some persons, the id desires of
others, and the superego demands of a third group; may
serve the conscious needs of one group and the uncon-
scious, repressed needs of another.
It seems to me that examination of any human in-

stitution must begin with the a priori assumption that in
some way it serves all parts of the society. Only after this
assumption has been proven false is it safe to conclude

that the institution benefits only one segment. The idea that
both male and female initiation ceremonies (rituals world-
wide in extent and going back many generations in time)
have to do mainly or only with the interests of males, or
of the small group of male elders, seems to violate this
premise.
Yet much as anthropological and psychoanalytic in-
terpretations of initiation rites differ, both agree that the
purpose is to enforce what might be called superego
demands. The question remains of what id and ego reac-
tions are evoked.
Let us consider first those who do the initiating. Psycho-
analytic theory gives full recognition to the instinctual
desires of the older men in shaping the rituals, perhaps
overestimating their importance. In assuring their own
sexual ascendency, the elders combine hostility and super-
ego strivings, the first by inhibiting their sons as potential
sexual rivals, the second by teaching of tribal lore, assur-
ing obedience to tradition. The actions of the elders are
thus at the same time under the influence of both institu-
tions of the mind: id and superego; indeed, they must be,
since these men act as human beings, and human beings
can never at any one time be motivated by only a single
institution.
But what about those who are initiated? What are the
positive appeals to their instincts in ceremonies that sup-
posedly make such strong demands on their superegos or
on their ability to integrate experiences? According to
some students, these he in the fact that the youngsters
gain sexual freedom through initiation. But among the
peoples who have developed the most elaborate initiation
rites, children enjoy such freedom all their lives, and the
rites can add nothing in this respect.
An analysis of the rituals makes it doubtful that only
superego demands that are not equally id-motivated in
both initiator and initiate are created or met in the young.
There seems little reason to conclude that two sets of
motivations —
one in those who initiate and an entirely
different one in those they initiate— are at work in a ritual
that so successfully binds people together; psychoanalytic
evidence suggests that the opposite is more probable.*
Even the simplest anthropological explanation of the
rites a learning experience presupposes cooperation.
as
But psychological investigations have shown convincingly
that learning is only effective and lasting if the learner
cooperates for his own motives. What is difficult and
frustrating can only be surmounted by strong positive
motivation. It may simply be a desire to master the con-
tent, or to pacify the superego and ego (which tell the
student that the experience is necessary, despite id resis-
tance ) or to please a parent or teacher, or to gain status,
,
etc. When the student is forced to learn against his re-

sistance, the results may be diametrically opposite to the
teacher's intentions.
In our highly organized society, in which the feelings
and doings of adults and children are widely separated,
it is true that often teach children who are
teachers
reluctant to learn. But even here the most successful
teaching takes place when teacher and student are moved
by the parallel desire to transmit and receive, or even
better, to share a common experience. These successful
teaching experiences have positive connotations to both
teacher and learner, and offer id, ego, and superego satis-
factions to both at the same time. The most successful
teaching of all occurs when both teacher and student are
urged on by a similar, often unconscious, desire to master
a common problem.
Psychoanalysis has also shown that parental efforts to
impose cleanliness (for instance) will lead to very differ-
ent results in learning and personality formation, depend-
ing on what the child brings to it in terms of expectations,
past experience, etc.; whether he cooperates to please a
loved parent or whether he refuses to defy a hated one.
Precepts that are forcefully imposed by elders on the rel-
atively helpless infant may lead to a host of different
learnings and results —
ranging from utter submission to
* Freud, in discussing the ritual defloration of girls, says that
"Primitive custom appears to accord some recognition to the existence
of the early sexual wish [of the girls] by assigning the duty of de-
floration to an elder, a priest, or a holy man, that is, to a father-
substitute."30 Thus he recognizes the possibility that such rituals are
id-motivated in the adolescent girl, that this rite may be as much
desired by the girls as by those who perform it.
total resistance, not to speak of an immense variety of
sublimations and reaction formations.
In view of this it is unlikely that a series of supposedly
traumatic experiences to which a number of adolescents
are subjected against their wishes will lead to the uniform
results desired by their elders. If the single result of the
supposed trauma of circumcision is that the boys come to
fear and obey tribal elders and to avoid incest, we might
reasonably expect that toilet training should cause all
children to become identically trained and compulsively
clean. The more logical conclusion is that externally im-
posed ritual traumata should bring at least as varied re-
sults in primitive youngsters as externally imposed habits
of cleanliness brings in our children. Probably the results
would be even more varied, since initiation takes place
when the child is older.
If, on the other hand, initiation is not entirely adult-
imposed, if it partly satisfies important strivings of ado-
lescents, then we can understand how the shared experi-
ence might produce similar results. In modern society,
adolescents beset by common instinctual strivings try to
be like one another, often in defiance of adults. Though
comparisons between primitive society and our own are
more suggestive than convincing, they may still serve to
make a point that seems valid and significant for both.
Individuals seem to react dissimilarly to outside-imposed
control of instinctual tendencies (as in toilet training);
but when they react spontaneously and as a group to the
problem of finding instinctual satisfaction, then individual
development seems to be strikingly similar. If initiation
were forcibly imposed on the adolescents, it would not
lead to uniform consequences; if, on the other hand, it
was even partially desired by both initiates and initiators,
if it was a response to essentially similar strivings of the
young, then the results might be relatively uniform.
Initiates, and possibly the initiators too, may feel basi-
cally ambivalent about specific rituals such as circumcision.
Social pressure and approval may then lead to the more
or less full satisfaction of one part of the ambivalent de-
sire, and the token satisfaction, suppression, integration, or
sublimation of the other.
To use again the example of teaching cleanliness: The
human infant seems to have little interest in becoming
clean. His ambivalence about toilet training results from
outside influences —
that is, the wish to please the parent
is placed in opposition to the child's own natural inclina-
tions. But in initiation, I believe, the ambivalence is in-
herently the adolescent's. He himself wishes to be grown
up and also to be a child (to retain his own sex and to
enjoy prerogatives of the other sex, etc.). But he also
wishes to free himself of this inner ambivalence. In addi-
tion, social custom tells him which of its aspects he may
satisfy and how he may deal with the others. Because
adult demands and the youngster's inner wishes thus un-
fold in somewhat parallel fashion, the result may be more
or less uniform for the group.
Considering these everyday observations on learning
situations, perhaps we come to initiation rites with an
extraneous frame of reference when we assume that an
unwilling learner meets an overpowering, threatening, inim-
ical teacher. This seems particularly misleading in the
case of preliterate societies where the interests and ac-
tivities of child and adult are so little differentiated.
In Hopes of Pleasure
In the face of so much negative evidence, why should

belief in the menacing (castrating) primitive father have
found such widespread acceptance in the psychoanalytic
literature? A clue may again be provided by Freud who,
referring to it specifically as "One of the Difficulties of
Psychoanalysis," speaks of how we resist realizations that
endanger our self-love. 31 The theory of evolution, while
challenging our self-esteem by showing us our animal ori-
gins, flatters our narcissism even more, since it makes us
the crown of biological development. Perhaps some of
our anthropological speculations have been influenced by
the same narcissism. It could be very painful to realize
that, despite his other advances, modern man inspires
more fear in his children than parents in preliterate so-
ciety, and that his God is more punitive than some of the
primitive deities.
It might also distress the psychoanalyst to realize that
some of the theoretical constructs basic to his work with
—
modern neurotics constructs that he had to develop
against the resistance of society and of a superego that
wished to deny the existence of the unconscious have —
only limited applicability. Narcissism, more than logic,
may thus have led us to the conclusion that something so
uncanny as the castration complex, with its unreasonable
anxiety, could have originated only in the dim, irrational
past and come down to us mainly in inherited memory
traces; that in its present form it could not possibly have
appeared in man at a late and high stage of development
and been absent in more primitive times.
Our vision may be further blunted by thinking of initia-
tory circumcision as if it were the same as circumcision
in our own culture. But in Western society it is imposed on
a helpless infant, to whom it offers no clear advantages
and to whom it is thus undesirable and threatening (I
ignore medical reasons or rationalizations).
True, circumcision in the first days of life is unlikely
to make much difference, psychologically. But in our so-
ciety many boys learn about circumcision at some point
in their nursery school years. This is the period in which
they are grappling with Oedipal problems and with the
difference between the sexes. By this time the parents are
also established for most of them as potentially threaten-
ing figures, because it is an age, more than any other age,
when the child is forced to obey and feels terribly threat-
ened because he cannot care for himself when he does
disobey. Thus he is apt to learn about his circumcision at
a time when his parents appear more demanding and more
threatening to him than at almost any other period of his
life.
It is also possible that Freud and his early followers

came to the conclusions they did because the circumcised
patients whom they analyzed were predominantly, if not
is, they were circumcised in infancy.
entirely, Jewish; that
The now widespread practice of circumcising all boy babies
for medical reasons was not yet common procedure. For
these Jewish patients circumcision was therefore more
complex. was part of being subject to religious discrimi-
It
nation, and part of a belief in an Old Testament deity who
described himself as jealous and vengeful. In short, this
particular group of boys learned of being circumcised
(when the rest of the population was not) at about the
same time that they became aware of their Jewishness, and
when their Oedipal difficulties with their fathers were at a
peak. Taken together, it is not surprising that circumci-
sion was most suitably connected with a feeling that those
who inflicted it had it in for the boy.* Among the tribes
that practice circumcision it takes place at a much older
age, when the youngster is often quite able to care for
himself, when he knows much more about life, about his
parents and their intentions. Hence it should appear far
less threatening and the men who impose it less formid-
able. Among some tribes it is also clearly recognized that
unless the boy understands the positive purposes of cir-
cumcision he is too young for the ceremony. One is
tempted to add: because it might lead to castration anxiety
rather than sexual freedom.
Bohannan reports that "One woman, whose very young
grandson was being circumcised, kept her back to the
operation and wondered to me nervously whether he
wasn't perhaps a little too young: he couldn't possibly
understand as yet that the real reason it was being done
was to enable him to become a man, marry, and have
children: perhaps they should have waited until the child
was a bit older." 32 For such youngsters circumcision may
simply be likened to the many scarifications that accom-
pany pubertal initiation rites, all of which bring higher
status and other advantages, including the conviction that
they make the initiate more attractive to the opposite sex.
Even in our own society it is possible to find examples
of painful scarifications, inflicted by parental figures, that
do not add to castration anxiety or have sex-inhibiting
consequences. Consider the girl who undergoes plastic
surgery to improve her appearance. Such an operation
may be potentially as painful as circumcision, but the
girl may make little of the physical pain in view of the
pleasure she hopes will result. Plastic surgery may indeed
be a traumatic experience and, in our society, an experi-
ence likely to activate much castration anxiety. But does
that mean it must lead to less sexual freedom and greater
submission to the parent? The psychological meaning of
the operation seems to derive, instead, from the result
expected and from what actually happens.
I knew two young girls who underwent rhinoplasty.
Their cases were very similar, and one of them may serve
as an example. Among this girl's deeper and largely un-
conscious motives were guilt, masochism, and doubts about
her femininity. But the conscious reason for surgery was
her desire for sexual success, as it appears to be the con-
* See the Appendix for further discussion of infant circumcision.
scious reason for circumcision in preliterate society. The
final resultsof the operation support the idea that the
conscious reasons won out, although that may have been
because the operation also satisfied unconscious needs.
Before rhinoplasty the girl had seen herself as an ugly
duckling (not without some reason, although except for
her nose she was not much below the average in attractive-
ness and had many good friends of both sexes), and, at
the age of about twenty, was still very dependent on her
parents. Immediately after the operation and before her
marriage, she broke away from her parents and achieved
a degree of independence she had never thought possible.
She had not expected this to result from the surgery and
was astonished that it did. The belief that she had become
—
a desirable sex object and possibly also the satisfaction
of unconscious masochistic desires and a need for punish-
ment, of which she remained unaware — seemed to bring
psychological independence from the parents even before
full sex enjoyment. Thus a traumatic physical experience
brought psychological independence, if not maturity.
It might be said that this girl had deep feelings of in-
feriority which she had rationalized by blaming it all on
her big nose. She believed that removal of this external
source of inferiority feelings would and did bring emo-
tional well-being. Though much more complex psycho-
logical mechanisms were undoubtedly at work, her final
experience more than compensated for the surgical trauma.
Soon after her operation, she was married, made good
sexual and marital adjustments, and since then has lived
a rather happy life. Moreover, with heightened self-esteem
and greater satisfaction of her narcissism, she became less
masochistic and guilty. Her supposed ugliness had made
her afraid of other associations and had forced her into
unsatisfactory, ambivalent, and guilty dependence on her
mother. After surgery she was able to strike out for her-
self. This made her less dependent on, hence less disap-
pointed by her mother, and less hostile and guilty. All this,
and most of all her sexual success, she experienced as
the result of surgery, which she felt had finally changed
her into a woman.
It may be suggested that this proves that plastic surgery
is experienced as castration; that through it the girl got
rid of (or was deprived of) an imagined penis and so
was forced into femininity. If the operation permitted her
to resolve her ambivalence about femininity — and thus
helped her to accept and to succeed in the feminine role
— the parallel to initiation, which I believe helps the initi-
ate to accept the mature sex role, would be striking.
Whatever else it may show, this example indicates that
physical traumata which in our society would more com-
monly be experienced as a castration threat can within an-
other psychological constellation acquire a very different
meaning and have other consequences than to increase
sexual anxiety.
Durkheim has pointed out how ritual cruelties are com-
monly executed on a particular organ or tissue in the be-
lief that this will stimulate its vitality. For example, among
some Australians the novices are bitten severely in the
scalp to make the hair grow; others make small wounds
in their arms with heated sticks in order to become skillful
in making fire or to acquire the strength to carry heavy
loads of wood; by amputating part of the index ringer of
one hand, Warramunga girls think they make the hand
more successful at finding yams. 33 This belief may also
help explain the initiates' desire for, as well as fear of,
the impending mutilation. It suggests how positively they
may view the operation and its later consequences.
Such operations as those noted by Durkheim probably
invest the particular organ with a large amount of libido.
That this is ordinarily the case in surgical operations is a
well-known fact, and Nunberg has stressed it in regard to
circumcision. 34 Still one might ask in the case of the young
American girl: how can investing the nose with libido lead
to better heterosexual adjustments? A possible explanation
is that before the operation this girl had withdrawn libido
from an external world that disappointed her. Feeling
ugly, she may have turned back toward herself a great
deal of emotional energy in order to maintain self-accept-
ance and inner integration.
After surgery libido may at first have been drawn toward
the nose. But while in the hospital the girl had a new ex-
perience: what she had invested with libido was so in-
vested by others too. The organ which had up to then
stood in the way of gratification from others suddenly
became a source of gratification. The surgeon, the nurses,
her friends showed great interest in and concern with it.
The nose suddenly received attention and praise. Later this
investment of libido in one part of her body came to be
distributed over the rest —perhaps under the influence of
the flattering attention that was now paid to at least one
part of her body. She now felt more attractive and hence
was more attractive. This new feeling may at first have
been the consequence of narcissistic libido, but the final
effect of the interest and approval of other persons was to
free libido for investment in object relations.
This example throws further light on the difference be-
tween infant circumcision, as practiced in civilized society,
and initiatory circumcision in preliterate society. In in-
fancy, assuming that at such an early age libido is drawn
to the organ by circumcision, there can be no beneficial
—
consequences it is pain, without subsequent pleasure.
In adolescent circumcision, libidinal investment of the
penis soon leads to gratification, since greater sex enjoy-
ment is promised and often coitus follows soon after the
operation.
Higher social status and its consequent sense of social
well-being also follow. In taking post for propter the
newly circumcised boys may assume that the libidinal
investment of the genitals, which may first have resulted
from pain, brought about the change in social status; and
their masculinity (or at least the importance of their
penes) is further impressed on them.
Approaching the problem from entirely different view-
points, other authors also have stressed that ritual mutila-
tions lead to an investment of the organ with great signifi-
cance. Durkheim feels certain that what he calls "the
cruel rites of circumcision and subincision" have the ob-
ject of conferring particular powers on the genital organ. 35
In calling these ceremonies "cruel." rather than painful,
however, he leaves the frame of reference of the people
who practice them. Powerful they undoubtedly are, and
probably also painful, but nothing the people say or do
permits us to conclude that they experience these rituals
as cruel. Once more we see the Western observer impos-
ing his own value judgments.
Nobody I know has regarded cosmetic plastic surgery
as "cruel"; even the pain seems reduced by the desire
with which the operations are approached. The person who
complains volubly about everyday suffering may minimize
great pain when the emotions connected with it are
strongly positive.
If the girl in our example was more than willing to pay
"
the price of surgical trauma for beauty, if many other
modern women eagerly undergo painful plastic surgery
for the same reason, how can we doubt that the pre-
literate boy is ready to endure as much in order to prove
that he is a man among the men of his tribe?
That boys often look forward to initiation and circumci-
sion with pleasurable though somewhat anxious anticipa-
tion may be inferred from their behavior. Among the
Masai of South East Africa, for a few weeks preceding
circumcision the boys decorate themselves lavishly and
dance in their own and neighboring villages, expressing
their happiness because they will soon enter the privileged
class of initiates. 36 Nandi boys and girls similarly anticipate
it with pleasure. 37
The Tikopia, among whom the operation consists of a
slitting of the upper surface of the foreskin (superinci-
sion), make no attempt "to terrify [the initiates] or to in-
flict upon them any pain beyond what is unavoidable. The
operation is in no sense designed as an ordeal to try their
manly fortitude, or to harden them to bear pain. To the
Tikopia the modification of the sexual organ is its primary
aim, and these other aspects are definitely minimized as
far as possible. 38 This statement of the primary aim is
typical; the ulterior purpose has to do with sexual inter-
course, or, I might extrapolate, human fertility.
Bohannan reports that: "Nowadays, particularly in
central [Nigeria], many young, uncircumcised
Tivland
— —
boys usually at the age of about eight take themselves
to the dispensaries and ask the dispensers to circumcise
them. In such a case, no magical ceremonies are performed
before the operation, and the dispenser dresses the wound
and applies European medicines until the wound is healed.
I know one Kparve youngster of about seven years who
asked and received his mother's permission to visit her
parents; near their compound was a dispensary, and when
he returned home three weeks later, he had been circum-
cised, and considered it a special 'surprise' for his mother
and brothers." 39
That the boys are fearful of circumcision is what one
might expect. In our own society, many a malingerer has
shot himself in the foot or mangled a finger to escape
military service. He wished for the consequence of his
action (freedom from military service), but was very
afraid of the mutilating act and showed great pain when
inflicting it on himself. If the Tiv boys viewed circumci-
sion as castration, they would probably fight back with
all their might.
"Today," adds Bohannan, "Tiv say that it is impossible
for a man to have sexual relations before he has been
circumcised. If one points out that this was apparently not
the case if the myth of Tiv ancestor is to be believed, and
that it is certainly not true about several of the surround-
ing tribes, Tiv say that you are quite right, but that in
Tivland no woman will consent to sexual relations with
any man who is uncircumcised, therefore their initial
statement was correct. Tiv women say that the idea of
sexual relations with an uncircumcised man is repugnant,
and insist quite adamantly that no woman whatever
would sleep with such a man. Some give reasons of clean-
liness; most, however, phrase their distaste in terms of
fastidiousness. We could find no other reason than this
given by Tiv for the fact that they circumcise all normal
males. Extensive questioning reveals no trace of religious
motivation, though Tiv have, in order to make this point
clear, contrasted their own customs with those of Moham-
medans, among whom a religious reason is said (by Tiv)
to be present. We
could find no Tiv who would give a
ritual reason of any sort for cimcumcision. Circumcision
is, however, associated in a symbolic way with adult male
status."
Contrary to our views, which connect circumcision
with neurotic castration anxiety, the Tiv consider it a
sign of neurosis to be afraid of circumcision. This became
apparent to Bohannan when Tiv discussed the few neu-
rotic males who were not circumcised. "Such a man did or
had none of the things which are prized attributes of
normal adult man: having a compound of one's own,
prosperous farms, wives, and children, performing cere-
monies for control of fetishes (akombo) and seeking
prestige. Tiv added, as a sort of summary to such a reci-
tal, 'He has none of these things; he is not circumcised.'
" 40
—
Fertility, the Basic Rite
Behind many human rituals lies an interest in fertility,

both the of human beings and of their sources
fertility
of food. 1 And indeed, the economic and social well-being
of any people depends on the regeneration of its food
supply. In preliterate societies that have no means of
rational control over their animal, plant, or human fer-
tility, its people tend to rely on magico-religious cere-
monial to affect it.
The society we
are here most concerned with, that of
the Australian aborigines, represents a cultural stage that
predates the beginning of animal breeding or agriculture;
both of these techniques presuppose a concentrated interest
in fertility, with first the desire, and later the ability, to
assure procreation. Nevertheless, the Australians are very
much concerned with procreation, and much of their ritual
centers around it. "The Aborigine has no granaries, but
he has, if we may use the term, these 'spiritual' store-
houses, in that they insure him against starvation, and give
him a sense of security and confidence in regard to his
food-supply for the coming year." 2 The story the aborigines
tell is as follows: "As the totemic ancestors passed through
the country they left stones or sometimes a tree, each of
which is supposed to contain the gunin of some animal,
bird, fish, reptile, tuber, and so on. By rubbing one
. . .
of these or striking it with brushes and uttering a spell, the

gunin will go forth and cause the species with which it is
associated to multiply." 3
This is evidence both of the resources and desires of a
surviving preliterate people in relation to fertility. We
have less exact but suggestive evidence that paleolithic
man was likewise concerned with procreation. But the
subject of greatest interest here is not merely whether
and to what degree religious rites were connected in early
times with a desire for abundance of animals and men
and hence with procreation and childbirth but whether —
this function was thought to be female or male. In the
Old Testament, where a male God promises to make
males numerous as the stars, it was clearly a male func-
tion. Sometimes it is assumed that the rites of the early
82
—
Fertility, the Basic Rite / 83
hunters were masculine in nature, and that the feminine

element came only with agriculture. There is indeed ample
evidence that, with the development of agriculture, women
came to play a very important role in fecundity ceremon-
ies. It was believed that the livelihood of the tribes de-
pended on women and on the rites they performed; that
without these, no crops would grow.
In recent years, ever more abundant evidence comes
to light suggesting that even in the days of the earliest
hunters man's mind was concerned not only with conjur-
ing up the animals he hunted for food but also with magi-
cally increasing their number. It seems, for example, that
we shall have to revise our earlier notions of the mean-
ing of paleolithic cave paintings of animals and of so-
called hunting scenes. Originally these paintings were
thought to represent magic efforts to assure good hunting
of the animals depicted. Now it is believed that, possibly
in association with rituals, they were efforts to stimulate
animal procreation. Raphael, for example, says that
among the main purposes of the paintings "besides the
magic of hunting there was the magic fertility." He also
discusses drawings in which "animals pictured one in-
side the other may represent pregnancy." 4
These relatively recent analyses do not settle the ques-
tion of whether —
any ceremonies increase or otherwise
were performed, and if so, whether they were performed
by men or by women. Beyond this remains the incon-
trovertible fact of the paintings' location. Since these
hunters lived in caves, it is natural that the paintings
should be found on cave walls. But the caves contain
rooms that are easily accessible, as well as others that
can only be reached with great difficulty; and it was the
latter that the artists generally chose. Many authors have
commented with surprise on the fact that the paintings
are so commonly located in almost inaccessible places. In
reading their reports, I was most impressed by the tortuous
paths leading to the pictures, by the fact that they are
hidden behind serious obstacles and often cannot be
reached except by crawling through narrows.
Levy, for example, speaks of "the formidable nature" of
the long, narrow, slippery corridors, often crossed by
waterfalls, and the chimneys that must be negotiated to
reach the halls of the pictures. To illustrate: The chamber
of Clotilde can only be approached on hands and knees.
At one point the passage to Font-de-Gaune becomes a
tunnel through which a large person can pass only with
great difficulty. To reach La Pasiega the visitor passes
through a manhole below which a river runs, and the
painted animals can only be seen above the precipices that
border it. 5 Levy and others insist that if the purpose of the
paintings had been simply to assure success in hunting
(not to speak of "pure" artistic creation), their place-
ment at such inaccessible locations would remain in-
comprehensible. Many who have explored them have
concluded that their location must have had a specific
purpose. As Marett said, no one would dream of hedging
round a mere picture gallery with such trying turnstiles. 6
All this suggests to me one that an effort
possibility:
was made which procreation
to reproduce the setting in
takes place. If so, then to crawl through narrow, wet
channels on entering may have represented how access is
gained to the secret place of procreation; on leaving, the
process of birth might have been reenacted symbolically.
The paintings were therefore executed at places that may
have been viewed as representing the womb, where ani-
mals come into existence. So it is possible that early man
was creating a new animal, the painted one, in a place
which to him represented the womb, so that the real ani-
mal might be induced to do likewise.
This interpretation of the cave paintings' location has
not been suggested, to my knowledge, by those who have
written about them, but Levy at least sees a definite and
close connection between the pictures, the rituals of
early man, andtheir emphasis on birth, death, and re-
birth. She stresses how often gravid female figures can
be found among the remnants of the same paleolithic
culture in the same places, and notes that many of these
figures and other female symbols are found lying face
downward. She suggests that some significance may have
been attached, even before the beginnings of agriculture,
to contact with the earth —
that, in fact, the cave had al-
ready become "a Mother." 7
Among modern preliterate people, Levy
stresses the
importance of the ritual re-enactment of traveling a long,
winding path, and how important are the experiences
that can only be had in caves. Speaking about the Aus-
. :

tralian aborigines, and quoting Spencer and Gillen, she
says:
"In the well-known ceremony for the propagation of the
witchetty-grub, the winding march is taken to the sacred
caves in which stones have been deposited to represent
this insect and her eggs. After contact has been established,
first between the stones and their own persons, later with
the sacred rock they return to enter the cave-like
. . .
'chrysalis' which has meanwhile been constructed at the

camp. . . . From this they emerge singing the re-born
grub
"This applies equally to the initiation ceremonies of the
boys and girls, whose period of seclusion seems to have
been passed in the bush, with the exception of novice
magicians who repaired to a cave for their sleep of death
and rebirth." 8
Levy leaves little doubt that these caves represent
the womb in which the initiates are born again. 9 I shall
not follow much further her speculations on the connec-
tion between a mother goddess and the pregnant female
figures, beyond the following quotations
"It does appear possible, indeed, that on all the con-
tinents where later civilizations did not influence her de-
velopment, the 'Mother Goddess' disappeared from the
religious system, as her images disappeared from the
Magdalenian hearths. In South Eastern Europe, on the
other hand, in the North African hinterland and Western
Asia, the great discoveries of the succeeding eras, espe-
cially the domestication of animals and the cultivation of
corn, imparted to this conception an increasingly deep
significance. . .
"The littlestatues of mammoth ivory, stone, or con-

glomerate, represent in general an upright woman with
small featureless bent head and feeble arms usually laid
upon her huge breasts, with very wide or deep hips, loins
and abdomen, and legs dwindling to small or non-existent
feet
"Some cult of human fertility is indicated, which was
brought into touch with the rites for animal reproduction
in the caves. This cult appears, on the evidence of the
statuettes, to have originated among the Aurignacians of
Eastern Europe and spread westward, where the figures
are found in smaller numbers, occasionally possessing
great formal artistry." 10
The importance of the gravid female figures is further
emphasized by the fact that no male figures have been
found. 11 This is consistent with Braidwood's findings in
the excavation of the village of Jarmo, which he considers
the earliest permanent settlement of man; at Jarmo there
was a combination of a hunting and agricultural setting, a
community in transition toward what Braidwood calls
"incipient agriculture and animal domestication." There,
too, gravid female figures are among the predominant
ritual artifacts, the most characteristic being "a seated
—
pregnant woman with rather fat buttocks probably a
'mother goddess' symbol of fertility." No male or phallic
figures were discovered. 12
We have no evidence that paleolithic man practiced
circumcision, as the modern hunters and food gatherers
of Australia do. But evidence from prehistory does in-
dicate that the earliest man had a deep and abiding inter-
est in fertility, and that if he had a ritual life, the ceremony
of increase was probably its most essential part. Great
effort went into the creation of pregnant female figures of
the Venus of Willendorf type.
In Australian aboriginal society a relationship clearly
exists between the rites of fertility and initiation. In mythi-
cal times, according to Strehlow, they were not separated
at all, there being only one great series of ceremonies to
initiate the young and to assure totemic increase. 13 In
modern times, during the initiation of aboriginal boys,
various totemistic ceremonies take place to assure an
abundance of food animals. Seemingly more important
even than circumcision or subincision is the fact that for
the first time boys are permitted to witness the fertility
ceremonies. Thus the puberty rites of boys among these
people is an initiation into the secret of how to influence
magically the increase of food animals and edible fruits.
On these occasions, men decorate themselves (i.e.,
change themselves s}^mbolically ) to represent the animal
they wish to procreate abundantly; it seems plausible that
the changes they make on their own bodies have the same
—
purpose to assure their own fertility. The difference is
that the change into the animal is only temporary, the
decorations being discarded or washed off after the cere-
mony is over, while the changes made on their penes are
permanent. The fact that among certain Australian tribes
14
the initiation ceremony always takes place before harvest
may also be significant. Thus the puberty rite is probably
meant to assure procreation of the human animal, while
other increase rites, from the intichiuma of the Australians
to the buffalo dances of the Sioux, encourage the multipli-
cation of food animals.
If we are allowed to draw inferences from some modern
preliterate societies to paleolithic man, available evidence
would justify the conclusion that increase rites were the
most important ceremonies of the earliest human societies
and that initiation ceremonies may be mainly special sub-
forms.*
During the ceremonies of the Uli cult of New Ireland
(neither an initiation ritual nor an initiation society)
elaborate male figures called Ulis are carved. They are
powerfully proportioned, bearded figures, whose oversized
breasts and phalli express the power of fertility, the cult
which they serve. They are not viewed as hermaphroditic;
on the contrary, they are considered the more male be-
cause they also possess female sex powers and characteris-
tics. The ceremonies in which these figures were used
sometimes lasted a year, and included dances in which
the men tied carved female breasts around their chests.
These rites were extremely sacred and all females were
excluded from them. Uli figures were never discarded,
but were carefully preserved for future ceremonies. Never-
mann says that both the Uli figures and the dances seem
to have originated in a fertility cult, 15 and Kramer adds
that the oversized breasts and phallus express the great
power of fecundity. 16 Thus men have used other methods
than manipulation of the penis by which to claim a greater
share in procreation.
Certain of the Goulbourn Islanders who have had con-
siderable contact with white civilization and have come to
understand a little better the male contribution to pro-
creation, have evolved an interesting variation of the
* By the time anthropologists came to observe these rites, their
order of importance may have become reversed, with initiation rites
the more widespread and elaborate, until they could well be regarded
as the central rites of primitive society. Here the relative importance of
rituals merely followed the development of society. In our own society,
for example, fertility seems again to be the most elaborate ritual of
our private lives. According to religious precepts and the official
moral code, procreation must not occur without marriage. Thus, at
least in official doctrine, our principal ritual is concerned with pro-
creation, if not with fertility.
mother goddess. The Bemdts, in discussing the fertility
goddess and main deity of these tribes (who practice
neither circumcision nor subincision), report that the be-
liefs and ceremonies surrounding her are less vivid than
elsewhere, rituals and beliefs connected with the snake
having been superimposed. 17 At this moment, the re-
ligious beliefs of these tribes may thus be in transition.
The predominance of a female fertility goddess may be
giving way to the predominance of a male (or bisexual)
symbol. The original concept of the fertility god-
fertility
dess, however, is neither lost nor seriously obscured. One
of the central rites of this transitional cult is the re-
enactment of the fight for predominance between the
male and the female principle. The female tries to assert
her superiority, but the male deity, by means of a phallic
symbol, succeeds in taking revenge on her. 18 Still, many
details emphasize that the ritual was, and still is, closely
related to the mother goddess. For example:
"At Goulboura Island the sacred ground is the body of
the Mother, and the 'outside' (secular) name of the
'u:ba:r [phallic symbol] is 'kamo.-mo, which is the ordinary
word for a mother. It is said that she comes out when she
hears it is ceremonial time; her spirit enters the 'u:ba:r,
which is made and erected for the purpose, and she
—
. . .
y
'talks' that is, the beating of the u:ba:r. She is calling
for everybody to come, but only the men can enter her
presence and her body. Should the beating [of the
. . .
'u:ba:r] be stopped, her spirit will go also and the ritual

will lose its potency; she maintains the essence of sanctity,
and gives the participants power to perform their ritual
actions and dancing. It is she who attends to the increase
of the natural species." 19
Even in the snake ritual, therefore, everything depends
on the female fertility goddess. While this ritual may il-
lustrate a transition from a maternal to a phallic religion,
under the influence of a growing knowledge of procrea-
tion, we are here mainly concerned with developments
that may have taken place before such masculine gods
appeared. Phallicism does not seem to exist in a society
such as that of the Australians who believe that the man's
contribution to procreation lies only in "finding" the
spirit child, and his "making a way" for the child to be
born. It should be stressed once more that their ritual life
must be understood in terms of their utter dependence on

the chance multiplication of their food sources; animals
are not abundant, and the people lack the knowledge
needed for agriculture or animal husbandry. Thus their
concern with fertility is almost inevitable.
Ritual Surgery
Castration
Whether or not there is an intrinsic link between cas-

tration and circumcision, they are now so closely connected
in the thinking of many persons that a discussion of pu-
berty rites must also consider castration. As an institution,
castration appeared comparatively late in history, among
relatively sophisticated peoples. It was then performed by
the castrate to please, or to make himself more like, an
overpowering mother figure.
Historical reviews tell us little about whether, or how
commonly, castration actually took place in preliterate
1
society. Browe and others believe that the custom prob-
ably originated with the Hittites and spread first to the
Semitic and then to other Asian and European civiliza-
tions. Like other authors, including Weigert-Vowinkel,
Browe stresses the practice of castration among the priests
of the mother goddesses as part of their rites. Compared
with this ritual castration in the service of a female deity,
castration as a punishment inflicted by men on men for
religious reasons, or by law, is a comparatively late insti-
tution. In the Middle Ages it was part of the talion law,
with no special sexual connotations. Among the Germans
at this period it was a punishment for sacreligious acts,
but only as part of total dismemberment. 2
In combat or war, however, castration appears in much
earlier times as the toll exacted by the victor from his de-
feated enemy. In Egypt this form of it was known in both
religious and military practice; witness the eternal fight
between Horus and Set in which Horus castrated Set for
tearing out Horus' eye. 3 Similar tales of castrating the
vanquished occur in other mythologies, particularly the
Greek. The victor's main purpose was to gain for him-
self the masculine power of his victim.
In Egypt, killing and castrating the conquered in war
was later supplemented by the custom of creating eunuchs
who could act as servants, especially in the harem. Simi-
larly, the Persians under Darius castrated the handsomest
boys after the conquests of Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos,
90
Ritual Surgery / 91
and then used them as eunuchs or for homosexual pleas-
ure. 4 In the Western Hemisphere, castration was known
at least to the Carib-speaking natives of the Antilles. Ac-
cording to Roth, they "practised in on their boy prisoners,
who were subsequently fattened for the table." 5 Castra-
tion in later times, for artistic purposes (to retain high
adult voices in the papal choir) is of little interest here.
Thus the known history of the castration of men by
men, though meager, shows no connection with age-
grading ceremonies at puberty and no direct connection
with jealousy between father and son or with any psycho-
logical motives connected with the Oedipal situation or
the incest taboo. Speculation based on these connections
remain unsupported by factual evidence.
The story of castration in the service of the great ma-
ternal deities is different. There we are in no doubt
that the
mother goddesses required emasculation as the price of
grace. Weigert-Vowinkel has summarized for us Daly's
analysis of Hindu mythology as it pertains to the castration
complex. In it she refers to the "flood of uncontrollable
fear" of the castrating maternal divinity which permeates
that literature. She suggests that conflicts characterized
by the castration theme, which were also prominent in
the myths of the Trobrianders, may be typical of ma-
triarchal societies, the myths having been invented after
the rites, to explain them. 6
Of the rites of the maternal deities, those of Cybele are
perhaps the best known. They tell us that ". . at the peak .
of exaltation on deis sanguinis, March 24, every one of

the Galloi [priests of Cybele] voluntarily castrated him-
self by cutting off the entire genitals with a consecrated
stone knife. . The use of bronze or iron was forbidden
. .
for this act. Women

who dedicated themselves to the
goddess in like manner cut off one or both breasts." 7
Even in ancient times it was assumed that the command
to use only stone implements for self-mutilation testified
to the great antiquity of the practice.
Here too, self-mutilation was not restricted to one sex,
just as male circumcision is often paralleled by the ma-
nipulation and mutilation of female organs. The Cybele
rites reflect deviate tendencies in both men and women;
either an inordinate desire to be, or an extreme fear of,
the opposite sex. Still, mutilation of the men was much
more severe than that of women; the male sacrificed his
primary sex characteristics, the female only the secondary
ones.
During the course of the rites ". the flood of orgias-
. .
tic emotion even spread to the onlookers and they, too,

castrated themselves. With their genitals in their hands,
the worshippers ran through the streets and threw them
into some house, from which they then received women's
clothing, according to custom.'' 8 Considering what the
castrates received for the gift of their genitals, it seems
legitimate to infer that they threw them to or at women,
who, in return, gave them female garments.*
Once the devotees of the mother goddess were cas-
trated, their genitals and masculine clothing were carried
into the bridal chamber of Cybele. Thereafter, they wore
only women's clothing, were anointed and wore their hair
long. Latin and Greek writers usually speak of them in the
feminine gender. 9
This example of ritual castration, and many others not
mentioned here, indicates that was exacted by ma-
it
ternal figures as a sign of devotion and submission on the

part of their male followers and particularly of the priests
who were closest in their service. Of women, other signs
of devotion were required; only the priests had to ap-
proximate the other sex in attire and behavior. Their be-
coming "female" after self-mutilation had no counterpart
in what was expected of women serving the goddess, t
* Fantasies about similar acts occur today. The wish that a man
should cut oft his genitals and throw them to a woman was expressed
by a schizoid pubertal girl living at the Orthogenic School. She had
only recently begun to menstruate when one day, in a public park near
the School, she observed a man in the bushes who was urinating, or
exposing himself to her, or both. Turning to her woman counselor and
another girl she said with great glee, "He'll cut off his penis and
throw it at us." Fantasies about boys who are turned into girls and
then have to wear female clothing are so common among neurotic
children, both boys and girls, that they need hardly be mentioned.
While such ideas reflect castration anxiety, they originate in even
earlier experiences, as discussed in Chapter 3.
t In this context, but without wishing to speculate too far, I should
like to point out that it was approximately in the geographical area
where the mother goddesses were worshipped that the use of harem
eunuchs was widespread. The explanation generally given is that eunuchs
are safe as harem servants because they cannot have sexual relations
with the women in their care. But if this were the only reason, one
might ask why female servants were not used. Although it is perhaps
far-fetched, the possibility might be considered that this custom was a
remnant of the rites of the mother goddess. It might also be based
partly on the women's desire to have subservient to them men who had
first been deprived of their male sexuality. The castrated priests of
Cybele were, after all, as much servants of the mother goddess as
eunuchs were the servants of women in the harem.
Ritual Surgery / 93
The fact that the mutilation was self-chosen and self-
inflicted suggests that the psychological motivation came
from deeper layers of the personality than would be true if
itwere imposed by others. It also indicates that men were
ready and willing to become "female" in order to share
women's superior powers.
Circumcision
While history does not furnish a connection between

actual castration and the castration complex, that does
not prove there is no link between castration and circum-
cision. Parallel to the history of castration in the worship
of the Magna Mater are the biblical story of Zipporah
and the numerous myths current in modern preliterate
societies. According to these, it was women again who
imposed circumcision on men, a belief that is also sug-
gested by some forms of postcircumcision behavior. For
example, revenge by men against women for intended or
actual circumcision is acted out among the Kikuyu of
western Africa: the newly circumcised boys, in groups of
fifteen or twenty, attack and rape old women and finally
kill them. 10
Manyfeatures of initiation rites suggest that they are
in part sacrificial offerings to mother figures. Spencer and
Gillen (and others) have reported numerous instances
in which the initiates present their foreskins, blood, or
teeth to women. Among the Western Arunta, the fore-
skin is presented to a sister of the novice, who dries it,
smears it with red ochre, and wears it suspended from
her neck. 11 In some tribes, after a boy has been circum-
cised, the blood from the wound is collected in a shield
and taken to his mother, who drinks some of it, and gives
food to the man who brought it to her. Among the Aus-
12
tralian Binbinga tribe, the blood running from the subin-

cision wound was collected by the subincised boy on a
13 Westermarck
piece of bark and taken to his mother.
reports that the foreskin of the circumcised Ait Yusi boy
is taken to his mother who fastens it to the little stick
that supports her spindle, puts it on her head, and dances

with it. Among some related peoples, the boy's mother
swallows the foreskin. 14
Swallowing, or oral incorporation, is the most archaic
method of acquiring the desired qualities of an object,
if not the object itself. The first positive instinctual be-
havior toward an attractive object is to lessen the distance
between self and object and finally, in the most archaic
form, to swallow it; the first negative instinctual behavior
toward a repulsive object is to widen the distance and spit
it out. 15
Oral incorporation of parts of the genitals of the other
sex also occurs in Liberian Poro initiation. The foreskins
are dried and turned over to the woman who has charge
of the girls' initiation society, and they are cooked and
eaten by all the girls. Similarly, the clitoridi and labia
minora removed during the girls' initiation are given to
the property man of the Poro society and are cooked and
eaten by the boys at circumcision. 16 As is often true of oral
incorporation, it is hard to decide which is stronger: the
hostile desire to take away from the other sex, or the
envious desire to have the incorporated parts. Still a very
similar underlying ambivalence seems to exist in societies
even so far apart in geography and culture as the Liberian
and Australian. In any case the custom leaves little doubt
that initiation is greatly concerned with the organs, if not
the functions of the other sex.
Among the Tikopia incision of the foreskin takes the
place of circumcision. It is performed over a sheet of
bark cloth, which is then hung around the neck of an
"unmarried mother" (in kinship terms) of the boy. As
soon as the wound is bandaged, the boy "is made to
stand, the waistcloth he is wearing is removed once again,
and he dons a new one. In this he is assisted by the
mother's sisters and by the wives of his mother's brothers
who have brought the fresh garments. . .
. This ceaseless
changing of garments has the object of allowing his female
relatives to .. wear around their necks the garments
.
they remove." 17
Among certain natives of Victoria (Australia), "On
arriving at manhood a youth was conducted by three
leaders of the tribe into the recesses of the woods. . . .
Being furnished with a suitable piece of wood, he knocks

out two of the front teeth of his upper jaw, and on return-
ing to the camp gives them to his mother." 18 Collins in
his description of this rite does not say definitely who
received the teeth, but infers it was women. 19 Spencer
Ritual Surgery / 95
and Gillen remark that while many tribes treat the knock-
ing out of teeth as a major ritual, the Central Australian
tribes have reduced it to a rudiment that has lost its
original significance as applied to men only, and has been
extended to women as well.* In the rudimentary Arunta
rite, the tooth is thrown in the direction of the camp of
the mythical mothers; the authors interpret this to indicate
that possibly in early times the mother was entitled to the
tooth. 20
Loeb is convinced that circumcision was originally per-
formed as a sacrifice to a female goddess. He finds it
highly improbable that it could have arisen spontaneously
from different causes in different parts of the world, since
the custom is not of an obvious nature. The wide variety
of explanations offered, he feels, should not detract from
this fact; with so ancient a practice it was bound to be
differently interpreted and rationalized in various places. 21
He follows Barton, 22 who holds that originally all Semitic
circumcision was a sacrifice to the goddess of fertility;
this placed the child under her protection and consecrated
its reproductive powers to her service.
23
The role of women in receiving the products of mutila-

tion— blood, foreskin, teeth —
and the resemblance of such
gifts to offerings, is indeed striking. I have spoken of
possible reasons why women covet these gifts. But what
of the donors? Sacrificial offerings are made for various
reasons, whether to placate the gods or in response to
demands. But a primary reason is the worshipper's hope
of a return for his offering; often a reward much greater
than the value of his gift. Thus Australian aboriginal men
may present their foreskins to their mothers or sisters
partly to ensure the women's good will, or partly to satisfy
their demand for circumcision. But we may also infer that
the men expect something in return for the sacrifice. As
to what that may be we can only speculate. I suggest that
* In view of the opinion (see page 105) that the practice of
circumcision may have spread from men to women, a conjecture in
support of which little tangible evidence can be presented, it seems
worth stressing Spencer and Gillen's conclusion that a custom or ritual
connected with initiation loses much of its original meaning when ex-
tended to the other sex. Apparently these authors, too, felt that rites
of initiation are so closely related to the differences in sex functions
between men and women that they must have lost most of their signifi-
cance when they could be applied to either sex.
it might be a share in women's great and secret power of
procreation, a gift that only women can bestow because

only women possess it.
Myths on the Origin of Circumcision
Although mythical accounts say that male circumcision

was first performed by women, it should be realized that
the emotional impact of myths is different in preliterate
society than in our own. The events they tell of take place
in a past that seems dim and remote, but at the same time
eternal, since it also shapes what is done in the present.
In their emotional effects, events described in myths have
an immediacy in the people's present lives that compare
with a young child's experience. To him, figures from fairy
tales (witches, ferocious or protecting animals) are often
more real or powerful an influence on his emotional life
than persons in the real world.
If the myths state that women originally circumcised
men, then, in a way, they still do, although the execution
may now be vested in men. We may conjecture that if
people believe firmly that in mythical times women cir-
cumcised boys, and if the operation is now performed by
men, they may now experience it as circumcision by both
women and men. Not only the circumcised boy but the
circumcisor too may feel he is taking part in a function
that was originally female.
In Murngin tradition, the Wawilak saga is the most im-
portant one centering around rites de passage. The mythi-
cal Wawilak sisters represent the two female sex func-
tions that seem to fascinate men, or both men and women,
—
most one sister is menstruating, the other pregnant. The
myth states simply and directly: "Circumcision started
when those two women tried to cut their boys" in mythi-
cal times. 24 It was only when the male ancestors dreamed
of them that the rites passed into the hands of men. 25
According to other myths women introduced or changed
the tool with which circumcision is performed. In one
region of Australia the mythical account states that women
introduced the stone knife, where a fire stick was used
before. These women threw a sharp piece of flint to the
men who then began to use it in circumcising boys. 26
Still another myth relates that a woman gave the stone
Ritual Surgery / 97
knife to the ancestors for circumcision, and that initiation
of men was originally derived from that of women.
In a myth current among the Adnjamatana tribe of
South Australia, the originator of circumcision is described
as neither male nor female nor human but a semihuman
bird, Jurijurilja, one of the totemic ancestors. This bird
once threw a boomerang, and as it returned, it circum-
cised the bird and entered the vulvas of his wives, cutting
them internally so that they bled. This caused their monthly
menstrual periods. 27 Here menstruation is viewed as a
consequence of circumcision. The story not only estab-
lishes a direct and close connection between circumcision
and menstruation; indirectly it suggests that just as pro-
creation in women cannot take place before they begin to
menstruate, circumcision is an analogous precondition.
The legend of the Unthippa women, one of the most
important myths of the Arunta, tells us that "When [these
women] . . found
. people . . about to perform the
. . . .
rite of circumcision upon some boys

. [the women]
. . . . .
took the boys on their shoulders and carried them along

with them, leaving them at various spots en route, after
performing circumcision on them." 28 * Then the women
wandered on until they reached a place where, because
of exhaustion from dancing, their sexual organs dropped
out, forming deposits of red ochre. Similar stories are
told of other mythical women, and "the deposits of red
ochre which are found in various parts [of the country]
are associated with women's blood . . Tradition says .
that .. . women .
. caused blood to flow from the vulva
.
in large quantities, and so formed the deposit of red

ochre." 29
The myth not only asserts that the Unthippa women in-
vented circumcision (a belief acted out in present-day
circumcision rites) but also indicates that they bled from
or lost their sex organs after they had circumcised the
boys. If this sequence of events has any meaning, it sug-
gests that bleeding from, or the loss or mutilation of the
femal sex organ as in the introcision of girls, is a conse-
quence of (punishment for?) the circumcision of boys.
Red ochre is thus of great importance in puberty rites.
* It should be noted, in reference to remarks on circumcision as a
precondition of marriage, that these circumcising women belonged to
a group into which, according to the kinship system, any of the boys
could have married.
In the thinking of these people, it is not simply symbolic
but is actually the mythical women's sex organs or genital
blood; thus in its wide ceremonial use red ochre must be
viewed as menstrual blood or else very closely related
to it.*
The occasion of circumcision is the only one at which
women of these tribes are permitted to decorate them-
selves as warriors and to carry men's weapons. After the
novice has sat down among the men, "The women, who
had been awaiting hisonce began to dance,
arrival, at
carrying shields in their hands. The reason assigned for
this is that the mythical Unthippa women also carried . . .
shields andthe initiation ceremony must commence

. . .
with an imitation of their dance. (Roth describes the . . .
women as decorated after the manner of warriors about to

engage in a fight during the early part of the proceed-
ings.) Except in connection with this ceremony women
may never carry shields, which are exclusively the property
of the men." 30
"... At a later time ... in the ceremony just be- . . .
fore the performance of the actual ceremony [of circumci-

sion] one of the women placing her head between
. . .
[the novice's] legs suddenly lifts him up on her shoulders

and runs off with him, as the Unthippa women did,
. . .
but unlike what happened in the past, the boy is again

seizedby the men and brought back." 31
After describing this ceremony, Spencer and Gillen re-
mark that whatever these Unthippa women may have
been, the myth indicates that women once played an even
more important part in such ceremonies than they do in
modern times. 32
The people of the New Hebrides state explicitly that
women invented circumcision. They say that one day a
man went into the jungle with his sister. She climbed a
breadfruit tree to cut down the ripe fruit with a bamboo.
When she had finished she threw down the bamboo, which
accidentally cut the man's foreskin. After the man re-
covered, he had intercourse with a woman, who found
it so good that she told another woman; soon this man
was in great demand, to the fury of other men; "but their

* Red ochre and other red paints are also used almost universally
for decoration or other ritual purposes with no relation to menstrual
blood. Red paint may be said to symbolize feminine genital blood only
if it is explicitly so stated, as in this case.
Ritual Surgery / 99
women sneer at them and say they need to be like that
one. So they pay him to tell the secret. He tells, and they
have in such wise cut their children ever after." 33 *
I have already alluded to women's insistence on cir-
cumcision, in some preliterate societies, as a prerequisite
to coitus, or at least to a permanent sexual relationship.
Here I might add that Seligman and Seligman, 34 Larken, 35
and Czekanowski 36 have all commented on how rapidly
circumcision is spreading among the African Azande be-
cause the women prefer it: "Circumcision is a recent intro-
duction; it is, however, tending to become general in the
Congo and is spreading in the Sudan ... it has no religious
significance, but is insisted upon by the women, who like
it."
37
A thirteen year old African Sebeyi boy told Bryk
that everybody wants to be circumcised because it is
beautiful and because the women reject uncircumcised
men as sex partners. 38 While prepubertal girls are avail-
able to these boys, mature women insist that the men they
cohabit with must be circumcised.
Bryk reports a related custom of certain African women.
At the very end of the circumcision ceremonies, "His girl
comes . they talk all through the night. Early in the
. .
morning she gives him her hand and in parting says: 'I'll
return tonight and then I'll give you my vagina. dear My
man. Now I love you truly; you'll come for me, and
. . .
buy me,' " 39 which is as much as to say, "Marry me." As

noted of the Tiv, no sacrificial element is apparent in
women's insistence on circumcision before coitus, although
it may be present.
Despite the evidence supplied by myths that certain

initiation rituals originated not withmen but with women,
the possibility is not ruled out that they were actually in-
vented by boys or men and inflicted by men. An act that
tradition ascribes to women was not necessarily so in-
vented. In animistic thinking, that which caused a person
to take a certain action may appear as that which inflicted
the action upon him. If women's power to bear young
aroused envy in men, then the men may have devised
rites for dealing with their envy, and later come to regard
women as responsible for originating those rites. And
psychologically speaking, they were. Thus the suggestion
* For other myths relating to women's role in originating puberty rites
see the discussion of the Kunapipi ritual in the Appendix.
that women originally inflicted circumcision on men
should be construed as having either of two meanings:
(a) women developed the idea that men should bleed
from their genitals (as the girl at the Orthogenic School
did) or (b) men envied women's procreative powers and
were "forced'' to take steps to deal with their envy; these
measures they then experienced as imposed by women.
We cannot, in any case, rely on myths, and often not
even on the statements made to anthropologists, for any
valid explanation of women's role. Resting the blame for
the ritual on women might, after all, be an effort to shift
responsibility from its rightful place with men. The ritual
itself is still our more reliable source. Let us turn, there-
fore, to subincision, to see if this extreme rite may indicate
whether it was originally imposed by men or women;
whether any feature of the rite shows the extent to which
it is externally imposed and the extent to which it meets
the inner needs of youth; whether it seems to be a sacri-

ficial offering to women or mainly the result of a desire
to identify with women; and whether it originates in man's
envy of women.
Ritual Subincision
Anatomically it is subincision, not circumcision, that is

most far-reaching of all ceremonies in making
initiation
men physically like women. Since it is practiced in only a
few areas of the world it is relatively little discussed in
the literature, although it involves very radical surgery
and probably alters the sensations during coitus. It is
described as follows:
"The operation consists essentially in slitting open the
whole or part of the penile urethra along the ventral or
under surface of the penis. The initial cut is generally
about an inch long, but this may subsequently be en-
larged so that the incision extends from the glans to the
root of the scrotum, in this way the whole of the under
part of the penile urethra is laid open. The latter form
of the operation is universal among the Central tribes [of
Australia]. As one proceeds outwards the intensity of the
operation becomes reduced, until we meet with forms
which strongly resemble the condition of hypospadias,
that is, forms in which a small slit is made in the urethra
towards either the glans or the scrotum, or both." 40
Ritual Surgery / 101
Subincision also interferes with the ability to direct the
stream of urine, and afterwards men urinate in the squat-
ting position as women do. True, the urination posture
depends to some degree on custom: among the Pilaga,
men stand to urinate in the forest but squat to urinate in
the village compound, while the women always use the
standing posture;* and in some African and Filipino
tribes that do not subincise, the squatting position is the
only or preferred one for men. Still, the behavior of most
human beings and of some animals suggest that the urinat-
ing position is based mainly on physiology. In most so-
cieties, in any case, next to childbirth and menstruation,
the difference in function between the sexes is demon-
strated most obviously by the difference in urination pos-
ture. Certainly it seems to be noted by children, and to
interest them, almost as early as the difference in the sex
organs.
Subincision among the Arunta may take place five or
six weeks after circumcision, depending on the time needed
for recovery from the initial operation. In other tribes,
the elapsed time may be much longer. From this cere-
mony women are excluded, and it proceeds, in part, as
follows:
"... As soon as ever [the novice] was in position an-
other man sat astride of his body, grasped the penis and
put the urethra on the stretch. The operator then ap-
proached and quickly, with a stone knife, laid open the
urethra from below When all was over the [newly
. . .
initiated]were led to one side while they squatted over

shields into which the blood was allowed to drain . . .
and from which it is emptied into the centre of a fire

which is made for the purpose. ... As a result of the
operation micturition is always . . . performed in a
. . .
squatting position. . . .
"It very often happens that, as soon as the operation

has been performed on a novice, one or more of the
younger men present, who have been operated on before,
stand up and voluntarily undergo a second operation,"
considering that the incision has not been carried far
enough. "Standing out on the clear space with legs . . .
wide apart and hands behind his back, the man shouts
out . .'Mura [wife's mother] mine, come and cut my
.
* Personal communication of Jules Henry.

subincision down to the root.'. Most men . undergo
. . . .
the second operation and some come forward a third time,

though a man is often as old as thirty or forty-five before
he submits to this second operation." 41
There are no accounts from these tribes of men request-
ing circumcision or circumcising themselves. Thus, while
the minor operation of circumcision is nearly always per-
formed by others, the more radical subincision, like ritual
castration in the service of the great maternal deities, is
occasionally self-inflicted or, more often, inflicted on the
subject at his request. We
might therefore infer that sub-
incision too, is more self-motivated than circumcision.
While the Arunta say that circumcision originated with
the Unthippa women, no direct connection between sub-
incision and mythical females is reported. Nevertheless,
a connection is suggested by the subincised men's be-
havior on the morning following the operation:
"At daylight on the morning of the next day the men
provide themselves with fire-sticks and, surrounding the
young man, conduct him to the women. When the . . .
party is within a short distance of the women ... the

young man steps out from the centre of the group and
throws his boomerang high up in the direction of the spot
at which his mother was supposed to have lived in mythi-
cal times. This throwing of the boomerang in the direc-
tion of the mythical mother's camp .occurs [also] dur-
. .
ing the performance of . . . ceremonies . . . which ac-

company the knocking out of teeth." 42
Such attack against the mythical mother may represent
either a desire for revenge or an effort on the young man's
part to protect himself against a danger. It might also be
construed as symbolically putting women in their place,
once the ritual mutilation has occurred. Whatever the
reason, the fact remains that immediately after subinci-
sion (or the knocking out of teeth which in some tribes re-
places circumcision or subincision), a symbolic attack is
carried out against the symbolic mother. This time the
men do not use relatively innocuous pieces of bark, as
they do when the women try to overran the circumcision
ground earlier in the ceremonies. Now the most potent
weapon of the tribe is used. And while all the men to-
gether threw bark at the women, this time only the victim
throws the boomerang; it seems to be less a purely cere-
monial act and more seriously meant as a symbol of
personal revenge or attack.
Spencer and Gillen were puzzled by the custom, though
they tried to rationalize it within the then prevalent frame
of reference —
i.e., that the purpose of initiation was to
enter manhood and to break the ties between mother and
child. Nevertheless, they were dissatisfied with their own
explanations and ended by stating that the significance
of throwing the boomerang at the mythical mother was
difficult to see.
Such behavior would indeed be incomprehensible if
aggression were directed against the real mother. It was
not she, but the ancient mother who, either directly or
through men's envy of women, caused subincision.
Whether this suggests that maternal figures inflicted or
demanded the operation as a precondition of marriage
in prehistoric times; or whether the ancient mother image
is that which every man carries within himself from child-
hood: or whether this figure is the man's childish image
of the mother projected into ancient times —
these pos-
sibilities are irrelevant here. It may still be inferred that
subincision is felt to be "caused" by an archaic mother.
Though there are myths of the origin of circumcision,
there are none, to my knowledge, explaining subincision,
and the Arunta natives have no notion of its beginnings;
Spencer and Gillen say that it is equivalent to the open-
ing of the vulva. 43 Otherwise they feel it is useles to
speculate. 44 Instead they quote Roth, who remarked on
the subincision of men "that, on the principle of a form
of mimicry, the analogous sign was inflicted on the male
to denote corresponding fitness on his part." 45 This state-
ment of Roth's struck me as one of the deepest insights
into the whole problem.
Among these tribes, the fertility of flora and fauna is
the very essence of life and livelihood, and initiation is
itself an increase ritual. Yet these people understand very
little of the physiology of human procreation or the male
role in it. Opening the vagina is supposed to facilitate
conception, and perhaps it seemed plausible that the
wider the opening, the more likely conception and the
easier childbirth. It is much harder to understand how
operations on the penis were expected to influence pro-
creation.
How little the Australians know about the actual
process of procreation may be illustrated by the follow-
ing report:
"I investigated the problem
as exhaustively as possible,
and these natives in of over thirty years contact
spite
with the white had still no idea of the true relation
between sexual intercourse and conception. The aborigines

asserted that a young girl could not bear children; after
puberty conception only occurred when a man, generally
her husband, found a spirit child. Questioned on the
function of sexual intercourse natives admitted that it
prepared the way for the entry of the spirit child. 'Him
made 'em road .
;
.young girl no got 'em road.' Most
.
women believed that the semen remained in the vagina

and had nothing to do with the child. 'Him nothing,' was
the trenchant reply, when after circuitous inquiry I finally
suggested the facts of the case. Several women thought
that the semen entered the uterus, and that the embryo
floated in it like a waterlily,' as one expressed it. Natives
—
with a hint of ridicule for the illogicality of the white
would declare impatiently 'All day me bin sleep alonga
him. Me
no more bin catch 'em picaninny.' ForestA
River woman whose child was born some months after
her husband's death, advanced this as evidence of the
irrelevance of sexual intercourse, which all natives, apart
from its preparatory function, regarded simply as an
erotic pastime."48
Even if the Australians do feel vaguely that the man
has something to do with conception, they can never be
certain as long as they do not understand the exact
processes. When rational knowledge is lacking, dogmatic
certainty often fills the gap. But however strongly stated,
it never quite eliminates the discomfort of doubt (in
institutionalized religion often considered sinful). Doubts
are as likely as total absence of knowledge to create
insecurity and lead to compensating measures.
Nevertheless, while the people do not understand hu-
man procreation, one connection they can establish with
certainty: children cannot be born to a woman unless
she has first begun to menstruate. "Fitness" on the part
of the female is indicated by menstruation. Fitness on
the part of the male, however, is by no means so obvious,
and what preliterate peoples do not possess in reality,
they often try to acquire by magic.
Still referring to Roth, Spencer and Gillen go on to say
that his theory "still leaves unexplained the mutilation of
women, and it would seem to be almost simpler to imagine
that this was a consequence of the mutilation of the

men." 47 It might not only be simpler, but correct. If we
assume that the men felt compelled to make themselves
similar to women, and if they even dimly realized that
they inflicted injuries on themselves to become as fertile
as women, then we can understand why, when they failed,
they were also angry at women, threw boomerangs at
them, and perhaps, after gaining political ascendancy,
sought to retaliate by inflicting on women the mutilation
men undergo because of them.
Even if men were once forced to submit to subincision,
they would hardly continue it and voluntarily request or
inflict on themselves a reopening of the wound unless
motivated by some inner force. No tribal lore is taught
by it. It is no rite de passage, since it does not change
the person's status. It is a voluntarily chosen mutilation,
not a mutilation of the son by the father.
If, however, one begins with the fact that the sub-
incision wound is called "vulva," then the operation it-
self and the repeated opening of and bleeding from the
wound become understandable. Then it appears that the
purpose of the ritual may be to reproduce symbolically
the female sex organ, while the reopening of the wound
may symbolize the periodic phenomenon of menstruation.
Statements made by the people themselves confirm such
an interpretation. The Murngin say: "The blood that
runs from an incision and with which the dancers paint
themselves and their emblems is something more than
—
a man's blood it is the menses of the old Wawilak
women . . 'That blood we put all over those men is
.
all the same as the blood that came from the old
woman's vagina. It isn't the blood of those men any
more because it has been sung over and made strong.
The hole in the man's arm isn't that hole any more. It
is all the same as the vagina of that old woman that had
"
the blood coming out of it.' 48
Lommel also notes that a red pandanus blossom is
inserted into a bleeding subincision wound, the purpose
being to keep the slit as red as possible after it has
healed. 49 And Roth states that in the Pitta-Pitta and
Boulia District dialects the word for an introcised penis
means "the one with a vulva." 50 Hogbin reports that the
Wogeo men of New
Guinea say that women are auto-
matically by
cleansed menstruation, but that men, to
guard against illness, periodically incise the penis and
allow some blood to flow; an operation which is often
called "man's menstruation." 51 Not only the Wogeo but
also the Murngin and Dwoma of New Guinea use par-
allel names for menstrual bleeding and bleeding from
the subincision opening.
The negative phase of the menstruation taboo is com-
monly revealed in the conviction that menstruating women
are unclean. In their mimicry, men repeat this negativism
in initiation, and among many peoples the novices are
considered to be, or make themselves, dirty. Qatu ini-
tiates (northern New Hebrides) were secluded for a
month; they remained unwashed and came out black
with dirt and soot. 52 Among the aborigines of Victoria,
the youth's body was daubed with mud and filth, and he
had to go through camp for several days and nights
throwing filth at everyone he met. 53 Thus boys being
initiatedcontaminate everyone they touch, just as men-
struatingwomen are believed to do. In New Guinea, all
avoidances imposed on women during the menstrual
period also apply to men while they bleed from the
subincision wound. 54
Other observers report similar attitudes. According to
Roheim: "The ritual of subincision consists in the
. . .
older men (the initiators) running backwards and show-

ing their subincision hole. The blood spurts forth from
the subincision hole and the youngsters see the great
mystery of initiation. It is quite clear what is meant when
they call the subincision hole a 'vagina' or a 'penis womb'.
. .
. They are offering an artificial vagina as compensa-
tion for the real one ." 55 and "The blood squirting
. .
from the penis is called woman, or milk." 66 In another

Central Australian tribe, the Urrabuna, subincision is
known as verrupu, and the vagina is sometimes designated
by that term although its proper name is pintha. 57
These and similar data suggested to Bryk that "through
subincision the young man is supposed to be changed
into a woman. . The initiation ceremonies change
. .
boys into women, or, rather, manwomen." 58

Roheim stresses the significance of the use of the term
"milk" in the sacred songs to describe the blood derived
from the perns. Comparing food taboos, he remarks on
the similarity between those applying to men bleeding
from subincision and those for menstruating women. In
further support of his contention that the men are
playing the part of menstruating women, 59 he quotes an
Arunta, who stated that if a woman sees a man's blood
flowing from the veins she must either be killed, or a
large group of men must have intercourse with her.
Roheim feels that they do this to reassert their manhood
which is in danger if their ("menstrual") blood is seen
by a woman. 60 Another parallel may be found in the
stories of mythical women who used their menstrual
blood to smear their ceremonial poles, just as men now
use blood from the subincision wound for the same pur-
pose. 61
It may well be that the magical qualities generally
ascribed to menstruation and menstrual blood account
for its supposed use on the ceremonial poles in mythical
times. But whenever a potent magic is to be invoked by
these Australians, blood is used. The magical quality
ascribed particularly to menstrual blood forms the basis
of the theory of subincision put forth by Ashley-Montagu:
"The element common to all forms of subincision is
the inevitable effusion of blood. . .Briefly, the suggestion
.
here is that male subincision or incision corresponds, or

is intended to correspond, to female menstruation. In-
deed, I may at once state the hypothesis which I am about
to offer as an explanation of the probable origin of sub-
incision in Australia; it is that subincision in the male was
originally instituted in order to cause the male to resemble
the female with respect to the occasional effusion of
blood which is naturally characteristic of the female, and
possibly also with respect to producing some feminization
in the appearance of the male organ." 62
While he recognizes that the purpose of subincision is
to make men resemble women physiologically and an-
atomically, he thinks it is only "for the purpose of per-
mitting the bad humours of the body, and such as are
likely to be produced during the performance of certain
tasks with which a great deal of power is associated, to
be liberated and voided." 63 To my way of thinking, his
analogy is not broad enough.
The appearance of menstrual bleeding indicates the
ability to bear children; its temporary stoppage during
pregnancy suggests a further link between menstruation
and creating new life. Thus menstrual blood, or any blood
drawn from the genitals, may seem a substance that has
powerful influence over life. The Arunta believe it will
restore endangered life, as in cases of sickness. While
menstrual blood is supposed to restore power to the man,
blood from the subincised penis is believed to have the
same effect on woman. When menstrual blood is not
available and a man is seriously ill, blood is drawn from
the labia minora and one of the women takes a witchetty
grub, dips it into the blood and gives it to the man to
eat. Afterward his body is rubbed over with the blood.
When an aboriginal woman is very sick, one of the sons
of her youngers sisters draws blood from the subincision
wound; she drinks part of it and he rubs the remainder
over her body, adding a coating of red ochre and grease.
In all cases of illness, the first remedy is to rub red ochre
over the body. 64
It could be readily understood if, in higher civilizations,

and with the greater importance of men, the ritual of
subincision were reduced to circumcision. Unfortunately,
the available evidence does not show such an evolution.
Ritual castration, the most extensive mutilation, occurs
among relatively high civilizations and is not found
among the most primitive. But its absence is under-
standable, since to relate the penis in any way with
fertility, even negatively, calls for recognition of its role
in procreation; and this understanding is found in the
higher, not the lower civilizations. Anthropological data
do not suggest that ritual circumcision developed later in
history than subincision and the diffusion theory indicates
that subincision developed considerably later. 65 Indeed,
the fact that subincision generally follows circumcision
in the sequence of rites suggests that circumcision is
probably older.
Thus even the order of the two mutilations indicates
that circumcision may have been a male substitute for the
first menstruation of girls, and that subincision was a
second effort to procreate, when the first attempt failed.
:
The Men-Women
Up to now I have dealt mostly with initiation rites that

include circumcision and subincision. But many initia-
tions do not include either one. Moreover, many initiation
—
rites both among tribes that practice the two mutila-
tions and those that do not — contain other elements that
are most readily explained as a reenactment of childbirth.
Apart from altering his own body, man can try to
emphasize his contribution to childbearing negatively or
positively. Using the positive approach, he can claim
directly or symbolically to give birth to men; this is the
method used among tribes whose initiation behavior is
discussed below. The negative way is to de-emphasize the
importance of the woman's contribution (illustrated by
the biblical promise of God to make of Abraham a great
nation, with no mention of Sarah) or to become con-
vinced that it is negligible (exemplified by the Pilaga;
see page 131); or to attract attention away from the
actual process of childbirth and toward the man, by such
customs as the couvade.
In general, as Briffault has noted, the actual process of
childbirth is ceremonially a rather inconspicuous event
in many preliterate societies. Often the mother simply
goes into the bush to be delivered, washes the newborn
child, and then goes back to work.
1
Since Spencer and
Gillen have little to say about childbirth or customs
related to it, while they discuss at some length the belief
that only men can find spirit children, we may infer that
this matter-of-fact attitude prevailed among the Arunta,
although Kaberry's report (see page 122) suggests there
is a certain amount of related ceremony.
The Couvade
The custom of the couvade surrounds childbirth with
an elaborate ritual, but a ritual of men, not of women. As
it is practiced among one people, the couvade is de-
scribed as follows
"The woman works as usual up until a few hours
before birth; she goes to the forest with some women, and
109
there the birth takes place. In a few hours she is up and
at work. ... As soon as the child is born, the father takes
to his hammock, and abstains from work, from meat and
all food but weak gruel of cassava meal, from smoking,
from washing himself, and above all, from touching weap-
ons of any sort, and is nursed and cared for by all the
women of the place. . This goes on for days, sometimes
. .
weeks." 2
Briffault says that the purpose of the couvade is to
between the husband and
stress the indissoluble relation
the wife's group which comes into being when a child is
born to them. 3 One can understand why this occasion is
chosen to celebrate the relation, but the purpose does not
account for the specific means.
Malinowski explains the couvade somewhat similarly:
"In the ideas, customs and social arrangements which
refer to conception, pregnancy and childbirth the fact of
maternity is culturally determined over and above its
biological nature. Paternity is established in a symmetrical
way by rules in which the father has partly to imitate the
tabus, observances and rules of conduct traditionally im-
posed on the mother. . The function of couvade is the
. .
establishment of social paternity by the symbolic assimila-

tion of the father to the mother." 4
I agree with Malinowski that the couvade is a custom
over and above the biological nature of maternity, since
it reverses the biological roles. While it is a "sympathetic"
association according to Briffault, the man who envies the

woman's ability to bear children has no "sympathy" for
her. She is expected if not compelled to resume her work
immediately, though she is exhausted from labor and the
physiological postpartum readjustments. The husband
and father, on the other hand, rests. His empathy with
the mother is so great that he recreates in himself the need
for special care that would be appropriate to her and
which he denies to her.
We may look to comparable types of behavior in our
own society for help in understanding these actions. Many
situations exist in which we observe such role playing,
such "sympathetic" association; in which one person plays
the role of another without regard to biological facts.
Consider the small child who dresses up in his parent's
clothing, copying paternal behavior. Here, too, is seen
a denial of biological differences, a symbolic assimilation
The Men-Women / 111
of an alien role. Functionally it seems a preparation of

the child for his adult role, but that explanation does not
answer the question of why the child wishes to prepare
himself for the role or to assume it prematurely. What
we learn by observing the child is that he play-acts the
role of father or mother because he wishes to be in their
place, or at least to be like them — and at once. He is
not thinking of his future role in the family, nor does
he wish to emphasize his "indissoluble relation" to his
parents. He imitates his parent because he is envious of
or strongly attracted by the importance, the power, and
sexual privilege of the parent.
While the couvade may very well serve those ends
ascribed to it by the functional anthropologists, psycho-
logically it seems closer to what motivates the child in
playing parent. The man wishes to find out how it feels
to give birth, or he wishes to tell himself that he can. In
the pretense, he tries to detract from the woman's impor-
tance; but like the child, he copies only the insignificant
externals and not the essentials, which indeed he can-
not duplicate. Such an apeing of superficials only empha-
sizes the more how much the real, essential powers are
envied. Women, emotionally satisfied by having given
birth and secure in their ability to produce life, can
agree to the couvade; men need it to fill the emotional
vacuum created by their inability to bear children.
Transvestism
The analogy of the child dressing up in his parent's

clothes can be examined more literally in those rites in
which donning the clothes of the other sex figure im-
portantly. The Naven ceremony described by Bateson is
a central rite of one New Guinea tribe where the general
behavior of the men is extremely masculine. In the Naven
rite they go further than most tribes in revealing their
desire for the ferninine. One outstanding feature is the
exchange of clothing between the sexes, but in this case
it is the sponsor, not the boy initiate, who dresses up in
woman's attire. Specifically, he wears dirty widow's weeds

and is referred to as "mother." The masquerade is not
intended to deceive; everyone knows that he is a man
acting like a woman. The wearing of widow's clothes
suggests something further: that the novice has only one
parent, a ritual "mother," and no father; and the mother
is neither all male nor all female, but both. The cere-
monial "mother" is also made to look pregnant, his
abdomen being bound with string like that of a pregnant
woman. Thus attired, he wanders about the village look-
ing for his "child," inquiring for him in a high-pitched,
cracked (female) voice. 5
It is also common in initiation for the novice to wear
clothes and adornments of the other sex. Eiselen speaks
of the boxwera dress, a female garment the making and
wearing of which is important in the rites of the Bamase-
mola boys. 6 Many similar examples are also found in
Frazer. He reports, for instance, that East African boys,
after circumcision, dress as women and continue this
mode of dress until their wounds are healed, after which
they are shaved and assume warriors' clothes. Among the
Nandi, young girls give the boys their own clothes and
ornaments, which the boys wear for several months be-
fore they are circumcised. As soon as the operation is
over, they exchange the girls' clothing for the garments
and necklaces of adult women, provided by their mothers;
these garments they wear for months after circumcision. 7
Similarly, among the African Chaga, the boys who return
from circumcision are given their mothers' clothes to
wear and are addressed as mpora, a term generally used
of young women. 8
Nothing could emphasize more clearly the unconscious
connection between the circumcision of boys and the
change from girl into woman. It is as if, among the
East Africans, the change from girls' to women's clothing
is used by the boys according to the tradition to declare:
Circumcision has changed us from nonmenstruating (sex-
ually immature) persons into persons who can show their
sexual abilities as clearly as women do by bearing
children. That the boys receive girls' clothing from any
girl,but women's clothes only from their mothers, may
also signify that their mothers reward them for circum-
cision.
Frazer concludes that the custom of exchanging clothes
during initiation rites has been "practiced from a variety
of superstitious motives, among which the principle would
seem to be the wish to please certain powerful spirits
or to deceive others." 9 But who are these "powerful
spirits," and why is it pleasing to them that one sex
The Men-Women / 113
should dress in the garments of the other? And who is

deceived, and what is the purpose of the deception? Who
invented these spirits; that is, from whose unconscious do
they spring? Are they the projections of the men, of the
women, of the elders, or of the initiates? Or are they
perhaps, in some measure, the projections of all of them?
Frazer and other authors report mostly of boys' wear-
ing women's clothing, but transvestism in initiation is by
no means restricted to the male sex. Hollis reports a
parallel custom among Nandi girls who, three days be-
fore their circumcision, are dressed as warriors, and given
a tobacco pouch (otherwise a male prerogative) and
men's body ornaments. 10 Basuto women during the time
of their initiation wear men's clothing, carry weapons and
11
are very impertinent to the men.
It is possible to see in these customs a ritualized last
effort to enjoy a social and possibly also a sexual role
other than the one prescribed by society and imposed by
biology. Now, on the threshold of adulthood, boys and
girls are given a last chance to play both sexual roles. In
initiation the desire seems very strongly stated, perhaps
because it is for the last time; afterward, each person
must settle down permanently to the single behavior as-
signed to his sex.
Initiation as Rebirth
That initiation is a symbolic rebirth, usually with the

male sponsors acting the part of those who give birth to
the initiates, is now widely accepted. Again and again,
in tribe after tribe, anthropologists report puberty rituals
in which rebirth plays a prominent part. Among more
sophisticated peoples, it is sometimes an abstract, sym-
bolic drama. Among others it is a frank acting out of
childbirth. As in all things related to initiation, there is
infinite variation, but the following account may be taken
as fairly representative:
"In the west of Ceram [one of the Indonesian islands]
boys at puberty are admitted to the Kakian association.
. . The Kakian house is an oblong wooden shed, situated
.
under the darkest trees in the depth of the forest, and

is built to admit so little light that it is impossible to see
what goes on in it. . . Thither the boys
. . . are conducted
.
blindfold, followed by their parents and relations. ... As

soon as each boy has disappeared within the precincts, a
dull chopping sound is heard, a fearful cry rings out, and
a sword or spear, dripping with blood, is thrust through
the roof of the shed. This is a token that the boy's head
has been cut off, and that the devil has carried him
away to the other world. ... So at sight of the bloody
sword the mothers weep and wail, crying that the devil
has murdered their children. During his stay in the
. . .
Kakian house . the chief

. . warns the lads, under. . .
pain of death . never to reveal what has passed.

. . . . .
Meantime the mothers and sisters of the lads have gone

home to weep and mourn. But in a day or two the men
who acted as guardians or sponsors to the novices return
to the village with the glad tidings that the devil,* at the
intercession of the priests, has restored the lads to life.
The men who bring this news come in a fainting state
and daubed with mud, like messengers freshly arrived
from the nether world. . .
." 12
Or, one might say, like persons totally exhaused after

childbirth. The boys know that they were not reborn
and that the priest acted the role of the devil. Significant
features of this ritual are also the wish to fool the women
by pretending that strange and supernatural events take
place, and the secret pact of the men never to reveal
the truth to the women.
The dark, oblong hut may represent the to womb
which the boys return to be reborn. That the ritual may
be designed to imitate the act of parturition is also sug-
gested by the behavior of the boys themselves, who after-
wards pretend to be as disoriented as newborn infants.
When they return to their homes, they act as if they had
forgotten how to walk, tottering and entering the house
backward. If food is given to them, they hold the plate
upside down. "Their sponsors have to teach them all
the common acts of life, as if they were new-born chil-
dren," including how to talk. 13
The elaborate ritual of the Liberian Poro society may
be considered representative for a whole group of tribes
which relegate circumcision to a minor role compared
* Devils and a nether world have little place in the mythology of
these tribes; probably they are concepts introduced by white men,
particularly missionaries, to whom we owe so many excellent obser-
vations on the lives of preliterate people. What they and some anthro-
pologists call "devils" are more often than not viewed by the people
they write of as deceased ancestors or mythical forefathers.
The Men-Women / 115
with the ceremony of rebirth. In general, one should

beware of judging the relative importance of rites, but
here we are told specifically that "circumcision was a
minor rite," and the circumcised boy was considered
an outsider until the "spirit had eaten him." 14 In this
ritual the Poro deity, the crocodile spirit, swallows the
boys who, on entering the ceremonial place, undergo a
ritual death. During the time they are supposed to be in
the crocodile's belly, they live away from home in the
bush, a time extending up to four years. There they are
scarified with the marks of the Poro, made by the teeth
of the spirit when he swallows them. Since the crocodile
spirit has swallowed the novices, he is "in a state of
pregnancy, as it were, until the close of the [initiation]
school's session, when those who are still alive are 'borne'
by him." 15 Finally they return to town, pretending to be
newborn and failing to recognize even their oldest and
closest friends. 16
While the boys are in the "womb" they lose their
foreskins but incorporate part of the female genitalia.
Since a number of boys really die during the initiation
period, the idea that all have died and that most of
them were reborne by the male spirit gains credence.
This ritual contains the interesting feature of the boys'
being marked with the teeth of the Poro. It may be that
fantasies of the so-called vagina dentata, not uncommon
among neurotic and psychotic patients, are here com-
bined with those of oral incorporation. The ritual mark-
ings of the Poro may then symbolize not only the swallow-
ing of the boys but also their rebirth. Abraham's report
on one of his male patients who likened the vagina to the
jaws of a crocodile 17 indicates that modern Western men
may produce similar spontaneous fantasies. If so, they
suggest why the crocodile was chosen by the Liberians as
the animal to rebear the initiates.
Since the male anxiety about the dangerous vagina is
suggested, the scarifications may also symbolize mastery
of the initiate's fear, his safe, perhaps victorious passage
through the vagina dentata. Eating part of the female
genitalia further suggests that he may also be mastering
great fear of or desire for the vagina through oral in-
corporation.
I should add here that these tribes are familiar with
the physiology of birth; hence even rebirth through
the Poro cannot assure the men they have created life.
So it may be that they replace mastery through acquisition
(symbolic childbirth) and showing that they are not
afraid. Such a change in behavior can be observed in
children too. When they have shouted, "I'm stronger" or
"I'm better" and it no longer works, they resort instead
to "I'm not afraid of you" to indicate mastery.
Frazer, stressing the connection between initiation rites
and birth and rebirth, says:
"Can be that circumcision was originally intended
it
to ensure the rebirth at some future time of the cir-

cumcised man? The conjecture is confirmed by the
. . .
observation that among the Akikuyu of British East

Africa the ceremony of circumcision used to be regularly
combined with a graphic pretence of rebirth enacted by
the novice. If this should prove to be indeed the clue
to the meaning of circumcision, it would be natural to
look for an explanation of subincision along the same
lines. Now we have seen that the blood of subincision is
used both to strengthen relatives and to make water-lillies
grow. . The intention of both ceremonies would thus
. .
be to ensure the future reincarnation of the individual. . . .
That portion, whether the foreskin or the blood, was in a

manner seed sown to grow up." 18
Frazer emphasizes here the "strengthening and fer-
tilizing virtue of the blood" which he thinks accounts for
subincision, and even compares its power to that of a
"seed sown to grow up." Although he uses these terms
symbolically, the connotations the rites held for him are
obvious. He also reports an initiation ceremony which
he interprets as a pretense of conceiving the boys anew.
The priests (acting as birth-giving fathers) smear their
faces and bodies with water that has been dyed red and
represents blood. 19 Frazer's interpretation is that they are
bleeding from defloration, but to me the ceremony sug-
gests that they are bleeding from childbirth.
Interpreting rituals on the basis of their possible sym-
bolic meaning is hazardous, especially if the interpretation
is based on experience in an alien culture. Still, the follow-
ing ritual seems significant in its re-enactment of intra-
uterine existence and emergence at birth:
"When the [Nandi] boys have recovered [from circum-
cision] the kapkiyai ceremony is held. A
pool is made in
the river by means of a dam, and a small hut built in
The Men- Women / 117
it. All strip, and, preceded by the senior [initiator], the

boys crawl in procession four times through the hut. They
are thus completely submerged by the water."
After this last ceremony of initiation "the boys may
now go forth and see people, but they must still wear
women's clothes." 20 Submersion in water is of course
a common initiation ceremonial; in our own culture we
have baptism. But in Nandi ritual, the immersion that
so often symbolizes return to or emergence from the
womb, and rebirth in general, is combined with another
symbol of the uterus, the hut. In addition, the boys have
to crawl, which means they approach the fetal position.
Usually, the hut that appears in many initiation cere-
monies can be disregarded as a maternal symbol; after
all, the initiates must spend their time of seclusion some-
where, and the hut is an everyday habitation. In this
case, however, the hut is literally in the water and thus
directly related to immersion and the crawling position.
The combination might thus be viewed as an effort to
recreate the intra-uterine existence, where the infant is
confined in a small, dark place and surrounded by fluid.
Among Australian tribes, where there is less subtlety
and more direct action, where the secrecy of the male
rites is not used to cover up lies told to women in order
to overawe them, rebirth is not merely claimed but is
acted out openly. In many details, the men treat the
initiates as if they were babies to whom they had just
given birth. For example, the men carry the boys on
their shoulders as women carry their babies. They squat
over the fire to allow smoke to enter the anal opening,
thus performing the same healing and purifying rites
that women undergo after childbirth. They even say that,
in letting the smoke enter the anus, they do as the
mythical Wawilak women did when they gave birth to
a baby. 21
During initiation ceremonies hi New Guinea (which
include scarification but not circumcision) the male spon-
sor behaves as a comforting "mother" to the novice. He
holds the boy in his lap and consoles him while the in-
cisions are made. When the boy screams, the "mother"
will say, "Don't cry," holding him still and at the same
time responding to his frantic clutches. After the scarifica-
tion is finished, the sponsor carries the child on his back,
as mothers do their babies, to the pond where the blood
is washed off. Then he carries him back to the ceremonial
house and applies soothing oil to the cuts. 22
Arapesh initiation also stresses maternity symbolically.
The sponsors cut their arms, mix the blood with coconut
milk and feed it to the novices, who thus ceremonially
become their children. 23 From these and other observa-
tions, Mead concludes that the cult assumes that boys
can become men only by ritualizing birth; in this way
they take over, symbolically and collectively, the functions
that women perform individually and naturally. 24
Experience with seriously disturbed and schizophrenic
preadolescent children shows that the desire to be preg-
nant and to give birth is as common among boys as among
girls, and that it is most acutely activated by a new preg-
nancy of the mother or a mother figure. Boys as well as
girls may then imagine themselves to be pregnant; they
may even overeat and manage to develop the protruding
abdomen, the stance and gait of a woman in the later
stages of pregnancy. Similarly, "hysterical" morning
nausea in imaginary pregnancy can be found among boys
as well as girls.
Ifwe may again draw inferences from the unconscious
of modern disturbed children to those of persons in less
civilized societies —although it is an open question
whether such inferences are valid —we may conclude
that
the start of the childbearing age in girls precipitates feel-
ings in men similar to those that the mother's pregnancy
rouses in schizophrenic children. Thus initiation rites
come at adolescence, and the boy must be reborne by a
man.
Much depends, of course, on the nature of the male-
female relationship in the society. The psychological
mechanism behind the assertion that rebirth takes place
in initiation may in many cases be very simple: men's
desire to detract from the importance of childbearing or
to cancel their own obligations to women as the source
of life.
Separation
Someauthors stress that the purpose either of the total

puberty or of the rebirth ceremony is to break the
rites
close ties the child has formed to the mother and to
replace them with a stronger bond to men, since the
The Men- Women / 119
men have now given to the boys as their mothers did.
life
A wide variety of means is used to divorce the initiate
from his past and to signify that new life begins at initia-
tion. The Nandi novices are given purges and their heads
are shaved; the Indians of Virginia gave the boys emetics
to obliterate remembrance of the past; in South Africa,
the Xosa boys discard their clothes and invert their
speech 25 (just as the baby comes into the world with
little or only very short hair, naked and without speech).
Hie Damaras reckon a man's age from the date of circum-
26
cision, not counting the earlier years at all. Another
common custom is to give the initiates new names, a
particularly significant act because of the intimate con-
nection between a person and his name and because
magical functions are often assigned to names. Laubscher
reports that South African boys, for example, are given
new names after circumcision and that these people
believe implicitly that new life is attained as a result of
the operation. 27
Certain psychoanalytically oriented authors have gone
further in stressing separation, claiming that the purpose
of the ceremonies is to sever the Oedipal ties. Laubscher,
for example, says that in order to pass from the child-
hood phase of female dominance into the second phase
of male dominance and control the boy must experience
a psychological rebirth into the world of men, severing all
his attachments to the mother. Hence the usually rigid
taboo prohibiting women from taking part in initiation.
It is certainly true that closely knit age groups are often
formed around the shared experience of initiation. Among
the Masai of East Africa all those initiated within the
same quadrennium are linked for life, accepting many
mutual obligations and claims. 28, 29 Clearly, strong emo-
tional bonds must exist between the members of these
age societies, based on the commonly experienced satis-
faction of deep emotional needs at the time of their
creation; that is, at initiation.
Modern parallels can be drawn between these initiatory
groupings and spontaneous youth movements where scari-
fication was as central an adolescent ritual as it is in
initiation. German students were more than willing to
suffer scarring and bloodletting, proudly considering the
dueling ordeal as a proof of manliness and their right
to belong to the group. Like the African age mates, these
young men who attained manhood together were bound
in fraternal "Corps" for life. Their student rituals simul-
taneously satisfied early sadistic and masochistic desires,
while life in the fraternities offered some satisfaction to
other pregenital and homosexual tendencies.
Other modern youth groups, though they may contain
a strong homosexual element, often gain their cohesion
from a common experience of satisfying more genital in-
stinctual desires, as in shared sex experiences. Among
middle-class adolescents it may be a group visit to a
house of prostitution; or in lower-class gang life, suc-
cessive intercourse of all members with a willing or un-
willing female. Similarly, members of college fraternities
are united by the shared introduction into adult life and
its satisfactions.
Accepting this viewpoint, it becomes immaterial
whether the actual arrangements for initiation rites are
made by elders as prescribed by tradition, or whether they
spring up spontaneously among adolescents. It might be
an essential difference between a tradition-bound and a
"free" society that in the first, rituals are established by
the elders to provide for at least partial satisfaction of
youth's inner needs, while in a so-called free society each
generation must develop its own way of satisfying those
needs.
The Australian tribes discussed so often in this book
consist of small groups with little other than totemistic
subgroupings. But in the social organization of other,
more advanced tribes, age classes are often an important
grouping or even, as among the African Chaga, the most
important one.
One might even speculate as to whether men did not
create the larger forms of society after they despaired of
being able, by magic manipulation of their genitals, to
bear children.*
Freud and many others (Bluher, for example 30 ) thought
that these larger forms of society were based on homo-
sexual attachments. The lead taken by men in this area
may thus have had its roots in associations that were first
formed around initiation. In Central Australia, many
tribal groups that otherwise five separated from each
* See also the earlier reference (page 56) to Chadwick's theory

that was men's disappointment at
it their inability to create human
beings which led them to intellectual creation.
The Men-Women / 121
other come together at the close of initiation ceremonies,
in what might be viewed as a larger societal organization.
Spencer and Gillen describe in detail how on such oc-
casions messengers are sent out, inviting the various
groups to come together, 31 how they meet, and how at
these meetings important decisions are made encompassing
much larger groups than those the tribes ordinarily live
in.
"It is, indeed, a time when the old men from all parts
of the tribe come together and discuss matters. Councils
of the elder men are held day by day, by which we do
not mean that there is anything of a strictly formal nature,
but that constantly groups of the elder men may be seen
discussing matters of tribal interest; all the old traditions
of the tribe are repeated and discussed, and it is by means
of meetings such as this, that a knowledge of the un-
written history of the tribe and of its leading members is
passed on from generation to generation." 32
Even today, age groups that are based on initiation to
the Poro society act as social units in later life, in peace
and war. More important, the leaders of this society are
those who administer justice, and it is their influence
that binds the small Liberian tribes into larger units. "The
function and influence of the Poro [society] ... is felt
even outside tribal limits, and many details of the organ-
ization are intertribal, so that a man of high standing will
be so recognized even in a distant tribe whose language
he cannot speak." 33
Society may thus have been founded not on the associa-
tion of homicidal brothers (postulated by Freud) but on
a joint effort of men to master a common problem. This
is not set forth as a new hypothesis on the origins of
society. I merely want to indicate that theories entirely
different from those current in psychoanalytic literature
may be equally plausible.
The Secret of Men
If the basic purpose of male initiation were to teach

tribal lore or to ritualize maturity, it would be easy to
see why it should be marked by elaborate ceremonies in-

tended to give it special dignity and impressiveness. But if
these were its only purposes, it is hard to find a plausible
reason for its being shrouded in secrecy and forbidden to
women and children. Tribal lore would be more effectively
taught if every member of the community were instructed
repeatedly, and from childhood. A
deep impression can
be made when the entire population takes part in or
observes a ceremony, as in inaugurations or coronations.
If secrecy is used for greater impressiveness there must be
particular reasons that make secrecy more effective than
wide public participation.
Sometimes the purpose of secrecy is to keep a magic
power from the hands of unbelievers, or from enemies
who may use it for sorcery. But in many cases it is in-
tended to make those excluded think that initiates have
superior powers.
The Original Secret

Accepting for the moment my interpretation of initia-
tion rites,it may be inferred that the act of birth is kept as
great a secret from men as the act of initiation is from

women. This indeed appears to be the case. Among the
Australian aborigines, little ceremonial secrecy accompanies
first menstruation or the so-called initiation of women; but
childbirth rituals are so secret that they evaded the at-
tention of most observers.
It may
also be that the androcentric bias of male ob-
servers was reinforced by the reluctance of aboriginal
women to let any man learn of this, their greatest secret.
In any case, we owe most of our knowledge of these
rituals to women investigators, and even Kaberry reported
that she found it harder to get an account of the child-
birth songs from the women than to discuss initiation
with men. She lived with the natives for seven months
before she finally heard the first of these songs, although
122
The Secret of Men / 123
she had previously seen a women's secret corroboree. 1
"Now although the men know some of the details of
childbirth . . . still they are ignorant of those songs
which are sacred . . [and] which for all their simplicity
.
are fraught with the power that they possess by virtue

of their supernatural origin. In so far as they are com-
mands which appear to achieve their result automatically,
they may be considered magical; but their efficacy is at-
tributed to the fact that they were first uttered by the
female totemic ancestors. They have the same sanctions
as the increase ceremonies, . . . the cult totems, subinci-
sion and circumcision." 2
The extreme secrecy of male initiation rites and child-
birth ritual therefore suggests that they may be parallel
phenomena; the parallel between male and female initia-
tion seems external and nonessential by comparison.
On the other hand, while men speak of the secret of
women and mean their sex apparatus and functions,
women do not make a similar association to the secret
of men. They may even scoff at the very idea of men's
secrets. Berndt, in discussing the origin of the Australian
Kunapipi rites, refers to one of the myths that tells how
originally the men "had nothing: no sacred objects, no
sacred ceremonies, the women had everything." 3 So one
day the men stole the women's sacred objects and took
them back to their own camp. The mythical Wawilak
sisters, on finding that their sacred objects had disap-
peared, decided that perhaps it was just as well the men
had taken them, since men could now carry out most of
the ritual for them while they busied themselves chiefly
with raising f amilies and collecting food.4
Or as one of Berndt's present-day informants told him:
" 'But really we have been stealing what belongs to them
(the women), for it is mostly all woman's business; and
since it concerns them it belongs to them. Men have
nothing to do really, except copulate, it belongs to the
women. All that belonging to those Wawilak, the baby,
the blood, the yelling, their dancing, all that concerns the
women; but every time we have to trick them. Women
can't see what men are doing, although it really is their
own business, but we can see their side ... in the be-
ginning we had nothing, because men had been doing
nothing; we took these things from the women.' " 6
Summarizing the question of why men and not women
now act out these fertility rites, Berndt concludes that
women "know that the rituals are principally concerned
with peculiarly feminine functions and that men are carry-
ing out the more strenuous features of ceremonial life.
'These rituals,' said one informant, 'are just like a man
copulating with a woman, he does all the hard working
so that the women can carry out the really important
business of childbirth.' This may be a one-sided attitude,
but it does adequately express local native reasoning in
this matter." 6
I cannot accept the obvious rationalization as to the
cause of the division of labor. I suggest that the main
reason for the existence of the rites is the men's desire
for an equally important "business."
The Need for Secrecy
Other rituals go beyond a mere simple assertion that

men have significant secrets. They are found in cultures
as diverse as the preliterate African and highly civilized
Greek, and include the long series of rites claiming the
rebirth of initiates by men. Rites that claim occurrences
contrary to nature, but that cannot demonstrate those
events, must be kept secret. Otherwise the participants
cannot tell themselves that such events have in fact taken
place. Moreover, secrecy protects the believer against
the doubt of sceptics who are kept from collecting evi-
dence that might destroy the belief. Since initiation
rites serve purposes that can be achieved only in symbol
but not in reality, its fictions must be hidden if the de-
votees are to enjoy the psychological benefits of symbolic
achievement. Secrecy is thus necessary for the continuing
satisfaction of the needs of the believers.
Among some peoples, women may be killed even today
for observing these rites. The Poro society's method of
dealing with a woman who spies on the men shows it is
her ability to reveal the secrets to others, rather than her
own presence or knowledge, that destroys the power of
initiation. Such a woman is not necessarily killed; she is
often permitted to five in the initiation hut and to observe
the ceremonies freely. But once initiation is over, she
must remain mute for the rest of her life. If she should
ever break down and talk, even if only in a dream, she
isimmediately killed by a member of the society. 7
My views are not new. Lowie, for example, has ex-
pressed them in regard to the secrecy of the bull-roarer,*
the swinging of which accompanies the most sacred cere-
monies of the Australians. 8 Women and children are
taught to regard the curious buzzing noise of the bull-
roarer as the voice of a spirit that presides over the cere-
mony. But one of the secrets revealed to initiates, with
great emphasis on the necessity of hiding it from the
women, is the true nature of the bull-roarer and how men
came to possess it. (See Appendix)
The everyday behavior of children offers parallel ob-
servations that suggest further explanation of the nature
of this secrecy. Children often claim to possess secret
knowledge, just because they feel so lacking in knowledge.
A child will boast of some special piece of information
which he does not have or which is as commonplace as
the whirling of a flat stick (like the bull-roarer). Under
no circumstances will he reveal the secret, since its only
purpose is to give him status in the eyes of another
person. By inventing a secret language, for example, and
using it in the presence of a parent or older sibling whom
the child considers superior to himself, he tries to con-
vince the other person as well as himself that he is not
inferior since he has certain important abilities or knowl-
edge.
Blackwood too thinks that the main purpose of the
male secret societies is to hoodwink the women. The
men do not hesitate to kill a few boys in order to con-
vince the women that all have been killed and that men
have brought some of them back to life. This parallels
the myth of the bull-roarer in which they killed all the
women to keep them from telling that the bull-roarer was
stolen by men. The men even cut down groves of areca
palms, although the areca nut is a highly prized delicacy,
to show women the power and malignancy of the male
ghosts who kill their sons. 9 Like the neurotic who will
readily destroy important possessions to keep his unre-
alistic defenses intact, these men destroy the cherished
The bull-roarer is made of a small, flat piece of wood or stone,
*
carved or otherwise decorated with sacred designs. Through a hole
in one end a string is passed; swung rapidly it makes a booming, hum-
ming noise. In many ceremonies bull-roarers are swung, and it is
maintained that the noise so produced is the voice of certain spirits.
palm trees to impress the women more thoroughly with
their power to create life.
Donning the Upi

The between the secret of menstruation (a real
relation
one to those who do
not understand physiology) and the
pretended secrets of men can also be shown. Blackwood,
for example, has referred to the secrecy surrounding the
boys' wearing of the upi, a tall, awkward and probably
uncomfortable hat made of palm leaves, which conceals
the hair. The upi is put on while the boy's hair is short,
and he wears it until initiation, never taking it off in the
presence of women until it is ceremonially removed. On
its removal, the women suddenly discover the mysterious
secret of men: they have long hair. The main purpose of
the ceremony is to surprise the women with the length of
the hair. 10
The Buka have three initiation ceremonies, the first
of which is the do nnin g of the upi, and the second its
removal. In girls, the growing of the breasts may precede
menstruation by some time; likewise the boys put on the
upi, in the seclusion of the bush at about the age of
nine, and take it off several years later. The terms used
to designate pubertal boys and girls emphasize this par-
allel. Trie girl is called "a female whose breasts are de-
veloping," while of the boy they say, "he goes to the
bush," meaning he has withdrawn to put on the upi.
Since so little actually happens —
in this instance, such
—
an ordinary phenomenon as the hair's growth it is par-
ticularly necessary to declare it a great secret and to
ritualize it. Only in this way can they pretend that what
happens to boys at puberty is as important as what hap-
pens to girls. The upi, ridiculous though it may look to
the foreign observer, is probably, as Blackwood says, the
most serious and important factor in the whole culture of
this area. Its rules and taboos profoundly influence the
people's daily life. 11
A natural physiological process shared by men and
women is here construed to have some special super-
natural meaning. The growth of hair is a particularly
suitable symbol because pubic hair signifies adult sex-
uality in both sexes, and, in women, is coincident with the
onset of menstruation. Even to modern children, female
pubic hair is a matter of great interest. Disturbed chil-
dren express their envy and anxiety about the adult
woman's vagina in angry remarks about the "hairy va-
gina"; in some severely disturbed boys it often seems
an obsession. Perhaps the pubic hair, which is visible in
boys but only an incidental sign of sexual maturity, is in-
directlyemphasized and ritualized to compensate for
women's much more obvious signs.
According to the myths, the upi, too, originally be-
longed to women and not to men. But the legend of its
origin goes a step further, connecting the upi and the
breasts by making the former a reward for the suckling
of children. The legend, current over the whole area,
runs as follows:
"A woman was walking in the bush when she saw an
urar (ghost, spirit of person long dead) wearing an upi.
The woman looked at the upi, and liked it very much.
She said to the urar: 'Oh, I like you, you are my man,
you are a fine fellow.' Then the urar took his long breasts
and gave them to the woman, took hers, which were very
small, for himself. Before that, the men had big breasts
and the women small ones, afterwards, it was as it is
now. The woman said: 'I don't want these big breasts, I
want your upi. If you will give it to me I will not give
it to any one.' The urar said: 'I don't want to suckle a
child. If you have a child you must put him to your own
breasts and give him milk' Then he gave her the upi. She
hid it in the bush. But one day a man caught her with it,
and took it away from her. He said: 'You must not tell
any of the other women about this.' The woman said: 'It
belongs to me and to all the women.' Then the man killed
the woman. He said: 'It will be a bad thing if she stays
here and talks about this to all the other women. I shall
take this thing and put it in the bush, it won't do for
any more women to know about it.' So he took the upi,
and ever since then it has belonged to the men, and no
longer belongs to the women." 12
This myth resembles those telling of the origin of the
bull-roarer. The story seems everywhere the same: real
power is openly displayed, and recognition of its posses-
sion is taken for granted. Pretended power has to be
surrounded by secrecy and ritual; otherwise, the world
will realize that not only does the emperor not wear
very special clothes but, in fact, no clothes at all.
Stopping Up the Rectum
The Chaga men, in a society where the importance at-
tached to menstrual blood is very great, 13 claim ascend-
ancy over women by acquiring power over a bodily func-
tion that women cannot control. They maintain that
during initiation the anus is stopped up permanently and
that after that men retain their feces. To be "stopped up"
is identical with acquiring the rights of an adult male.
This stopping up of the anus is the central rite of initia-
tion; the novices are told that the plug is the sign of
manhood and that guarding its secret is their first duty.
Thus:
" 'Don't emit wind in the presence of women and un-
initiated youth. If you do, the tribal elders will slaughter
your cows. Neither must you be surprised by women when
you defecate. Always carry a dig your
stick with you,
feces in, and scratch about here and there pretending
that you are digging for some charm. Then if a woman
should observe you, she will seek there and find nothing.
... If you suffer from looseness of the bowels, call on
one of your age mates to take you to the men's house to
look after you there, for if your bride gets to know about
it, it means misery to you. If you dare to tell anybody
of the secret of men, then your age group, the tribal

elders and the chief will without mercy deprive you of
allyou own. For you will have disgraced your contempo-
raries,yea the very dead themselves. And it will be said
that the secret of the men is a lie.' The novices were
therefore trained openly in basing their manhood on a
fiction." 14
Until recently this fiction was carried through to its
final conclusion,with the performance in which the plug
was "removed." A
group of men would gather at the
home of an old man and slaughter a goat, tying bleeding
pieces of meat around his thighs so that blood ran down
and covered his legs. Then they would remove and hide
the bloody meat and call his wife, entrusting the old
man to her care. They explained to her kindly that her
husband had had his plug removed for his sons' sake and
that the bleeding started when the stitches were taken
out. The woman should not be surprised that the old man
would thereafter again find it necessary to defecate. It
was his wife's duty to help the old man, if at any time
he should fall and expose himself, so that the young men

should not make fun of him. 15
Such a puberty rite, like many others, seems a symbolic
counterpart to menstruation. Girls at first menstruation
"open" their vaginas, since every month something is
discharged from that body opening. Men at puberty pre-
tend to close an orifice from which a discharge took place
up to then. In old age menstruation stops, and the vagina
seems to become closed. In old men the closed orifice is
opened and its discharge is resumed.
The parallel between menstruation and the setting of
the plug is further suggested by the way men are taught
to hide their feces and girls their menstrual blood. Girls
are told to bury the blood to hide it from their fathers and
brothers, because it is a sin to let them see it, just as men
are advised to hide their feces from females. Roheim
recognized that the secrecy surrounding the male rites
seemed "like a simple inversion of the menstruation taboo,
the men saying 'We are not allowed to see your bleeding
"
so we shall not allow you to see ours.' 16
But the pretended stopping up of the anus has an ad-
ditional meaning. It is not only connected with menstrua-
tion but also with pregnancy. Thus, the setting of the plug
also imitates the stop in menstruation —that is, the first
indication of pregnancy. The Chaga women, who are
aware of what is going on, regard the men's behavior with
amused tolerance. In their own initiation rites, the girls
are told that the men defecate but keep it secret from the
women, and they are admonished not to laugh. The
women realize that actually the secret is theirs; they say
that when a woman becomes pregnant her source of blood
17
is stopped up and that this is the original plug.
I am not alone in my view of these rites: Gutmann ap-
proached the problem from an entirely different view-
point, but his intimate knowledge of Chaga lore and Chaga
people led him to similar conclusions. He says:
"The careful exclusion of women [from participation
in initiation! , the presentation of the whole ceremony as
a new birth, all this can be readily explained by the de-
sire of the men to demonstrate their legal right over their
progeny. This they try to achieve by demonstration that
the care they have exercised to arouse fecundity and to
make it secure, equals the accomplishment of the mother
on the occasion of giving birth to a child who cannot yet
realize his sex.
"The pretense of setting the ngoso [plug], for example,
is justified by the Chaga because it was necessary in order
to create and secure respect of the women [for the men].
Such interpretation seems not too far off from what may
have been the true origin of the invention of the ngoso.
"If it correct that the content of the initiation cere-
is
monies a reshaping of men so that they can procreate,
is
and if this reshaping is experienced primarily as a re-
birth, then it is suggestive to set in parallel the time of
men's preparation for procreation with the time period
which the infant spends in the mother's womb, namely
nine months. The period of caretaking after circumcision
lasts for two or three months. The stay in the [initiation]
grove where the teaching takes place lasts six months. In
this way nine months elapse from the beginning of the
ceremonies until their end, the final setting of the plug.
Undoubtedly the most important mark of pregnancy
aroused their interest. Through it they designate preg-
nancy and say: mak akufungje: the woman closes herself
up. The setting of the ngoso probably, therefore, origi-
nally was to represent the counterpart to this on the part
of the men. Moreover, it should surpass the contribution
of women so that even greater honors were given to men.
In this way, it seems, these men arrived at the pretense of
claiming that men on reaching sexual maturity are able
to digest totally and can do without elimination.'' 18 *
The Piling Up of Secrets
Somewhere in the course of the historical development

that leads from the type of society of the Australian aborig-
ines to the more complex forms achieved by many
African tribes, man began to understand better the male
contribution to procreation. Briffault remarks that "al-
though magic-religious obscenity is prevalent in lower
cultures, phallic symbolism is characteristic of rather more
advanced cultural phases."20
Up to that point the penis as formed! by nature was not
considered good enough by some peoples. It had to be
manipulated or even operated on to become more accept-
* According to Gutmann, the last time the young boys to be initiated
were taken to the grove for such a considerable time was in the
middle of the nineteenth century.19
able.But among some of those who came to recognize the
male organ of procreation, the phallus
erect penis as the
could not be admired and venerated enough. Then the
envy of women and the tendency to overstress the male
contribution may have combined in the belief that the
semen is all-important and the female contribution to
childbirth negligible. The Pilaga of South America, for
example, believe that "the man's ejaculation projects a
complete homunculus into the woman, and that it merely
grows in her until it is big enough to come out." 21 Coun-
terreactive overvaluation is also seen in the phallic re-
ligions; the prayer in which the Jewish man thanks God
he was born a man and not a woman may be a modern
remnant.
If this development took place, then somewhere in be-
tween may have come a stage where magic manipulation
of the genitals was no longer enough. With cultural growth
and a greater knowledge of procreation, symbolic bleed-
ing may have become less and less satisfying as proof of
the male contribution to the begetting of children. Men
could no longer tell themselves that they, too, had some-
thing equal to the woman's power of menstruation and
pregnancy.
It may have been at this time that initiation ceremonies
began to grow more intricate and secret. Because men
began to doubt that circumciscion and subincision had
given them the desired magic power, they may have added
new rites to the ceremonies, hoping that these would pro-
vide it. But when their redoubled efforts still ended in
failure, women's power may have seemed still more awe-
some and mysterious. So men may have arranged for
secrets of their own. In the relatively complex civilization
of the Chaga this process is nearly conscious, since one
of the main purposes of initiation rites is to teach the boys
to pretend to all women that men do not defecate. As
time progressed, initiation rites became more and more
elaborate; rite was added to rite, myth to myth, and
secret to secret. Among some tribes the rituals finally be-
came so intricate that their complete performance required
years.
With neurotics, it commonly happens that if a symptom
does not accomplish its aim it becomes more and more
complex. The person is guided by the hope that if only
he can refine the symptom enough it will eventually
achieve the goal it was invented for. In the same way, per-
haps, the more men came to realize that initiation rites
did not confer powers of procreation, the more they in-
sisted that the rites did confer some secret power. By now
there are many societies where the men cannot even define
the mysterious powers they so vehemently claim to have
gained at initiation.
Theories that connect circumcision with the father's de-
mand for obedience from his sons are not easy to apply to
female circumcision. Little girls did not threaten the
father's possession of the mother as a sexual object. Prob-
ably they were even quite willing and ready to serve the
father in their female capacity. Numerous African tribes
that circumcise girls are or were polygamous, and in many
of them, women and girls were totally subject to the will
of the father. It is difficult to see any reason for trying to
reduce their sexual desires by frightening them, since they
had no freedom of choice; certainly the father's incestuous
desire for his daughter was not curbed by circumcising her.
And if he were motivated by such desire, why would he
not always execute the operation himself instead of rele-
gating it to women, as is so often the case? If, on the other
hand, women were jealous of their daughters' sexual de-
sires for their husbands, how did they expect that circum-
cision would restrain those desires? It is impossible for a
threat such as that of total castration to accompany fe-
male circumcision.
Also, if restraint were the purpose, there should have
been admonitions urging obedience, as is sometimes true
of boys' circumcision; but these are mostly absent from
girls' rituals. Nothing in the rites, or in the myths con-
cerning them, indicates that any particular or significant
teaching of sexual avoidances takes place. On the contrary,
the teaching in some tribes is concerned with making
sexual life more enjoyable. Apart from this kind of in-
struction, girls' initiation has even fewer teaching ele-
ments than boys'. A minor but significant exception exists
among the Chaga, where the girls are taught that the
men's secret is a fake; but this is a direct consequence of
what the boys are taught in their initiation. There is no
relation between this teaching and the girls' circumcision
— neither in the time sequence nor through ritual or myth. 1
Natural Timing
The one feature that almost universally differentiates
the initiation ceremonies of girls and boys is their timing:
133
for boys it is arbitrary, for girls it depends on natural
change. The thought may have occurred to the reader

that it is not true that there are no physiological phenomena
to indicate sexual maturity in males. Ejaculation of semen
is such a sign. And among the Zulus "the Tomba cere-
mony marks a very important stage in the life of the indi-
vidual, viz., the attainment of physical maturity." It
occurs "when his first genital discharge takes place." 2
But basing initiation rites on first ejaculation presupposes
knowledge of the connection between the semen and fer-
tility, a knowledge most preliterate peoples do not have.
And since their rites are generally older than their knowl-
edge, such rites as the Tomba are rare even among people
who now understand reproduction.
Mead has pointed out, as did the boys at the Ortho-
genic School, how, in spite of the gradual changing of the
voice, the growth of body hair and eventually ejaculation,
there seems no exact moment at which the boy can say,
"Now I am a man." Therefore it is a function of male
initiation to punctuate a growth sequence that is inherently
unpunctuated. 3
Some tribes, among them the African Luvale, use the
fact that the physiological changes in males do not become
dramatically visible on a specific day to explain why the
initiation of girls is less rich in content than the boys'.
They point out that no special preparation can be made
since the determining factor is the unpredictable onset of
first menstruation. 4 But this rational explanation cannot
fully justify the paucity of ritual, since many tribes do
take note of the girl's first menstruation, either as a signal
for several months' seclusion or for special veneration
of the girl.
Though the onset of menstruation is the commonest oc-
casion of girls' initiation, it is not the only one. The Central
African Cewa think that a girl is ripe for initiation when
her breasts begin to form. 5 The Arunta celebrate both
steps in the girl's physical development. First:
"To promote the growth of the breasts of a girl, the
men assemble at the men's camp where they all join in
... an exhortation to the breasts to grow. ... At daylight
one of them goes out and calls her to a spot close to the
men's camp to which she comes accompanied by her
mother. Here her body is rubbed all over with fat by [her
mother's brothers] who then paint a series of straight lines
Girls' Rites / 135
of red ochre down her back and also down the center of
her chest and stomach. A
wide circle is painted around
each nipple." 6
The next major event in her sexual development is
ritualized as follows:
"In the Arunta and Ilpirra tribes a girl at the first time
of menstruation is taken by her mother to a spot close to
. . . the women's camp, near to which no man ever goes.
A fire is made and a camp formed by the mother, the girl
being told to dig a hole about a foot or eighteen inches
deep, over which she sits attended by her own and some
other tribal mothers. . During the first two days she is
. .
supposed to sit over the hole without stirring away; after

that she may be taken out by one or other of the old
women hunting for food. When the flow ceases she is told
to fill in the hole. She now becomes what is called Wunpa,
returns to the women's camp, and shortly afterwards
undergoes the rite of opening the vulva and is handed over
to the man to whom she has been allotted." 7
The girl remains wunpa until her breasts hang pendent,
the form characteristic of native women who have borne
children, after which she is called arakutja, the name for
a fully mature woman. 8 Thus there are four main events
in the initiation of an Australian aboriginal girl: the de-
velopment and painting of the breasts, first menstruation,
—
opening the vagina and childbirth all of them clearly de-
fined steps in her development toward maturity.
Male ceremonies, on the other hand, could be set arbi-
trarily and could theoretically include any number of rites.
However, they too have four phases (described in the
Appendix). These have been related to girls' rites by Spen-
cer and Gillen:
"In regard to the initiation ceremonies of women it is
clear that there are certain ceremonies which are evidently
the equivalents of the initiation ceremonies concerned with
the men. The first one takes place when the girl's breasts
are rubbed with fat and red ochre, and the second when
the operation of opening the vagina is performed. This is
clearly regarded as the equivalent of subincision in the
male. . .The first ceremony may perhaps be regarded as
.
the equivalent of the throwing up and painting of the

boys, there being amongst the women no equivalents of
the circumcision or Enewufa of the men." 9
I agree with the authors' comments on the two equiva-
lents. I might add that while there is no obvious parallel
between boys' circumcision and girls' rites at first men-
struation, it too may be inferred from the sequence of
events.
What Spencer and Gillen fail to emphasize, however,
is the relation between the rites and the timing of physical
change. It seems more plausible to me that boys' rites are
equivalent to the natural changes in women, and girls'
rites are equivalent to boys' rites. The many other cere-
monies that accompany boys' initiation are for the most
part for totemic increase in which men claim to further the
procreation of animals; these seem to be absent from girls'
initiation. Roth adds that girls do not receive new names
as boys do; obviously there is no feeling that women
need to be reborn at or after puberty in order to be able
to procreate.
The Menstrual Taboo

Nevertheless, we cannot simply observe that female
puberty, being very marked, is otherwise devoid of cere-
mony. Indeed, among the Cuna Indians the most signifi-
cant ceremony of the whole tribe, more important even
than rites of birth, marriage, or death, is the formal recog-
nition of womanhood accorded to girls who begin to men-
struate. 10 But this is the exception. Despite their envied
fertility, girls are socially at a disadvantage, and like men,
they also experience ambivalence about their own and the
other sex. Hence we find among preliterate people, as
among civilized, a wide range of attitudes toward women
and the ceremonies accorded them.
It is my opinion that the puberty rites of girls are more
affected by men's attitude toward menstruation than by
the physiological event itself. I have already suggested that
men's feelings are shaped partly by women's reaction. I
should like here to make the complementary point: Girls
cannot help being deeply impressed by men's awe of men-
struation. If an event appears taboo and uncanny to one
part of the population, soon the other part begins to won-
der about it, even if they at first took it for granted.
Eventually it may cease to matter who first reacted with
awe.
In view of Freud's subtle analysis of some major taboos,
it is regrettable that he paid so little attention to those of
Girls' Rites / 137
11
menstruation. In elaborating the principles by which all
taboos should be understood, he said:
"Taboos are very ancient prohibitions. . . These pro-
.
hibitions concerned actions for which there existed a

strong desire. . The persistence of taboo teaches, how-
. .
ever, one thing, namely, that the original pleasure to do the

forbidden still continues among the taboo races. They
therefore assume an ambivalent attitude toward their
taboo prohibitions; in their unconscious they would like
nothing better than to transgress them but they are also
afraid to do it; they are afraid just because they would
12
like to transgress."
One might add that if men had not envied menstruation
per se they would have grown envious because it was
tabooed. Perhaps the simplest explanation is that women
were either specially attractive sex objects or felt stronger
sex desires during menstruation, but that men were
frightened, probably by the general fear of any loss of
blood. In reaction, they may have tried to cancel out their
fear of the bleeding vagina by avoiding it. But I think
another explanation might be equally correct. In dis-
cussing taboos further Freud continues: "The taboo
ceremonial of kings is nominally an expression of the
highest veneration and a means of guarding them; actually
it is the punishment for their elevation, the revenge which
their subjects take upon them." 13 It might be, then, that

childbearing and menstruation were once viewed as so
elevating women that men, out of envy, imposed un-
pleasant taboos.
Benedict mentions the Carrier Indians of British Colum-
bia who, at the onset of menstruation, caused the girl to
live for three or four years in complete seclusion in the
wilderness, far from all beaten trails. She was considered
a threat to anyone who so much as saw her; even her
footsteps defiled a path or a river. She was herself in
danger and a source of danger to everybody else.
In other tribes this attitude is countered by adoration,
and the girl's first menstruation is a source of blessing.
"Among the Apaches I have seen the priests themselves
bow on their knees before a row of solemn little girls to
receive from them the blessing of their touch. AH the
babies and the old people come also of necessity to have
illnesses removed from them. The adolescent girls are not
segregated as sources of danger but court is paid to them
as direct sources of supernatural blessing." 14
Male ambivalence about menstruation has recently been
discussed by Devereux, who feels that "The Menstruating
Woman as a Witch is, in a sense, the central theme of the
psychoanalytic approach to menstruation," 15 and that
equally important positive feelings are ignored.
In a footnote, Devereux observes that even in some
modern folk cultures the menstruating woman attains
special dignity, if not veneration. W^hile Italian peasants
ascribe nefarious powers to menstruating women, they
also believe that at the time of her monthly period she
rises a notch in the social hierarchy; the peasant woman
becomes a lady, the latter a noblewoman, the noblewoman
a queen, while the queen becomes identified with the
Madonna — in fact, menstruation specifically proclaims
woman's kinship with the Madonna. 16
He concludes that it is wrong to interpret the seclud-
ing of menstruating women as a sign of temporary de-
gradation; on the contrary, he feels that the innumerable
restrictions placed upon women and slaves clearly indi-
cate where genuine power rests: in women, who propagate
the species, and in the masses, who are the species. 17
Mutilation of Girls
The term "female circumcision" is a misnomer, and in

using ithave merely followed prevailing practice. It is
I
characteristic that even for such a far-reaching mutilation
of girls a term is borrowed that may really be applied only
to boys. Female "circumcision" varies from tribe to tribe
— it may be merely an incision of the hymen, or it may be
extirpation of the clitoris or of the labia minora, or both.
I have used the term "circumcision" when speaking of
these varied operations, but it should be borne in mind
that in the female it is not strictly a circumcision.
Roth describes the introcision of girls as follows: ". . .
Two or three men manage to get the young woman, when
thus ripe enough, all alone by herself away in the bush,
and, throwing her down, one of them forcibly enlarges the
vaginal orifice by tearing it downwards with the first three
fingers wound round and roundwith oppossum-string." 18
He feels that male subincision and female introcision
are so analogous in essence, though not in appearance,
Girls' Rites / 139
19
that he prefers to use the term "introcision" for boys too.
Berndt was impressed by another parallel: the one be-
tween subincision and the ritual defloration of girls:
"Young girls have their hymens pierced prior to inter-
course on the ceremonial ground; others, whose hymens
have already been broken through normal premarital
coitus, have the end of the boomerang placed symboli-
cally in the vagina. In the Rose River region, this form of
20
defloration is a counterpart of the subincision rite."
Roth also notes that female introcision is practiced
only where male introcision occurs, and Mathew com-
ments that wherever "subincision is practiced vaginal intro-
cision becomes inevitable." 21 Kaberry, however, reports
a contradictory case: the Lunga, though they do not
practice introcision and deny that they ever did in the
past, do perform subincision. 22 Thus the connection be-
tween the two rites in Australia, though general, is not
inevitable. In other parts of the world, it cannot be
found. Among African tribes that practice male circumci-
sion but not subincision, varied mutilations of female sex
organs are common. Obviously, there is no direct causal
connection. Both mutilations may be caused by the same
psychological tendencies, but speculation can go no fur-
ther.
Asfor extirpation of the clitoris or the labia minora or
both, it is not easy to understand what positive satisfac-
tions are gained or who receives them. Psychoanalysts

have suggested that the purpose of removing the clitoris
is to eliminate clitoridean sexuality and to force women
to enjoy only vaginal sexuality. This explanation has been

accepted by a number of psychoanalytically oriented au-
thors including Bryk. He thinks that by excision of the
clitoris the Nandi girl's sexual freedom is curbed, and she
is changed from common to private property, the prop-
erty of her husband alone. That is, excision removes the
organ most easily stimulated, and thus reduces the girl's
sexual desires. Only in this way, he thinks, can she be
forced into monogamy, which is contrary to her nature. 23
Such a theory conforms to the notion of the dual nature
of female sexuality, which supposedly consists of an
earlier phallic clitoridean, and a later genital vaginal sexu-
ality. This theory, incidentally, rests on very shaky physio-
logical foundations.
But even if the theory were more valid than I think it to
be, it would still not explain why the clitoris is removed.
It would explain that only if one presupposed two things:

First, that primitive men are consciously or unconsciously
aware of the two types of sexuality in women, a condition
we ourselves are by no means certain exists, and an aware-
ness we cannot assume from what we know of these tribes
or from their statements. Second, one would have to pre-
suppose that the operation really has, or is supposed to
have, some measure of success. But no vaginal sexuality
is claimed by any of the people who practice excision of
the clitoris.
This problem has been best discussed from a psycho-
analytic viewpoint by Bonaparte. She suggests that Bryk
actually derived his explanation from Freud, who, she
says, seemed to agree with it. To this Bonaparte strongly
objects: "I am inclined to think that the physical intimida-
tion of the girl's sexuality through the cruel excision is
probably no more able to feminize them, to vaginalize
them, than the psychic intimidation of clitoridic masturba-
tion imposed on little European girls." 24
Bonaparte feels that both excision of the girl and cir-
cumcision of the boy result from the fathers' wish to
"intimidate the sexuality" of the young. But such a de-
sire is hard to understand, unless we assume that the
father looks upon the girl's sexuality as promising pleasure
to young males and resents the prospect. Bonaparte also
refers to the desire of some men to find nothing masculine
in the woman. They feel threatened by what seems phallic
in women and hence insist that the clitoris be removed.
Other men, remaining fixed upon the "phallic mother" of
the infantile imagination, like to find something male in
the woman. They include the men of those African tribes
who wish to see the labia minora and the clitoris elongated
until they somewhat resemble male genitals.*
Yet, as Bonaparte remarks, all these customs seem to
satisfy only the imaginations of those who impose them.
It is not likely that the girl's sexual nature is much
changed. If the labia minora of the Bantu girls were ex-
tended to a quarter of a yard, they would still not con-
stitute male genitals. Excising a woman's clitoris does
not vaginalize her sexuality, nor does it make the muti-
* There is little or no evidence that men imposed on women the
extension of the labia and clitoris. On the contrary, it seems to result
from female desires.
Girls' Rites / 141
lated woman less of a threat to the man who fears for his
25
virility.
Though we know that boys wish for circumcision from
the statements of preliterate people, and from fantasies
such as those reported by Nunberg, no such evidence has
been gathered from girls. While the girl's anxiety about
mutilation of the genitals is well known, even in my ob-
servations of schizophrenic girls I have only very rarely
encountered a desire for such mutilation. In reviewing the
literature one receives the impression that female intro-
cision and excision are imposed on the girl by men. It is
desired by her, if at all, not because it changes her sex
organs but only because it brings higher status or is a
necessary precondition of marriage.
Girls undoubtedly suffer from penis envy, as boys do
from vagina envy; but while the evidence presented here
suggests that boys try to satisfy their envy symbolically,
it cannot be shown that the girl's parallel desires are satis-
fied by initiation as such. Dressing up in men's finery sug-

gests mainly an acting out of envy for the male's role in
society, but there seems no connection between this and
any surgery on the genitals. The girls are not told, nor do
they believe, that they gain new functions as a result of
mutilation.
If were true that by circumcision and subincision men
it
tried and failed to match women's fertility, then it would

be easy to see how they might grow resentful and try to
revenge themselves on women. Men who tried to manipu-
late their penes surgically may have found it particularly
offensive that women should possess a penislike organ in
addition to female genitals; hence, they may have wished
to take it away from women. A remark quoted by Bryk
suggests such an attitude. When he asked one village
chief of the Nandi about the custom of clitoridectomy he
received the following answer: " 'We are Nandi. We don't
want such a hanging down thing in our women!' In say-
ing this, with his little finger he made an expressive move-
ment as if to signify with it the clitoris and his disgust
of it."
26
But revenge, while perhaps a contributing factor, is

probably not a major motive behind the mutilation of
girls. I believe that the custom originates in more positive
desires.
The Positive in Girls' Rites
Throughout this book

have been guided by the be-
I
lief that important human and certainly those
enterprises,
that have given satisfaction for centuries, must serve posi-
tive rather than negative ends. This point of view con-
forms with ego psychology, which is just as concerned
with the normal as the abnormal person and his motiva-
tions, while psychology of the unconscious was based
mainly on the study of abnormal persons.
The neurotic may pray to God to mitigate His ire and
rely on God to provide him with progeny and to protect
him from sickness. The more adequate person will pray
for positive guidance and then rely on his own ability to
create new life, to develop hygiene and medicine in order
to prevent and cure disease and to strive for better living
conditions. The neurotic may cut off his nose to spite his
face, but the normal human being, when for valid reasons
dissatisfied with his nose, will submit to plastic surgery
to improve his appearance.
I am unwilling and unable to believe that female rites
were devised and kept up for centuries simply to provide
women with rituals like men's or to wreak men's revenge
on the female genitalia. Though a cherished toy may get
broken when the small child angrily throws it away be-
cause it is too complicated or does not satisfy his desires
at the moment, he does not break it only for revenge. His
destruction of complex toys usually results from the effort
to understand them, to learn how they work, to make them
work as he wants them to; in short, to gain mastery over
them. The more intriguing the toy, the greater the desire
to control it and also to retain it. Any child gains some
sense of mastery over the toy he can make run.
If I may make the analogy to female mutilations, it is
possible to consider them as male efforts to gain control
over female sex functions. After all, these people do not,
like some neurotic children, destroy the cherished toy
just because they cannot "run" it. The male is satisfied
with a token command over the external female genitals
that does not interfere with the woman's fertility or her
sex enjoyment. .
Female introcision as practiced by the Australians

might represent an effort of men to make women bleed as
in menstruation. The menstrual taboo is another, less direct
Girls' Rites / 143
assertion of male mastery; in this case, not over women's

functions, but over their behavior when these functions
occur. By chanting and rubbing the pubescent girl's
breasts, the men can believe that they influence the de-
velopment of the breasts. By all these acts men try to
convince themselves and the women of their own positive
contributions to fertility.
Female initiation rites devised or imposed by women,
such as extension of the clitoris and labia, certainly pro-
vide the chance for socially approved masturbation; it
may also be the result of women's desire to have a penis-
like organ. Dressing like men, wearing men's ornaments
and weapon's, etc., may help to satisfy their envy of men's
social functions.
Some examples may illustrate the procedures that give
women a greater degree of clitoridean or "phallic" sexu-
alitythan nature grants them, as well as a penislike organ.
But the point to be emphasized here is that women adopt
these practices without any encouragement or interference
from men; hence the motivation must he in the desires of
women. In Dahomey:
"Girls who are from nine to eleven years old that is, —
whose breasts are beginning to develop are assembled —
by compounds in groups and engage in the practice
. . .
... of massaging and enlarging the lips of the vagina. They

gather in the evenings at sundown behind the house of
the woman in whose care they have been placed. . . .
With a shaped piece of wood, this woman manipulates

the lips of the vagina of each girl, pulling at them, stretch-
ing them, and lightly puncturing the vaginal tissues in
several places. This she does eight to nine times for each
of her charges during the first year of instruction, and
during the next year the girls do this for each other. . . .
For two years at the very least this is continued, and in

addition there is the outer massaging of these 'lips' to
cause thickening and muscular development for 'thin-
lipped' women are considered lacking in comeliness." 27
The African Luvale girl "is taught how to give sexual
satisfaction . and there is no doubt that this is one of
. .
the most marked aspects of the instruction. She also . . .
learns to make dancing movements with her hips during

coitus. ... In the unusual event of her being a virgin, her
hymen will be broken with a stick or a piece of cassava
root carved to resemble a penis. Her labia are also
stretched. . .
," 28
According to another account:

"The Maxi people use a horn[for enlarging and de-
veloping the lips of the vagina], though in Abomey both
a special wooden instrument and the root of the indigo
plant are employed, and, in addition, ants ... the purpose
of the introduction of this vegetable irritant or the sting-
ing ants is to stimulate the process of massage, by induc-
ing irritation which encourages tugging and handling.
The [female] teacher, besides supervising this process,
. .also gives the girls instructions bearing on sexual
.
29
life."
Among
the Baganda and the Suaheli the girl, before she
reaches puberty, is encouraged to enlarge her labia through
frequently pulling and stroking and by use of some special
herbs or leaves. 30
Such practices bring about changes of the genitals that
can be connected neither with the teaching of tribal lore
nor with wishes to bind the tribe together; they have no
relation to rites de passage, nor to securing the incest taboo
or inhibiting sexuality. They obviously increase the desire
and opportunity for masturbation and, according to the
teaching connected with them, enhance sex enjoyment for
both men and women. Each is an age-grading experience
that prepares girls for their future sex role and seems well
in line with what girls of that age desire. It is not imposed
by elders against the wishes of the young and serves hardly
any other purpose than to provide sexual stimulation and
to help the girls toward sexual maturity. Compared with
such progressive experience, the female rituals that seem
to be mainly copies of the male rites are lacking in con-
viction.
One last thought: the initiation of both boys and girls

is probably modified by the ambivalence adults feel when
confronted with young persons growing to maturity. On
the one hand the adult is proud of the results of his train-
ing; but he may also envy the young who will soon re-
place him in positions of importance.
Such ambivalence may help to explain some, but only
some, of the milder punitive and painful experiences that
are inflicted on initiates, both boys and girls, that range
from beatings to stinging by ants, wasps, or other insects,
Girls' Rites / 145
piercing parts of the body restricting movement, food, or
rest, and so on ad infinitum. Bonaparte comments on how
happy the old women must be who are delegated to muti-
late the girls at this opportunity to take revenge on the
young for their old age. 31
I cannot agree that parents in any society are so force-
fully jealous of their offspring. Their feelings are indeed
ambivalent, but in the vast majority of cases the positive
feelings are far stronger than the negative.
Parents who have loved their child and cared for him
devotedly do not suddenly at the child's adolescence be-
gin to act out wildly their minor negative feelings. What
psychoanalytic reasoning may indicate, however, is that
the older generation's envy of the young is in close ratio
to the extent of its sexual frustration.
Thus the civilized, sex-inhibiting society may create
much greater envy in parents than do those societies where
the older people have enjoyed sexual satisfaction and
continue to enjoy it as much as they wish to or are able.
Summary
The writer on female initiation finds relatively little
material to work on. Partly because most investigators
have been men, and partly because male rites are more
prominant, the literature on female initiation is thin. But,
on one point, female rites offer better evidence than male.
In the myths explaining boys' rituals it is said that manipu-
lation of the male genital was once performed by women;
but in present practice the actual interference is nearly
always performed by men. In the manipulation of the fe-
male sex organs, on the other hand, certain rites were and
are performed by men and certain others by women. Thus
in girls' rites we may find a clue to which types of manipu-
lation are imposed by the other sex (and possibly why)
and which are self-chosen or suggested and imposed by
persons of the same sex on each other.
Comparing manipulation of the female sex apparatus
by men and by women, it can be seen that, by and large,
manipulation by men is destructive, showing an aggressive
enmity that is most readily explained by fear or envy.
Manipulation by women, on the other hand, results more
often than not in greater sex enjoyment and in an exten-
sion of the sex apparatus that makes the existing organs
more like those of men. That the labia, as Herskovits
points out, become by artificial manipulation more mus-
cular, harder, less flexible, is to make them more like the
erect penis.
These practices, no less than the rites of boys, suggest
again that the human being's envy of the other sex leads
to the desire to acquire similar organs, and to gain power
and control over the genitals of the other sex.
The Biological Antithesis
At the end of this study, I am still unable to explain

circumcision fully and unequivocally. There is much evi-
dence that women impose or desire it; but there is also
—
much reason to believe it is desired by men either be-
cause it gives them symbolically the capabilities of women,
or because it emphasizes their masculinity by making the
glans permanently more visible, or for a combination of
these and other reasons. In any case all the explanations
that appear most plausible to me seem to originate in the
great biological antithesis that creates envy and attraction
between the two sexes.
True, social differences in the status and prerogatives
of the sexes compound the envy, including the greater
sexual freedoms which may be accorded one over the
other. In this last respect particularly, woman is still at a
disadvantage. Yet even there, and still more so in regard
to social status and role, our own society seems fortunately
headed toward greater equality.
But in regard to what counts most, nature permits each
person only one sex. Hence a desire for the bodily char-
acteristics and functions of the other leads to a psychologi-
cal impasse: to become like the other sex (which is de-
sired) implies giving up one's own sex (which is feared).
This impasse has been little recognized as a conditioning
factor in so-called castration anxiety. That the anxiety
reaches more deeply than parental influence can account
for was recognized by Freud. So he looked to racial mem-
ory traces for its cause and concluded that we are born
with a fear of losing our sex organs. I believe, instead, that
our desire for the characteristics of the other sex is a neces-
sary consequence of the sex differences. Fulfillment of that
desire would imply losing our own genitals — hence the
inexorable nature of castration anxiety in both sexes.
The efforts that I believe men and women make in
most of the puberty rites discussed in this book are aimed
at an actual or symbolic understanding of the functions of
the other sex and a psychological mastery of the emotions
they arouse. These efforts gain their impetus from the de-
sire to master the riddle of our dual sexuality. Far from
147
creating castration anxiety, they go a long way to conquer
it. Hence we may come to view the rites as devised not to
create sexual anxiety, but to control or eliminate it. If

this is true, it will no longer seem so important to know,
what rites originated with men and what with women.
Up to now initiation rites, particularly circumcision,
have been viewed by anthropologists and psychoanalysts
as imposed mainly by elders on the unwilling young. But
the schizophrenic children I observed developed some-
thing akin to initiation customs out of their deep inner
needs. Neurotic or psychotic as their efforts may have
been, they were clearly trying to help themselves. This
led me to wonder if we had not taken too low a measure
of man when we interpreted one of the greatest of his
rituals as merely imposed by tradition or the hatred of
his elders. I became more and more convinced that these
rites are motivated not by a desire to break man's auton-
omy, or to prevent his self-realization as a person and a
member of his social group, but by exactly the opposite
desire. I believe the rites have little to do with any man-
made conflict between the old and the young, or with secur-
ing the incest taboo or with an adherence to tradition. I be-
lieve instead that they are efforts to master the conflicts
arising from man's instinctual polyvalent desires; also the
conflict between such desires and the role society expects
him to play.
There are many ways of dealing with a desire that is
socially unacceptable or that for one reason or another the
person himself cannot accept. One way is for the individual
to dramatize it, act it out, and, through intense but in the
long run only token satisfaction, try to rout it forever.
Another way, still on the personal level, is to deny its
existence by overemphasizing what is not unacceptable.
Society, too, may by rituals or institutions try either to
help or to force the young person to deal with the prob-
lem. Some societies try to rid the person of tendencies
ascribed to the other sex, so that he will act and feel as if
these tendencies no longer exist in him. This solution is
seen among people whose initiation rites stress only (or
mainly) the manliness of boys and the womanliness of
girls. Many of the better known demands made on pubertal
boys and girls seem to exemplify this method. The feats a
—
boy must perform to prove his manhood such as killing
an enemy among headhunters or playing football in our
The Biological Antithesis / 149
society— may well originate in the wish to deny what are
looked on as feminine tendencies by overasserting his
masculinity. Assertion of the female role in society is im-
plied in such ritual acts as the girl's carrying a miniature
house on her shoulders, symbolizing her position as the
pillar of the home. 1
While these rituals are usually considered a demonstra-
tion of what is manly or womanly, they are perhaps more
correctly understood in their negative meaning, their
denial of tendencies, that are supposed to belong only
to children or only to adults of the other sex. Such tend-
encies include fearfulness in boys, and in girls a reluctance
to being worn down by feminine tasks.
Another solution seen in the pubertal Nozhizho rite
is
of the Omaha Indians. The most important element of

this rite is the adolescent's dream of the moon in which he
may see a burden strap or a bundle of arrows held out to
him. If in his dream he receives the burden strap, the em-
blem of a woman's life, he must thenceforth, regardless
of the fact that he is a boy, live as a woman, use woman's
language and dress. The girl who dreams that arrows are
held out to her must, from that time forth, live as a man. 2
This would seem an admirable solution if the ways of life
of men and women were equal in status and the social
respect accorded them and if the decision were less abso-
lute. That is, if it did not have to be made once and for
all, but could be temporary or tentative, and of varying in-
tensity or commitment to the ways of the other sex.
Still another way to minimize the conflict is to make it
possible for the young person to satisfy at least part of his
masculine and feminine strivings for the rest of his life.
This seems to be the solution in societies that go furthest in
equipping men with the semblance of female sexuality.
What seems undesirable is that there is no going back. No
allowance is made for individual variations in timing, in-
tensity, or duration.
Our own social institutions provide all too few oppor-
tunities for either private or ritual integration of such de-
sires. With our many masculine prerogatives, the girl's
wish that she were also a man may be stronger or more
open than the boy's wish that he were also a woman. Let-
ting girls wear blue jeans is a poor and insufficient solu-
tion. In preliterate society, with its concentration on ani-
mal and human procreation, men's desire for a larger
part in procreation may have been more pressing. Or it
may be that in our masculine-oriented society, boys are
forced by the mores to repress their feminine strivings
more strongly than are girls.
For example, the importance of various forms of non-
coital sexual activities can hardly be overstressed. Even
sexual envy, though essentially irresolvable, could be miti-
gated if the mores, and hence their own conscience and
self-respect, allowed men and women to play both the
more active and the more yielding role as their emotions
required at the moment —
and not only in their social,
but also in their sexual relations. Here, the psychoanalytic
nomenclature, if not also the attitudes that account for it,
is rather unfortunate. According to psychoanalytic theory,
these sexual activities derive from what Freud called the
polymorphous-perverse tendencies of the child and are to
be satisfied in adults, through forepleasure. Though
if at all,
Freud viewed these concepts as value free, the term per-
verse, in common usage, has a negative connotation, while
forepleasure connotes an activity with little merit in its
own right. I find Jung's concepts and terms much more
to my liking. He suggested that the child's sexual predis-
positions should not be viewed as polymorphous-perverse
but rather as polyvalent, and remarked that "even in adult
life the vestiges of infantile sexuality are the seeds of
vital spiritual functions." 3
This is certainly so, but polyvalent tendencies are also
the seeds of social and sexual behavior, seeds which our
society is only beginning to permit to be cultivated and to
bear fruit in social and sexual practices. Of course, if
these sexual activities are engaged in with guilt feelings
because of social opprobrium or the individual's rejection
of his own desires, little good can result, nor will they do
much to mitigate the biological antithesis. In and by
themselves they can only offer relief if they are part of a
satisfying sexual relation between man and woman. Within
a relation based on equal social and sexual rights and re-
sponsibilities, and accepted as part of such a relation, the
satisfaction of polyvalent tendencies would go a long
way to lessen the negative effects of the antithesis between
the sexes. I am speaking, for example, of the male's desire
to enjoy sexual yielding (also, and at times), and the wo-
man's desire to enjoy sexual aggressiveness (also, and at
times). And this, without the man viewing himself or
The Biological Antithesis / 151
being viewed by his partner as a weakling or as unmanly
and the woman without viewing herself or being viewed
by her partner as a virago.
At present, hardly any of our rituals permit youngsters
or adults to dramatize or partially satisfy these desires. I
would certainly favor, in a free society such as ours as-
pires to be, that solutions be found not in ritual but in
personal ways that are respected by society. But as long as
we do not offer any acceptable solutions to the problem, we
should at least be more understanding and make allowance
for it. If we could give greater recognition to boys' desire to
bear children, to the desire of male adolescents and adult
men for the more passive and leisurely enjoyment of life
instead of having always "to fight and to strut," our boys
and men might feel less envy and anxious hostility toward
girlsand women. They might also feel less need to com-
pensate by keeping their emotional distance from women
and by aggressive competing with one another. The freer
men are to acknowledge their positive wish to create life,
and to emphasize their contribution to it, the less need will
they have to assert power through destructive inventions.
What needs to be satisfied is the desire of both men and
women to play a significant part in the duties, obligations
and prerogatives, the activities and enjoyments that in
our society happen to be thought of as belonging to the
other sex. This would permit them to find happiness, and
thus self-realization, despite the biological difference of
the sexes and despite the envy that is a "natural conse-
quence." Each sex could then achieve greater inner
autonomy, could better accept its own role and that of the
other, and the two sexes could live with one another in a
more satisfying way. In preliterate society men tried to
solve this problem through ritual, it seems. We
should be
equally serious in our own efforts. What we might well
search for are solutions that are more rational; solutions
that, in line with the ethos of a free society, are more per-
sonal, more socially effective and more satisfying in
private.
APPENDIX
Infant Circumcision
The part played by circumcision in the Jewish religion,

as well as the character of the God who demanded it, have
been cited repeatedly as evidence that the deeper meaning
of circumcision is submission to powerful father figures.
Closer examination, however, reveals that the psychologi-
cal influence, and indeed the motivation of circumcision,
may have been very different before the advent of monothe-
ism.
Sherman stresses that Jewish circumcision is a special
case, characterized by three features unknown to other
forms of the custom. They are: "(1) its marked religious
significance; (2) the early age at which the operation is
performed; (3) the absence of all trace of a female muti-
lation." 1 We may
interpret these differences as indicating
that in Jewish custom ( 1 ) circumcision became the mark
of bondage to an overpowering father god; (2) that it
was shifted from puberty (the age of sex assertion) to
infancy (the age of utter dependence); and (3) that it
became a purely male rite. Perhaps it was only by virtue
of the changes in timing and sex selection, but primarily
by the timing, that circumcision could become the vehicle
of what Freud conceived of as castration anxiety.
I have already spoken in the text of the importance of
two factors that shape emotional reactions to physical
trauma. One is the psychological "constellation" within
which the trauma is experienced; the second is the age
(or the stage of psycho-biological development) at which
the trauma occurs.
In the Jewish religion, circumcision occurs not at the
age of greatest sexual vigor and self-assertion which —
adolescence often is — but at the age of total dependence
on parental figures. Thus it can become the symbol of
"the covenant." The covenant confers special privileges,
as does pubertal initiation, but, taking place at the begin-
ning of life, it is not experienced as a change in status. The
privileges to come hence seem as if they always existed.
Moreover, while pubertal initiation makes the child a man,
the Jewish covenant makes him forever a child whom the
Lord will take care of provided he obeys His command-
152
Infant Circumcision / 153
ments. It is thus an agreement by which men give up their
independence to a superfather who promises in return to
look after them.
Such a ready relinquishment of independence because
of anxiety is quite consistent with the helplessness of the
infant. It is much less consistent with the tendencies of
the adolescent who insists on self-determination, often in
the face of great anxiety, and who defensively declares his
independence from father figures.
When the child becomes older and learns about the
circumcision that was inflicted in infancy, he may come
to fear additional punishments from the father. Thus cir-
cumcision may lead to castration anxiety in particular or
to the general fear of the true father or to the fear of the
father figure which characterizes the Jewish religion.
The shift of circumcision to infancy may thus have been
one step in establishing a paternalistic monotheism. The
absence of female initiation among the Jews suggests an-
other step: A
custom that may once have promised indi-
vidual independence and sex fulfillment to both sexes may
have been arrogated in its powerful and magical function
(entering the covenant with the Lord) to men alone. Ex-
i eluding females from the rite indicates again how Jewish
circumcision came to be linked with the castration com-
plex. The main purpose of a circumcision inflicted on both
sexes alike cannot be to curb incestuous desire in the male
only. But circumcision of the male child alone, and in
infancy, can have these consequences, since he remains
for years afterward in the power of the father.
It is reasonable to assume that early monotheism, which
had to fight for its existence, was particularly stringent in
its superego demands just because it was surrounded by
societies granting greater instinctual satisfactions. Perhaps
the strictest, most castrating father god belongs precisely
to the earliest monotheism; perhaps castration anxiety was
evoked as a new weapon to keep man under his control.
Assuming this to be the case, we are on the wrong track in
examining Jewish circumcision for the light it may throw
on circumcision in preliterate society.
The God of the Old Testament is perhaps the most
rigorous of all superego images. Can we properly com-
pare a feature of that monotheism with circumcision in a
society where perhaps no clear separation had yet taken
—
place between conscious and unconscious, in which id,
ego and superego were probably less distinct from one
another?
The use made by the Jews of the rite of circumcision
may be compared with the Christian utilization of pagan
customs; the rite was taken over but connected with en-
tirely different myths. According to Freud, the Egyptian
Moses imposed his religion on the rather primitive Jewish
tribe. Whether or not this was so, it is possible that the
custom of circumcision was diffused from Egypt to the
Jews. Was it then that circumcision was assigned an en-
tirely different meaning? A monotheistic religion whose
chief tenet is subservience to an all-powerful god will
have no use for rites that bestow great magic power on
the individual as initiation did. The goals of such a re-
—
former as Moses whether he was Jewish or Egyptian
could be served best by retaining the ritual with all its
power over the minds of believers and then, as in a reaction
formation, attaching it to a myth that reversed its mean-
ing.
Circumcision, which was a tool of man's greatest pride,
may then have become the means of degrading him to the
status of a helpless subject. Or to put it differently: the
energy once used by the id to gain magic power through
the manipulation of the genital was wrested away from
the id. That energy was then claimed by an externalized
superego which used it to restrain the id and to weaken
the ego by making them subservient to a superego image.
If so basic a custom as initiation into adult life has re-
tained for us not only the same form (circumcision) but
also the same meaning as it had among preliterate people,
one might ask how is it that we have reached a higher
stage of civilization than they have? It is widely accepted
that the external form of a ritual may persist relatively un-
changed for long periods, while its meaning undergoes
many changes in line with social development. Benedict,
for example, observed that the instability of symbolic
meaning is as striking as the stability of seemingly arbitrary
ritual acts. 2
One might speculate whether a changing interpretation
of central rituals reflects to some degree the varying de-
velopment of societies. Initiation into sexual maturity is
clearly a central ritual of preliterate society. It seems
possible that other rituals which later gave meaning to
human life were originally part of it. Of the seven sacra-
ments of the Roman Catholic Church, at least five and
possibly six can be recognized as derivatives. Baptism, a
ritual rebirth, is one of them. Confirmation in the faith,
and possibly Holy Orders, find their counterparts in initia-
tion proper and in the admission to secret religious so-
cieties that often follows initiation.Communion, the eat-
ing together of food that symbolizes the ritual (if not the
god), is another frequent part of initiation. The ordeals
imposed on initiates, many of them painful and humbling,
may be likened to the sacrament of penance. Thus only
two of the seven sacraments are unaccounted for: marriage
and extreme unction; and, since initiation among many
tribes confers the right to marry, even this is not unre-
lated. For a time, the process of civilization seems to have
run parallel to the separation of a single ritual into con-
stituent parts— and their separation from each other in
time.
Such a separation took place among the Kikuyu so re-
cently that it can still be recalled. Among this African
people, the rites of marriage and death, which are so
important to us, are insignificant compared to initiation. 3
"The symbolic second birth is perhaps the most mysterious
of Kikuyu rites. It is one of the oldest customs and univer-
sal amongst them, prevailing in all their clans. ... At one
time the new birth was combined with circumcision, and so
the ceremony admitted to the privileges and religious rites
of the tribe. Afterwards trouble took place . . . the old
men settled the matter by separating the two."4 Too little
issaid to permit speculation about the psychological rea-

sons for the change or the results of it. As an example it
shows how the way was prepared for relegating circum-
cision to a different, inferior position, a process that has
also occurred among the Poro societies of Liberia. 5
Freud repeatedly made the point that society exacts a
heavy price of its members, making them forego pleasures
and even accept displeasures in the cause of civilization.
—
Perhaps the reinterpretation of a ritual from one initially
intended to increase pleasure or magic power to one that
threatened or banned individual power —
perhaps such a
change was among the factors creating a type of anxiety
that became general in, if not typical of, that society. The
anxiety then tended to bring counterphobic elaborations
or superstructures —
in brief, to help that society along
in the process of civilization.
Since these are all speculations, still another may be put
forth. Extrapolating from the psychoanolytic theory of
human development, one might consider whether, in cer-
tain initiation rituals, two different phases of development
—
were not merged one belonging mainly to the urethral
and the other mainly to the phallic phase. Fenichel says
that "the pleasure in urinating may have, in both sexes, a
phallic and even sadistic significance or it may be felt as
'letting flow,' as a passive giving oneself up and foregoing
control. The aim of letting passively flow may be con-
densed with other passive aims in boys, like being fondled
on the penis or being stimulated at the root of the penis." 6
Subincision seems to result in the flow of urine being ex-
perienced passively, while the repeated opening of the
subincision wound is a massive stimulation of the under-
side of the body or root of the penis and not of the glans.
Phallic elements, on the other hand, may be seen in the
exposure of the glans through circumcision and in the
overvaluation of the male part in procreation through the
claim that man can give birth. Thus derivatives of two op-
posing tendencies seem to be merged in one ritual: man's
passive role (his desire for feminine satisfactions) and his
fixation on the urethral stage of libido development, and
his efforts at phallic self-assertion as well (his desire for
masculine satisfactions).
The original nature of Jahwe as a fire god, who ap-
peared to Moses in the burning thornbush, fits in with
the notion that at the beginning of monotheism, urethral
and phallic elements were mixed in a first step toward
phallic primacy. This is assuming, of course, that Freud's
theory of the origin and symbolic meaning of fire is cor-
rect. Technology, characteristic of modern civilization,
may have had one of its psychological sources here. Per-
haps certain people remained "uncivilized" because they
did not feel a psychological need to progress beyond the
"passive giving oneself up"; i.e., living more or less de-
pendent on what nature by itself provides. But with phallic
psychology aggressive manipulation of nature by means
of technological inventions become not only economically
useful but psychologically attractive. It should also be
noted that the phallic stage, with its aggressiveness (and
hence its fear of retaliation), its overe valuation of the
penis in particular and of masculinity in general, is ac-

companied by fear of losing the penis.
In later historic times and in more "civilized" tribes
the initiators often use initiation, in part, to exact obe-
dience. But nowhere have I found evidence that further
harm to the genitals was among the threats for disobedi-
ence. On the contrary, where both circumcision and sub-
incision are practiced, further damage to the penis
through subincision is not a punishment but a reward,
conferring greater power, greater dignity. Moreover,
among the various tribes we can find all the stages of
social development.
There are tribes that practice initiation but not cir-
cumcision, others in which circumcision is part of initia-
tion but free from any connotations of obedience to elders.
Among the most primitive tribes, where subincision is
carried to the greatest extreme, there is often the least
emphasis on obedience. It may be that even where obe-
dience is demanded, it represents a stage of change from
a ritual that began mainly or solely as a means to deal
with envy of or anxiety about sex differences, or to gain
power over women, or to make possible greater sexual
pleasure but then developed into a ritual that lost its
original meaning and whose myth is distorted. Such
changes from magic efforts to gain power according to the
pleasure principle to behavior more consistent with a
superego principle would accord with the development
of an ever more complex, more id-restricting society.
We might conclude that what was once id-directed is
slowly arrogated to the control of the superego —
the
representative of the elders — before it eventually be-
comes ego-directed. Circumcision then disappears in
Christianity, where the threatening, "castrating" God
takes on the additional attributes of a tender, loving
Christ. The practise of circumcision is again spreading
for supposedly rational, hygienic reasons; but it may also
be because sexually we have become a bit freer and
hence like to see the glans freed of the foreskin. It might
be possible to find among preliterate people, from the
aborigines of Australia to more advanced peoples, various
stages of initiation rites including circumcision which
would show parallel developments. To my knowledge,
the search has not been made.
All this has carried us so far into the realm of specula-
tion that one last speculation may be added. In a patri-
archal society in which men may have gained ascendance
relatively recently, a society which possibly supplanted
one in which women had a greater importance, because
of their fertility, men may at first go far in asserting their
superiority. In reading the Old Testament, there are cer-
tain of the Lord's statements to the Israelites asserting
His power and uniqueness in which one seems to hear
undertones of boastfulness, as if to drown out voices
of doubt about all this power, so new. If it were not
sacrilegious one would be tempted to say: "Me thinks the
Lord doth protest too much." Several students of Jewish
religion have remarked on this emphatic, defensive, al-
most querulous assertion to masculine superiority. Some-
times it does not quite succeed in covering the traces of
an older cult of maternal deities.
The Jewish myth of the creation seems an example of
such defensive overinsistence. Most such myths start
with a nonsexual or bisexual god or first man, by or
from whom males and females are created at the same
time. The Australian aborigines have no such myth as
that of a totemic Adam, followed by a totemic Eve as
an afterthought; they believe that male and female totemic
ancestors existed together from the first. 7 In the Jewish
tradition, contrary to the natural course of events, the
woman is created from parts of the body of man. Just
as an usurper may announce that his right to the throne
has existed since time immemorial by claiming descent
from an early ruler, so perhaps does the myth project into
the beginning of time a dominance only recently acquired.
Indeed, myths about the origin of the world or of man
are probably projections of conditions either existing or
hoped for in the present. Thus the Jewish myth suggests
either an actual condition of total male dominance, or
the desire for such a condition, while the Australian myth
suggests equality of the sexes. This is another reason for
doubting that the aborigines now believe in the threat of
"castrating" father figures; such a doubt does not apply
to the Jews.
Freud seems to have been aware that his speculations
about a primal father and his castrating power over his
sons did not reach back far enough in time. Perhaps his
postulation of an all-powerful father did not reach far
enough into the unconscious, either; perhaps his specula-
tions were a defense against the much more omnipotent
mother who stands at the beginning of all our lives.
Freud admitted his helplessness when confronted with the
superior power of mother figures. He said: "I am at
a loss to indicate the place of the great maternal deities
who perhaps everywhere preceded the paternal deities." 8
Recently, Roellenbleck approached the problem of
Jewish monotheism and its relation to the maternal deities
from a psychoanalytic viewpoint. His book refers to many
passages of the Old Testament in which, despite seem-
ingly conscious efforts to create a religion dominated by
a single, all-powerful god, traces of belief in the maternal
goddess are revealed. He discusses, for example, the
passage in Exodus in which a woman performs circum-
cision. Moses' wife Zipporah, after circumcising their
son, touches Moses with the foreskin, saying, "Thou
art a bloody husband to me." Roellenbleck' s interpreta-
tion is that, according to early custom, a man becomes
suitable for marriage and acceptable to a woman as a
husband only by spilling some of his blood from the
genital region. 9 Among the ancient Hebrews, as in many
modern primitive tribes, initiatory circumcision was a
precondition for marriage.
Etymologically, the Hebrew words "circumcisor" and
"father-in-law" are so closely related that one can only
conclude that once the same term designated both. Now-
adays men circumcise boys, and the Old Testament insists
that this should be so (despite the story of Zipporah).
But this seems to Roellenbleck to be a reversal of the
original situation. According to him, it was the initiate
who originally had to perform this act of sacrificial mu-
tilation on himself. He thinks that, in a deeper sense, the
person who performs the operation is in reality acting
j
merely as a representative of the mother goddess. 10 (Cf.
the volutary self-castration of the priests of Cybele, pages
91-92.)
Roellenbleck, through his study of the influence of
the mother goddess cult on the Old Testament, also came
to doubt the validity of some Freudian theories. One of
these was Freud's formulation of activity as the man's
task in sex, culminating in his penetrating the woman's
virginity.Roellenbleck finds instead that "The designa-
tion of 'groom' as 'newly circumcised' suggests that the
Hebrew male viewed his sexuality primarily not as con-
nected with manly, active powers, at least insofar as he
viewed it under a religious frame of reference. Rather, it
seems that an unlimited masculine active role was given
up in favor of a turn towards passivity." 11
Whether circumcision was instituted by men or by
women, whether it satisfies instinctual desires of men or
of women, or both, it can only symbolize castration in a
society where severe punishment, particularly in regard
to sexual behavior, is part of the individual's frame of
reference. And only where the punitive figure of an adult
looms large will the child easily make the mental transi-
tion from circumcision to castration anxiety. Jewish
society is one such, and so are other societies that have
been influenced deeply by Judaism.
Zimmerman, too, has recently approached Jewish cir-
cumcision from a psychoanalytic viewpoint. He concluded
that its significance is less that of symbolic castration
than "the wish to create in males a permanent erection
of the penis to insure . fertile sexuality and thence
. .
the continuity of the group." 12 But the idea of, or the

wish for a permanent erection seems to belong to the
realm of phallic fantasies rather than that of mature
genitality. I think that in Zimmerman's, as in certain
other psychoanalytic discussions of circumcision, frames
of reference, or orbits of experience, seem to be mixed.
The circumcised penis can only be experienced as per-
manently erect by those who have experienced erection.
Nunberg's adult patient could feel that circumcision en-
hanced his (phallic) masculinity; but a "permanent" erec-
tion as related to a one-week-old infant has no meaning.
I believe that Zimmerman is correct in relating circum-
cision to fertility. But it is pubertal circumcision that
celebrates the beginning of fertility in the male and not the
circumcision of Jewish infants.
Australian Rites
Anthropological literature on initiation is very

abundant and a full understanding of puberty ceremonies
would demand careful analysis of each part of every
ritual. This task I have not attempted. As stated earlier,
my purpose was not to solve, once and for all, the ancient
riddle posed by initiation and circumcision. I wanted,
first,to suggest that Freud's interpretation of these cus-
toms is subject to grave doubts, as are the interpretations
of those who followed him and saw in ritual circumcision
mainly a desire to create castration anxiety. Secondly, I
suggested other possible interpretations that I found more
in keeping with the facts.
In line with my first purpose, and in justice to Freud,
I have relied heavily in this book on the literature he
used. My hypotheses must be substantiated or at least
not contradicted by his sources; otherwise, because of the
great variety of rites, the conclusion would have to be
that Freud's interpretations are valid for the tribes he
discussed, while other hypotheses may be valid for others.
Also, some of the authors who wrote after Freud had
formulated his hypotheses (most of them not strictly
anthropologists but writers using anthropological data)
were so profoundly influenced by him that their inter-
pretations have sometimes derived more from Freud than
—
from empirical evidence another reason to go back to
the sources Freud used.
Freud's anthropological speculations, particularly those
on initiation, were based on the writings of Spencer and
Gillen (writing of Australia), and of Frazer. But Frazer
himself, when discussing Australian aborigines, relied
largely on Spencer and Gillen. And indeed, as Freud re-
marked, these aborigines, like the Australian fauna, have
preserved into our our own time much that was archaic
and no longer to be found elsewhere. 1 This is especially
true of the Arunta who were little influenced by contact
with more complex civilizations. They are still considered
the most fertile source for investigators trying to under-
stand the spontaneous development, acceptance, and
modification of preliterate rites. In 1896, when the Arunta
161
were first studied by Spencer and Gillen, they were almost
untouched by Europeans. Their isolated position in the
heart of the continent had even kept them from much
contact with other tribes and had enabled them to preserve
2
their culture in an unchanged form.
Spencer and Gillen' s account of initiation among the
Arunta alone covers several hundred pages. These puberty
rites comprise the four main phases of (1) throwing the
boy in the air and painting him; (2) circumcision; (3)
subincision; and (4) the fire ceremony. The first of these
is relatively little discussed in the literature and plays no
role in the psychoanalytic interpretation of the rites.
Perhaps meaning lies in a first assertion that the boys
its
are going to undergo a major transformation and that

the men are going to perform it on them. Perhaps too,
these men stand for the mythical first figures with whom
the custom originated. The second and third phases of
the ritual, circumcision and subincision, have been dealt
with at length in the preceding chapters. Therefore, to
round out the sequence, an account of the fire ceremony
which concludes Arunta initiation is discussed below. So
much for Spencer and Gillen on whose reports Freud
relied. In addition, I have added a brief account of the
Kunapipi. a major cycle of puberty rites in Australia, as
reported by more recent observers.
The Fire Ceremony

The fourth stage of initiation among the Arunta and
Hpirra tribes is called the Engwura. It consists of a long
sequence of rites, mostly totemistic, lasting for months
and terminating in ordeals by fire. Former novices are not
fully initiated until this series is completed. All performers
in the Engwura are decorated, and the decorations are
usually applied to the body by using blood drawn from
the subincision wound or from a vein in the arm, as the
adhesive agent. The quantity of blood thus used or spilled
is enormous, and the ceremonies may lead to total ex-
haustion of the men who give it. Spencer and Gillen re-
port that one man alone, on one occasion, donated three
pints. 3
Part of the climax of these ceremonies is described as
follows:
"After dark a dozen or more fires were lighted. . . .
:
Australian Rites / 163

That night no one in either the men's or the women's
camp went to sleep. On the opposite side of the river . . .
the light of the women's camp fires could be seen flicker-

ing amongst the trees. All night long also the old men
I
kept shouting across to the women, who answered back
again, and the scene was one of great excitement. An old
i
man would shout out, 'What are you doing?' and the
women would answer, 'We are making a fire.' 'What are
you going to do with the fire?' to which the reply would
come, 'We are going to burn the men.' ... In the women's
]
camp all were gathered together at one spot [where they]
. .dug out, each of them, a shallow pit about two yards
.
j
in diameter, and in each of these, towards daybreak, they
made a fire. Then ... in perfect silence, the whole
. . .
party [of men] walked in single file [to the other bank].
. . . On the opposite side they halted about fifty yards
from the group of women and children who were standing
behind the two fires, which were now giving off dense
volumes of smoke from the green bushes which had been
placed on the red-hot embers. First of all one [spon-
. . .
soring man] with his [novice] ran forwards, taking a

semicircular course from the men towards the women,
|
and then back again. After each of them had done this,
then in turn they led their men, running, up to the fires,
and one or other of these novices knelt down while . . .
the women put their hands on the men's shoulders and

pressed them down. In this way the performance was
rapidly gone through, not a word being spoken when once
the ceremony had begun, each man simply kneeling down
in the smoke for at most half a minute. In less than half
an hour all was over." 4
Thus ends the Engwura ceremony, which lasts for
many months and requires the most elaborate prepara-
tions.
Another of these fire ceremonies is described elsewhere,
as follows
"Avoiding ... the women's camp ... the [novices]
were taken out through a defile amongst the ranges on
the west side of the camp. About five o'clock in the
. . .
evening all the women and children gathered together on

the flat stretch of ground on the east side of the river. . . .
A man was posted on the top of a hill overlooking the

Engwura ground on the west, and just before sunset he
gave the signal that the [novices] were approaching. They
stopped for a short time before coming into camp, at a
spot at which they deposited the game secured, and where
also they decorated themselves with fresh twigs and
leaves . Then, forming a dense square, they came out
. .
from the defile amongst the ranges. The [novices] were

driven forwards into the bed of the river, pausing every
now and then as if reluctant to come any further on . . .
After a final pause the [novices] came close up to the

women, the foremost among whom then seized the dry
grass and boughs, and setting fire to them, threw them on
the heads of the men, who had to shield themselves, as
best they could with their boughs. The men with the bull-
roarers were meanwhile running around the [novices] and
the women, whirling them as rapidly as possible. . . .
Suddenly once more the men wheeled around and, fol-

lowed by [the women], who were now throwing fire more
vigorously than ever, they ran in a body towards the
river. On the edge of the bank the women stopped, turned
round and ran back, shouting as they did so, to their
camp." 5
The of these two ceremonies makes it clear that
first
the women possess power over the fire. They seem to
use it to threaten and dominate the men just as in mythical
accounts, men used to be burned with a fire stick in
circumcision. The men are protected from the threat
(and from the women) so long as they remain separated
from the women by the river. The great hesitation the
men act out before crossing the protective river suggests
once more the magic power that women seem to have
over them. This is demonstrated most vividly by the
women when they press the men down onto the fire, and by
the fact that this act is the climax of the ceremony. The
men's initiation seems concluded when they give up the
protection of the water and submit to the fire and the
women.
After the fire ceremony there seems little doubt that

the novices feel safe with women, who now ritually offer
themselves as sex objects to the men. A last phase of
the ceremonies gives the impression that at the end the
men receive abundant sexual satisfaction.
"When the old men return to their camps and the
[fully initiated men who have just passed through the fire
ceremony] go out into the bush, one or more ordinary
dancing festivals takes place. A special one associated
with this period is a women's dance. At night the men
and women all assemble in the main camp. ... As each
man approaches the fire he looks about him as if in
search of someone, and then, after a short time, sits
down amongst the audience. After the men have sepa-
rately gone through this short performance a number of
young women, who have been waiting out of sight of
the fire, come near. Each one is decorated with a double
horse-shoe-shaped band of white pipeclay which extends
across the front of each thigh and the base of the abdo-
men. A flexible stick is held behind the neck, and one end
is grasped by each hand. Standing in a group, the women
sway slightly from side to side, quivering the muscles of
the thighs and the base of the abdomen in a most re-
markable way. The significance of the men's searching
looks and of the decoration and movements of the women
is evident, and at this period of the ceremonies a general
interchange, and also a lending of, women takes place,
and visiting natives are provided with temporary wives . . .
This woman's dance . . .goes on night after night for

perhaps two or three weeks, at the end of which time
another dance is commenced." 6
Fire plays an important part in other intiation rituals

besides the Engwura. As various accounts tell us, the
earliest method of circumcising was by means of fire
sticks which were only later supplanted by stone knives.
So it may be that the use of fire and smoke in the final
phase of initiation represents a last vestige of circumcision
by fire, and of a circumcision or initiation in which women
were much more active and dominant throughout.
In a myth of the Wunambal, who live in northwestern
Australia, fire itself is said to have originated in subin-
cision. One of their most important mythical ancestors
"threw the first flash of lightning by splitting his penis
and letting out the fire and the flash of lightning. He
created the fire by turning outside the red inside of the
split penis till the fire came out." 7
Fire and urination are also connected with mutilation
I
of the penis in a healing as well as a damaging way.

Among some tribes "The blood from the wound is
allowed to flow into a wooden shield, which is then
emptied into a fire that has previously been prepared for
the purpose. If the wound be painful, the initiate puts
some glowing pieces of charcoal into the ashes and then
urinates upon them, meanwhile holding his penis above
the glowing embers, the steam arising in this way from
the fire is said to ease the pain." 8 *
The close relation between fire and initiatory circum-
cision is further corroborated by a comprehensive term
used among the Tikopia. This term refers to the firing
of the fuel in the cooking place; literally it means "the
kindling of the ovens." But the same term covers the
whole ceremony of initiation, which includes a slitting of
the upper surface of the anterior portion of the prepuce.
There is a definite ritual significance attached to this
name for initiation. 9
Fire and Phallic Pleasures
Many have speculated as to whether or not fire was

one of the first of man's cultural acquisitions. Was this
possession so powerful that its conservation required a
central place around which the tribe may have formed?
Since fire is usually made by men and not by women, it
seems plausible that it was also men who discovered it.
Setting and extinguishing fire seem to bring strong phallic
pleasures. Whether the preservation of fire was originally
entrusted to women is of course highly speculative, par-
ticularly since the problem of conserving it seems to have
preceded the knack of kindling by some time. But ac-
counts of female fire goddesses whose priestesses were
forced to remain virgins suggest that fire had to be pro-
tected from men. Other fire gods and goddesses were
among the deities served only by priestesses, indicating
that perhaps women were responsible for the protection
of fire.
Myths such as that of the Wunambal connecting sub-
incision with the acquisition of fire seem to support Freud's
notions on the relation between fire and phallic phe-
nomena. He believed that men had to control the wish
to extinguish flames by urination, in order to gain per-
manent possession of fire. 10 And indeed, men who are
subincised can no longer direct the stream of urine so
well. The pleasure of extinguishing a blaze from a squat-
* As noted earlier (page 117), women undergo the same healing

and purifying rite after childbirth.
ting position is small when compared with directing a
stream of urine at it from a distance.
In view of Freud's speculation, it is interesting that the
circumcision damage to the penis, according to Australian
tradition, was initially inflicted by fire —
an exact reverse
of the phallic pleasure of extinguishing flame by urination.
If Freud was correct, then the Engwura ritual as well as
the Wunambal myth might be interpreted as stating sym-
bolically that men had acquired permanent control of the
use of fire.
There are parallels in modern folklore and psychology
for the connection between urination and fire. Children
are warned not to play with matches lest they wet their
beds at night. Fenichel speaks about a deep-seated rela-
tionship between urethral eroticism and the excitement
aroused by fire. 11 And I have often noticed the delight
that boys take in setting fires and in playing with fire
pumps, particularly boys in great doubt about their
masculinity.
Considering the possibility that forest fires ignited by
lightning (see the Wunambal myth) may have been man's
original source of the idea of extinguishing it by urina-
fire,
tion seems But fire caused by lightning may

ridiculous.
have been preserved in semipermanent small blazes that
could easily be extinguished by urination. We
have ob-
served how one of our disturbed boys was tempted to
urinate at a small fire in an open fireplace, and how the
desire was so contagious that all the other boys tried to
follow suit. Such collaborative effort could easily douse
the small permanent campfire of a tribe.
A number of our enuretic boys have believed that uri-
nation was their only protection against destruction by
fire. During treatment, they revealed that they drenched
their pajamas and bed sheets to save themselves from
burning, either by a real fire which they imagined or by
the "fire" of their emotions; the danger seemed particularly
great to them when they were asleep and so off guard.
Similar unconscious motives might account in part for
the fire ceremonies just discussed. Subincised, and thus
having symbolically given up the ability to extinguish
fire by a stream of urine, the men seek protection behind
water, the river. At the end of the ceremony, they ex-
perience the women as dangerous and powerful (pressing
them down on the but also as benign, since nothing
fire)
physically harmful occurs and the fire is preserved.
The sequence of the four Arunta puberty rites is

perhaps made plainer to the present-day observer if they
are read in reverse order (forgetting for the moment the
Engwura, which is even more alien to us than the others).
While only the most primitive tribes practice subincision,
highly cultured nations still circumcise, and the first
ceremony, throwing the boy up in the air and then paint-
ing him, is like spontaneous adolescent practices known
in most modern societies. In this country, it resembles the
hazing which, together with final examinations, confer-
ring of degrees, etc., has often been compared with puberty
rites. Like many of the rituals devised in prepatriarchal
times, these too may have been taken over later by
patriarchal society. Then the new system which had to
rely on the strictness of its institutions in its early, insecure
period, could with growing security relax them.
Looking at the totality of the rituals from this point of
view, it is possible to conclude that in the process of
civilization —which in many ways parallels the develop-
—
ment of patriarchal society one after another of the
initiation ceremonies has disappeared, until only rudiments
of the first remain with us. That such a process may have
run parallel to a decline in the rigor of the patriarchal
system can easily be imagined. As it grew firmly en-
trenched, it may have depended less on rituals and insti-
tutions taken over from prepatriarchal times, and men
may have found the need to gain feminine abilities less
urgent.
This again is largely speculation. Only the evidence
remains: The "ordeal by fire" is the last and perhaps the
most profound ceremony, since it signifies not only that
initiation is complete, but also, perhaps, the submission of
men to women. Immediately before that comes an
operation that changes men's anatomy so that they urinate
like women and bleed from a genital opening as women
do; structurally this operation is far-reaching, but psycho-
logically its effect may be less profound than that of the
fire ritual. The still earlier interference with the male
genital by circumcision causes it to bleed only once and
is even less extensive. Smearing the boys with a substance
representing menstrual blood is purely symbolic, while
throwing them up in the air is the mildest of all initiation
ceremonies.
Viewed in chronological sequence, the rites seem to
increase in severity and in making men resemble women,
and finally to be dominated by them.
It is impossible to determine —
even from a tribe as
primitive as the Arunta but at so late a period of their
—
development as the present whether these rites actually
originated with women. But Spencer and Gillen warned
against the error, already common in their own day, of
speaking as if they were restricted to or belonged only to
men; their warning, if heeded by Freud, would have pro-
tected him from those speculations connecting the cere-
monies with modern castration anxiety. The authors draw
attention to tradition after tradition among the Arunta
that relate in great detail how, in times past, the things
now regarded as taboo to women were not so.*
The authors regard it as unlikely that the aborigines
could have invented these details, so contrary to their
present ideas, and suggest that the traditions really in-
dicate that formerly men and women were on terms of
greater equality than they later came to be. 13 For reasons
that we cannot yet understand, ceremonies in which both
sexes may have participated were separated into two sets,
different in important respects.
The final phase of this presumed development, the only
one known to us, shows that for the tribes studied, the
male initiation ceremonies are more elaborate than the
* Under Ritual Surgery I have cited myths telling of how women
originated circumcision. Here I might add the myth, told among the
Buka, about the origin of the bull-roarer:
"A woman once went to cut firewood in the bush. . . . She picked up
a piece of wood and knocked it on a log. It split in two. One piece
flew up into the air and made a noise like this (the teller imitates it).
The woman jumped up in a fright: 'What is that?' Then she thought:
'It is something very good. It belongs to me, I found it.' . Then
. .
she went to her village [and all the women came together and] said
'True, true, you have found a good thing. It belongs to us, you
found it.'
"Then all the men came [and wanted to know what all the noise
was about. The women told them, and] then all the men went back to
their own side of the huts and talked. 'Ah, we had better get this
piece of wood, it can cry out.' So the men went and took it away
from the women, and they killed . them all, except some very tiny
. .
girls, hardly more than babies; they were allowed to live because
they did not know about the bull-roarer properly."l2
These and other myths seem to be parallel to those that maintain
that circumcision was originally performed by women; they might be
viewed as mutually supporting since they are relatively independent
of one another.
rites for women, and that women, who formerly played
the main role according to legend, are now relegated to a
secondary part in ritual life.
Kunapipi
The following brief account of Kunapipi rites is in-
cluded here because it seemed one of the most character-
istic examples of men's preoccupation with female sex
functions. Warner has discussed both the myth and the
ritual under the name of Gunabibi 14 and more recently
Berndt devoted a book-length report to it. 15 These rites
occur in areas of Australia where both circumcision and
subincision are practiced. The original meaning of Kuna-
pipi not clear, but it is most frequently translated as
is
"Mother" or "Old Woman." (Used in this context, the
term "old" signifies status rather than chronological
age.) But "Kunapipi" is also said to have other meanings,
including "whistle-cock," meaning a subincision wound,
and "uterus of the mother." 16 Even people who practice
only circumcision and not subincision use the same name
for both subincision and the Kunapipi.
Berndt thinks that the Kunappi cult became merged
with that of the Wawilak sisters, and that in this way their
myths, which are most directly related to circumcision
and subincision (see page 123), became part of the
mother-fertility rites.
"This mother is always present behind the ritual, the
dancing, and the singing. She is a symbol of the produc-
tive qualities of the earth, the eternal replenisher of
human, animal, and natural resources; it was from her
uterus that human and totemic beings came forth. She
has no totem herself, nor is she a totemic concept; she
does not herself perform totemic ritual, though her
neophytes do. In these areas, she is the background of all
totemic ceremony, an 'eternal' explanation and symbol
of the Aboriginal way of life, with its continual expecta-
tion of rebirth.
"The Mother herself, Kunapipi, Kalwadi, or Kadjari,
is represented in certain parts of the mythology as a
perpetually pregnant woman, who in the Dream-Time let
out from her uterus human beings, the progenitors of the
present natives. She was responsible too for sending out
spirits of the natural species from season to season, to
—
ensure their continual increase. In this she did not act
entirely alone, but in association with a Rainbow Snake,
the symbolic Penis, which completed the dual concept." 17
Although Berndt calls the snake a penis symbol
—
which it also is in the myths it is most often described
as a female. As a she-snake, it symbolizes the wish of men
for female, (and possibly also the wish of women for
male) sex characteristics and functions.
The Myth
The Kunapipi myth tells how the elder Wawilak sister
gave birth to a child. The sisters then continued their
journey, but the afterbirth blood was still flowing when
they reached the sacred water hole of the mythical snake,
the great Julunggul, who was the "headman" of all ani-
mals, birds, and vegetables. The Wawilak sisters made a
fire and placed an opossum on it to roast; but it got
up and ran away, as did all the other animals they tried
to cook. The animals knew that Julunggul was near by,
and that the women were desecrating her water hole by
dropping afterbirth blood around it. The animals disturbed
her by jumping into her well, and she could smell the
afterbirth blood of the elder sister. She lifted her head
from the water, smelling the odor of pollution and sprayed
water upward and outward to form rain clouds.
The two sisters, seeing the clouds, constructed a hut to
protect them from the rain, lit a fire, and went to rest.
The rain began to fall, washing the coagulated blood from
the ground into the sacred well. Julunggul, seeing the
blood in the water, emerged again from her well and
dragged herself toward the bark hut. The Wawilak sisters,
seeing the Julunggul, made attempts to keep her away.
"The younger sister began to dance, to hinder the
Snake's progress. She mover gracefully, shuffling her feet,
swaying her body from side to side. The Julunggul stopped
in her course, and watched the dancing. But the girl grew
tired, and called out: 'Come on, sister, your turn now:
I want to rest.'
"The older sister came from the hut, leaving her child
and began to dance. But her blood, still intermittently flow-
ing, attracted the Snake further; and she moved towards
them.
'Come on, sister,' cried the older sister, 'It's no good
for me; my blood is coming out, and the Snake is smelling
it and coming closer. It's better for you to go on danc-
"
ing.'
So the younger sister continued, and again Julunggul
stopped and watched. In this way, the Wawilak danced
in turns; when the younger sister danced, the Snake
stopped; and w hen the older one continued, she came
7
forward again. But the younger sister's intensive activity

caused her menstruation to begin, and the snake, smelling
the menstrual blood and attracted by it, came forward
without hesitation. The Wawilak ran into their hut, and,
with the baby, sat waiting inside. When Julunggul finally
put her head into the hut, she sprayed the women and
the child with saliva from her throat to make them very
slippery and then swallowed first the baby, then the mother,
and finally the younger sister. 18
Thus it is the female functions involving blood which
attract and irritate the great snake; it does not react so
to the woman who does not bleed.
As Berndt commented, essentially female sex functions,
childbirth and menstruation, are the inciting events in the
myth. They arouse the snake, which is powerfully at-
tracted by both menstrual blood and the blood of the
afterbirth. The snake puts its head into the hut and
spouts forth a slippery substance, a saliva which is called
by a word that also designates semen. 19 But why does the
snake swallow these three females? (The newborn child
is also female.) Perhaps contained in this act lies the
explanation for the motives that led to the myth and the
rites.
The entering of the snake's head and the spurting forth
of the semen-saliva may represent sexual intercourse. But
this intercourse is not experienced primarily as an act of
procreation, since the aborigines know little of the relation
between coitus and conception. Intercourse as described
here may be a means of acquiring or being part of the
female sex functions. Childbirth took place before the
snake was attracted; it was the blood resulting from child-
birth that initially aroused the snake. When to this was
added the attraction of menstruation, the combination be-
came so powerfully stimulating to the snake that coitus
took place symbolically. It is, after all, in coitus that the
sexes merge most completely, psychologically and phys-
iologically, and a man who wishes to acquire female
sex functions might try to do it through intercourse.
But the question of why the snake swallows the three
females after coitus is still unanswered. It may be that
the victims represent the three main forms in which
females and the female sex functions appear to the male:
the "sexless" child, the pubertal girl, and the childbearing
woman; or the sex functions of menstruation and child-
birth. By oral incorporation, the male acquires all three
stages of female development as expressed in both cere-
mony and myth. If the snake is the symbol of the male
organ, it is also the symbol of the incised penis that has
taken into itself the incisure, the slit, the vulva, and is
thus both male and female. Or as Berndt, concludes, the
subincised penis now symbolizes all that is "essential in
the process of fructification." 20
The desire of men to acquire female sex functions in-
volves many ambivalences, as does any oral incorporation
of a desired and feared object. We should expect therefore
to find traditions in which the snake (now both male and
female) ejects what it first incorporated. And indeed, the
myth tells that later the snake vomits up the women and
child, who are then revived. But this is as far as the
effort goes toward restoring an unequivocal masculinity.
The women are eventually reswallowed. 21
The Rite
The Kunapipi rite is usually held in the dry season,

and the ceremonies last anywhere from two weeks to
two months; in exceptional cases they may extend over
two years. The rites follow the mythical account closely,
though in much abridged form; their sequence of events
is also duplicated in the chronological arrangements of
the various rites. At the conclusion of the myth the snake,
by swallowing the females, has become both male and
female. Presumably at the end of the ceremonies the man
has done the same by incorporating into himself the fe-
male element.
Almost immediately after the first ceremony, the nov-
ices, after being smeared with red ochre and blood from
the arm, are taken away to meet the Julunggul. As far as
the women are officially concerned, the boys are swallowed
by the snake, and they are not supposed to return to
the society of women until they are reborn at the end of
22 *
the Kunapipi.
Warner, in describing what appears to be basically the
Kunapipi ceremonies as they occur in Murngin initiation,
adds an important element. There, the boys to be cir-
cumcised are told " 'The Great Father Snakef smells your
foreskin. He is calling for it.' The boys believe this to be
23 Here
literally true and become extremely frightened."
the scent of the foreskin exercises the same attraction for
the snake as did the scent of the blood of the menstruating
and childbearing women. Since the foreskin is actually
cut off later in the ceremonies, it appears that the snake,
which incorporated or wished to incorporate the female
sex, now causes bleeding from the male sex organ. If male
genital bleeding is not thus made directly comparable to
female genital bleeding, it at least seems to represent the
satisfaction of a desire aroused by the latter. The Murngin
statement reported by Warner continues: " 'This is the
blood that snake smelled when he was in the well. . . .
When a man has got blood on him [is ceremonially deco-
rated with it], he is all the same as those two old women
"
when they had blood.' 24
As the man gives his blood in the ritual, a trumpet is
blown over him; this represents Yurlunggur risen from his
well to swallow the women because he has smelled the
menstrual blood. The songs refer to the profanement of
the pool and to the swallowing of the women, meaning
that the man who gives his blood for the first time is
being swallowed by the snake and is at the moment the
mythical woman. 25 When a boy is circumcised it is as
26 attracted by the bleeding
if the snake had come again,
penis just as in mythical times it was attracted by the

bleeding women.
I have interpolated Warner's report here because
Berndt does not deal specifically with the connection be-
tween circumcision and the Kunapipi and Julunggul
rites. But there can be no doubt that circumcision and
sub-
incision are directly connected with the myths of the Wawi-
lak sisters, which are also central to Kunapipi.
Berndt does, however, report some of the songs sung
*Thus an element not directly contained in the myth but essential
in the acted-out ritual the connection between initiation and rebirth.
is
translation not of Yurlung-
t The "Great Father Snake" is Warner's
gur (Murngin for Julunggul) but of another descriptive term some-
times used in addition to Yurlunggur. Yurlunggur is untranslatable.
during the rites which pertain to circumcision and sub-
incision. Only key words are sung, and so the author's
comments are necessary to understand the meaning of the
songs. One of them goes: "Subincised penis incisure [is]
open wide," on which Berndt comments: "This refers
. . .
to [various regions where] the incisure was originally

made because of the Wawilak (or . .the Kunapipi her-
.
self), in order to represent their vaginae; and the blood

coming from the cut (or from subsequent piercing) sym-
bolized both the after-birth and menstruation. In the
Yirrkalla (northeastern Arnhem Land) version of the
Kunapipi, the removing of the blood from the arm is a
substitute for this practice." 27
This song and the comments of both Berndt and Warner
indicate that blood from the arm, so commonly used in
aboriginal ceremonies, is a substitute for blood derived
from the genitals, including the subincised penis. This is
important because it has been thought that there is a
basic difference between "good" blood, coming from
the upper parts of the body, and "bad" blood from the
lower parts and particularly the genitals.
Another of these songs goes: "Pull foreskin stone knife
penis." A
translation would be: "Cutting their foreskins
with a stone knife." Berndt comments: "The old men
see Buda and Bananggala among the women: they are
young boys who have not been circumcised. The [women]
say, 'You want to be cut, and then we can copulate
better.' Although the two young men were uncircumcised
they had been copulating with the [women]; but now the
girls persuade them to have their foreskins removed, to
make coitus more pleasurable." 28
The first of these songs thus shows how circumcision
and subincision result from events connected with the two
mythical women. Men re-enact these events by cutting
their penes or their arms to acquire a bleeding, vulvalike
opening, and thus to become like the older (childbearing)
and younger (menstruating) Wawilak sisters. The second
song expresses the belief that it was and is partly due to
women's desire that boys are circumcised.
References
Preface
1. M. E. Spiro, [Book review of Symbolic Wounds], Ameri-

can Journal of Sociology (September 1955), LXI, no. 2,
p. 163.
2. Ibid.
3. D. F. Aberle, [Book review of Symbolic Wounds],
American Sociological Review (April 1955), XX, no. 2,
p. 248.
4. R. Graves, The White Goddess (New York: Creative
Age Press, 1948).
5. M. Praz, The Romantic Agony (Oxford University
Press, 1933).
6. D. Riesman, [Book review of Symbolic Wounds], Psy-
chiatry (1954), XVII, p. 300 ff.
7. E. R. Leach, "Golden Bough or Gilded Twig?" and H.
Weisinger, "The Branch that Grew Full Straight," Daedalus
(Spring 1961), p. 371 ff.
An Ancient Riddle
1. J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough (3rd ed.; London:

Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1922), Balder the Beautiful, II,
p. 278.
2. M. F. Ashley-Montagu, "Ritual Mutilation Among Prim-
itive Peoples," Ciba Symposia, VIII (1946), p. 421.
3. Ibid.
4. F. Speiser, "Ober
Initiationen in Australien und Neu-
Guinea," V erhandlungen
der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft
in Basel, XL
(1929), pp. 195, 199, 200, 244.
5. B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen, The Native Tribes of Central
Australia (London: Macmillan & Co., 1899), p. 263.
6. Ibid.
1. Speiser, loc. cit., p. 198.
8. N. Miller, The Child in Primitive Society (New York:
Brentano's, 1928), p. 189.
9. N. Miller, Encyclopaedia of the Social
"Initiation,"
Sciences (New York: The Macmillan
Co., 1932), VIII, p. 49.
10. B. Malinowski, Magic, Science and Religion and Other
Essays (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1948), p. 21.
11. M. Mead, Male and Female (New York: William Mor-
row & Co., 1949).
12. M. F. Ashley-Montagu, Coming Into Being Among the
176
References / 177
Australian Aborigines (London: George Routledge & Sons,
Ltd., 1937).
13. G. Bateson, Naven (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1936).
14. R. M. and C. H. Berndt, Sexual Behavior in Western
Arnhem Land (New York: Viking Fund Publications in
Anthropology, 1951), and R. M. Berndt, Kunapipi (Mel-
bourne: F. W. Cheshire, 1951).
15. S. Freud, "Some Psychological Consequences of the
Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes," Collected Papers
(London: The Hogarth Press, 1950), V, p. 197.
16. S. Freud, An Outline of Psychoanalysis (New York:
W. W. Norton & Co., 1949), p. 89.
17. S. Freud, "Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex,"
The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud (New York: The
Modern Library, 1938), p. 612.
18. O. Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis
(New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1945), p. 437 ff.
19. E. Neumann, The Great Mother (New York: Pantheon
Books, Inc., 1955), p. 290.
20. Ibid., p. 159.
'Reopening the Case

1. W. Wolff, The Threshold of the Abnormal (New York:
Hermitage House, 1950), p. 183.
2. T. Reik, Ritual (New York: Farrar, Strauss & Co., Inc.,
1946), p. 48.
3. L. Rangell, "The Interchangeability of Phallus and
Female Genital," Journal of the American Psychoanalytic As-
sociation, I (1953), p. 504 ff.
4. S.Ferenczi, "An 'Anal Hollow-Penis' in Women," Fur-

ther Contributions to the Theory and Technique of Psycho-
analysis (London: Hogarth Press, 1950), p. 317.
5. M. Chadwick, "Die Wurzel der Wissbegierde," Inter-
nationale Zeitschrift fur Psychoanalyse, XI (1925), p. 63.
6. H. Nunberg, Problems of Bisexuality as Reflected in
Circumcision (London: Imago Publishing Co., Ltd., 1949),
p. 22.
7. Fenichel, op. cit., p. 77.
8. Nunberg, op. cit., p. 8.
Challenge to Theory
1. S. Freud, Moses and Monotheism (New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1939), p. 192.
2. S. Freud, An Autobiographical Study (New York: W.
W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1952), p. 129.
3. S. Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis
(New York: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1933), pp. 120-121.
4. Freud, Outline of Psychoanalysis, pp. 92-93, footnote
11.
5. Freud, Moses and Monotheism, pp. 156-157.
6. E. H. Erikson, Childhood and Society (New York: W.
W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1950), pp. 82-83.
7. Nunberg, op. cit.
8. Ibid., p. 1.
9. Ibid., p. 71.
10. Ibid., p. 63.
11. Ibid., p. 8.
12. Ibid., p. 1.
M. Bonaparte, The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe
14.
(London: Imago Publishing Co., 1949), p. 482.
15. S. Freud, "Totem and Taboo," Basic Writings, p. 807.
16. Aberle, loc. cit.; and Schneider [Book review of Sym-
bolic Wounds], American Anthropologist, 57, (1955), pp.
390-392.
17. G. Roheim, Australian Totemism (London: George
Allen and Unwin, 1925), p. 221.
Fenichel, op. cit., p. 450.
18.
Freud, "Three Contributions," Basic Writings, p. 592.
19.
20. K. Landauer, "Das Menstruationserlebnis des Knaben,"
Zeitschrift fiir Psychoanalytische Pddagogik, V. (1931), p.
178.
21. M. Chadwick, loc. cit., pp. 61-62.
22. M. Klein, "Early Stages of the Oedipus Conflict,"
Contributions to Psycho- Analysis 1921-1945 (London: The
Hogarth Press, 1948), pp. 206-207.
23. G. Zilboorg, "Masculine and Feminine, "Psychiatry,
VII (1944), p. 290.
24. E. Fromm, The Forgotten Language (New York:
Rinehart & Co., 1951), p. 233.
25. E. Jacobson, "Development of the Wish for a Child in
Boys," The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child (New York:
International Universities Press, 1950), V, p. 142.
26. E. Neumann, Ursprungsgeschichte des Bewusstseins
(Zurich: Rascher Verlag, 1949).
27. Zilboorg, loc. cit., pp. 275-276.
28. Ibid., p. 288.
29. Ibid., p. 294.
The Blinders of Narcissism

1. S. Freud, Aus den Anfdngen der Psychoanalyse (Lon-
don: Imago Publishing Co., 1950), pp. 54-55.
2. Ibid.
3. S. Freud, "Charcot," Collected Papers (London: The
Hogarth Press, 1948), I, p. 12.
References / 179
4. Nunberg, op. cit.
5. F. Schmidl, "Freud's Sociological Thinking," Bulletin
of the Menninger Clinic, XVI (1952), p. 1 ff.
6. S. Freud, "Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old
Boy," Collected Papers, III, p. 149.
7. Freud, "Some Psychological Consequences," Collected
Papers, V. p. 188.
8. A. Lommel, "Notes on Sexual Behavior and Initiation,
Wunambal Tribe, North-Western Australia," Oceania, XX
(1949), p. 158.
9. H. Webster, Primitive Secret Societies (2nd ed.; New
York: The Macmillan Co., 1932), p. 43.
10. Berndt and Berndt, Sexual Behavior, p. 16.
11. Ibid., p. 18.
12. Ibid., p. 21.
13. P. M. Kaberry, Aboriginal Woman, Sacred and Pro-
fane (Philadelphia: The
Blakiston Co., 1939), pp. 66-67, 93.
14. Ashley-Montagu, Coming Into Being, p. 24.
15. C. G. Jung, Antwort auf Hiob (Zurich: Rascher Ver-
lag, 1952).
16. E. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious
Life (Glencoe, 111.: The Free Press, 1947), p. 224.
17. D. Schneider, loc. cit.
18. Schneider, loc. cit., basing his argument on P. Bohan-
nan, "Circumcision among the Tiv," Man, 54, (1954), p. 3.
19. Kaberry, op. cit., pp. 81, 164.
20. Ibid., pp. 66-67.
21. Berndt and Berndt, Sexual Behavior, p. 15 ff., p. 86 ff.
22. B. Gutmann, Das Recht der Dschagga (Munchen: C.
H. Beck, 1926), and Berndt and Berndt, Sexual Behavior.
23. B. J. F. Laubscher, Sex, Custom and Psychopathology:
A Study of South African Pagan Natives (London: Routledge
&Sons, 1937), p. 113.
24. Ibid., p. 120
25. C. G. Seligman and B. Z. Seligman, Pagan Tribes of the
Nilotic Sudan (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1932),
pp. 518-519.
26. W. L. Warner, A
Black Civilization (New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1937), pp. 452, 453, footnote 3.
27. Seligman and Seligman, op. cit., pp. 518-519.
28. E. M. Loeb, "Tribal Initiations and Secret Societies,"
University of California Publications in American Archae-
ology and Ethnology, XXV
(1929), pp. 249-250.
29. R. Firth, We, the Tikopia (London: George Allen and
Unwin, Ltd., 1936), p. 466.
30. S. Freud, "The Taboo of Virginity," Collected Papers,
IV, p. 229.
31. S. Freud, "One of the Difficulties of Psychoanalysis,"
Collected Papers, IV, p. 347 ff.
32. P. Bohannan, "Circumcision among the Tiv," Man,
54 (1954), p. 4.
33. Durkheim, op. cit., p. 314.
34. Nunberg, op. cit., p. 22.
35. Durkheim, op. cit., p. 314.
36. M. Merker, Die Maisai (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer,
1910), p. 62.
37. F. Bryk, Neger-Eros (Berlin: Marcus & Weber, 1928),
p. 54.
38. R. Firth, op. cit., pp. 426-428.
39. Bohannan, loc. cit., pp. 2-3.
40. Ibid.
Fertility, the Basic Bite

1. R. Briffault, "Fertility Rites," Encyclopaedia of the So-
cial Sciences, VI, pp. 190-192.
2. Kaberry, op. cit., p. 203.
3. Ibid.
4. M. Raphael, Prehistoric Cave Paintings (Washington,
D.C.: Pantheon Books, 1945), pp. 5-6.
5. G. R. Levy, The Gate of Horn (London: Faber and
Faber, 1946), pp. 11-12.
6. R. R. Marett, The Threshold of Religion (2nd ed.;
London: Methuen & Co., 1914), p. 218.
7. Levy, op. cit., p. 27.
8. Ibid., pp. 36-37.
9. Ibid., p. 53.
10. Ibid., pp. 55-57.
11. Ibid., p. 86.
12. R. J. Braidwood, "From Cave to Village," Scientific
American, CLXXXVII, 4 (1952), 64, and private communi-
cation.
13. C. Strehlow, Die Aranda und Loritja St'dmme in Zentral
Austr alien (Frankfurt am Main: Joseph Baer &
Co., 1910),
p. 2.
14. Roheim, Australian Totemism, p. 272 ff.
15. H. Nevermann, Masken und Geheimbunde in Melane-
sien (Berlin: Reimar Hobbing, 1933), p. 126.
16. A Kramer, Die Malanggane von Tombara (Munchen:
Georg Muller, 1925), pp. 60-61.
17. Berndt and Berndt, Sexual Behavior, p. 110 ff.
18. Ibid., p. 127.
19. Ibid.
Bitual Surgery
1. Browe, S.J., Zur Geschichte der Entmannung (Bre-

P.
slau: Muller and Seiffert, Breslauer Studien zur historischen
Theologie, N.F. 1, 1936), p. 13.
References / 181
63 ff.
2. Ibid., p.
3. H. W. Roscher, Lexikon der griechischen und romischen
Mythologie, I, p. 2745.
4. Browe, op. cit., p. 63.
5. W. E. Roth, "An Introductory Study of the Arts, Crafts,
and Customs of the Guiana Indians," 38th Annual Report of
the Bureau of American Ethnology 1916—1917 (Washing-
. . .
ton: Government Printing Office, 1924), pp. 417, 591.

6. E. Weigert-Vowinkel, "The Cult and Mythology of the
Magna Mater from the Standpoint of Psychoanalysis," Psy-
chiatry, I (1938), pp. 348-349.
7. Ibid., p. 352.
8. Ibid., p. 353.
9. Ibid.
Chazac, "La Religion des Kikuyu," Anthropos,
10. P. P. V
(1910), p. 317.
11. Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes, p. 251.
12. B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen, The Northern Tribes of
Central Australia (London: Macmillan & Co., 1904), p. 352.
13. Ibid., p. 368.
14. E. Westermarck, Ritual and Belief in Morocco (Lon-
don: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1926), II, p. 427.
16. G. W. Harley, "Notes on the Poro in Liberia," Papers
of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Eth-
nology, XIX (1941), No. 2, p. 15.
17. Firth, op. cit., pp. 446-447.
19. Ibid., p. 454.
20. Ibid., pp. 455-456.
21. B. M. Loeb, "The Blood Sacrifice Complex," Memoirs
of the American Anthropological Association, No. 30 (1933),
p. 18.
22. G. A. Barton, "Semitic Circumcision," Encyclopaedia
of Religion and Ethics (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1911), III, p. 680.
23. Loeb, loc. cit., p. 21.
24. Warner, op. cit., p. 250.
25. 512.
Ibid., p.
26. R. Berndt and C. Berndt, "A Preliminary Report on
Field Work in the Ooldea Region," Oceania, XIII (1943),
p. 257.
27. Ashley-Montagu, "Ritual Mutilation," loc, cit., pp.
432-433.
28. Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes . . . , p. 442.
29. Ibid., pp. 442, 463-464.
30. Ibid., p. 220.
31. Ibid., p. 443.
32. Ibid.
33. B. M. Harrison, Savage Civilization (New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, Inc., 1937), pp. 43-49.
34. Seligman and Seligman, op. cit., p. 518.
35. P. M. Larken, "An Account of the Zande," Sudan
Notes and Records, IX (1926), p. 1 ff.
36. J. Czekanowski, Forschungen im Nil-Kongo Zwischen-
gebiet (Leipzig: Klinkhardt und Biermann, 1924), VI, pt.
2, p. 35.
37. Seligman and Seligman, op. cit., pp. 518-519.
38. Bryk, op. cit., p. 60
39. Ibid., p. 59.
40. Ashley-Montagu, Coming into Being, p. 293.
41. Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes, pp. 255-257.
42. Ibid., p. 259.
43. Ibid., p. 93, footnote 1.
44. Ibid., p. 263.
45. W. E. Roth, Ethnological Studies Among the North-
West-Central Queensland Aborigines (Brisbane: Edmund
Gregory, Government Printer, 1897), p. 180.
49. Lommel, loc. cit., p. 159.
50. Roth, Ethnological Studies, p. 180.
51. H. I. Hogbin, "Native Culture of Wogeos," Oceania, V
(1934), p. 330.
52. Webster, Primitive Secret Societies, p. 38.
53. R. B. Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria (Melbourne:
John Ferres, Government Printer, 1878), I, pp. 60-61.
54. Ashley-Montagu, "Ritual Mutilation," loc. cit., pp. 426,
433.
55. G. Roheim, "The Symbolism of Subincision," The
American Imago, VI (1949), p. 321.
56. Ibid., p. 324.
57. Ashley-Montagu, "Ritual Mutilation," loc. cit., pp.
432-433.
58. F. Bryk, Die Beschneidung bei Mann und Weib (Neu-
brandenburg: Gustav Feller, 1931), p. 279.
59. G. Roheim, The Eternal Ones of the Dream (New
York: International Universities Press, 1945), pp. 169-170.
60. Ibid., p. 171.
61. Ibid.
62. Ashley-Montagu, Coming into Being, p. 301 ff.
63. M. F. Ashley-Montagu, "The Origin of Subincision in
Australia," Oceania, VIII (1937), p. 207.
65. D. S. Davidson, The Chronological Aspects of Certain
References / 183
Australian Social Institutions as Inferred From Geographical
Distribution (Philadelphia: 1928).
The Men-Women
1. R. Briffault, "Birth Customs/* Encyclopaedia of the
Social Sciences, II, p. 566.
2. Sir E. F. Im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana (Lon-
don: 1883), p. 218.
3. Customs," loc. cit., pp. 565-566.
Briffault, "Birth
4. B. Malinowski, "Culture," Encyclopaedia of the Social
Sciences, IV, p. 631.
5. Bateson, op. cit., p. 12.
6. W. Eiselen, "Initiation Rites of the Bamasemola," Annals
of the University of Stellenbosch, X
(1932), p. 17.
7. Frazer, op. cit., Adonis, Attis, Osiris, II, p. 263.
8. O. F. Raum, Chaga Childhood (London: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1940), p. 309.
9. Frazer, op. cit., Adonis, Attis, Osiris, II, p. 264.
10. A. C. Hollis, The Nandi: Their Language and Folk-
Lore (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1909), p. 58.
11. E. Crawley, The Mystic Rose (New York: Boni &
Liveright, 1927), II, p. 24.
12. Frazer, op. cit., Balder the Beautiful, II, pp. 249-250.
13. Ibid., p. 251.
14. Harley, loc. cit., p. 15.
15. G. Schwab, "Tribes of the Liberian Hinterland," Papers
of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Eth-
nology, XXXI(1947), p. 284.
17. K. Abraham, Selected Papers (London: The Hogarth
Press, 1949), p. 463.
18. Frazer, op. cit., The Magic Art, I, pp. 96-97.
19. Frazer, op. cit., Balder the Beautiful, II, p. 248.
20. Hollis, op. cit., p. 56.
21. Warner, op. cit., pp. 267, 328.
22. Bateson, op. cit., p. 77.
23. Mead, op. cit., p. 67.
24. Ibid., p. 98.
25. Miller, "Initiation," loc. cit., p. 49.
26. Crawley, op. cit., II, p. 3.
27. Laubscher, op. cit., pp. 113, 123, 130.
28. Gutmann, op. cit., p. 317 ff.
29. R. H. Lowie, "Age Societies," Encyclopaedia of the
Social Sciences, I, p. 482.
30. H. Bluher, Die Rolle der Erotik in der Mannlichen
Gesellschaft (Jena: E. Diederichs, 1921), II, p. 91 ff.
31. Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes, p. 274 ff.
32. Ibid., p. 272.
The Secret of Men

2. Ibid., pp. 244-245.
3. Berndt, Kunapipi, p. 8.
4. 76/d.
5. Ibid., p. 55.
6. Ibid., p. 58.
Harley, loc. cit., p. 14.
7.
R. H. Lowie, Primitive Society (New York: Boni and
8.
Liveright, 1920), pp. 265-266.
9. B. Blackwood, Both Sides of Buka Passage (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1935), p. 244.
10. Ibid., p. 245.
11. Ibid., p. 194.
12. Ibid., pp. 194-195.
13. Raum, op. cit., p. 355.
14. Ibid., pp. 318-319.
15. Gutmann, op. cit., p. 325.
16. Roheim, The Eternal Ones, p. 171.
17. Raum, op. cit., p. 350 ff.
18. Gutmann, op. cit., pp. 364-365.
19. Ibid., p. 325.
20. Briffault, loc. cit., p. 192.
21. J. Henry and Z. Henry, Doll Play of Pilagd Indian
Children (New York: American Orthopsychiatric Association,
Inc., 1944), p. 10.
Girls' Rites
Raum, op. cit., pp. 349-350.

1.
G. W. K. Mahlobo and E. J. Krige, "Transition from
2.
Childhood to Adulthood Amongst the Zulus," Bantu Studies,
VUI (1934), p. 166.
3. Mead, op. cit., p. 175.
4. CM.
N. White, "Conservatism and Modern Adaptation
in Luvale Female Puberty Ritual," Africa, XXIII (1953), p.
15 ft.
5. L. Mair, "A Yao Girl's Initiation," Man, LI (1951),

p. 60.
7. Ibid., pp. 460-461.
8. Ibid., p. 461.
9. B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen, The Arunta, (London:
Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1927), I, p. 222.
10. F. McKim, San Bias: An Account of the Cuna Indians
References / 185
of Panama (Goteborg: Etnologiska Studier, XV, 1947), pp.
79-84.
11. Freud, "The Taboo of Virginity," Collected Papers, IV,
pp. 221, 231.
12. Freud, "Totem and Taboo," Basic Writings, p. 831.
13. Ibid., p. 847.
14. R. Benedict, Patterns of Culture (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Co., 1934), pp. 28-29.
15. G. Devereux, "The Psychology of Feminine Genital
Bleeding," The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis,
XXXI (1950), p. 252.
16. Ibid., p. 252, footnote 19.
17. Ibid., pp. 252-253.
18. Roth, Ethnological Studies, p. 174.
19. Ibid., pp. 177-178.
20. Berndt, Kunapipi, p. 67.
21. J. Mathew, Eaglehawk and Crow (London: D. Nutt,
1899), p. 121.
23. Bryk, Neger-Eros, p. 56.
24. M. Bonaparte, "Notes on Excision," Psychoanalysis
and the Social Sciences (New York: International Universities
Press, 1950), II, p. 79.
25. Ibid., pp. 81-82.
27. M. J. Herskovits, Dahomey (New York: J. J. Augustin,
1938), I, p. 282.
28. White, loc. cit., p. 20.
29. M. J. Herskovits, Dahomey, p. 278.
31. M. Bonaparte, "Notes on Excision," loc. cit., p. 81.
The Biological Antithesis
1. A. Werner, The Natives of British Central Africa

(London: Constable & Co., 1906), pp. 126-127.
2. M. Van Waters, "The Adolescent Girl Among Primitive
Peoples," The Journal of Religious Psychology, VI (1913),
pp. 375-421, VII (1914), pp. 75-120.
3. C. G. Jung, "Psychic Conflicts in a Child," The Develop-
ment of Personality (New York: Pantheon Books, 1954),
p. 5.
Appendix: Infant Circumcision

1. C. C. Sherman, "Circumcision," in S. M. Jackson, ed.,
The New
Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge
(New York: Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1909), HI, pp. 117-
119.
2. R. Benedict, "Rituals," Encyclopaedia of the Social
Sciences, XIII, p. 397.
3. W. S. Routledge and K. Routledge, With a Prehistoric
People (London: Edward Arnold, 1910), p. 154.
4. Ibid., p.151.
5. Harley, "Notes on the Poro," p. 15.
9. E. Roellenbleck, Magna Mater im alten Testament
(Darmstadt: Classen & Roether, 1949), p. 71 ft
10. Ibid., p. 74.
11. Ibid., pp. 71-72.
12. F. Zimmerman, "Origin and Significance of the Jewish
Rite of Circumcision," The Psychoanalytic Review, XXXVIII
(1951), p. 112.
Appendix: Australian Rites

2. Ashley-Montagu, Coming into Being, p. 14.
4. Ibid., pp. 374-380.
5. Spencer and Gillen, The Arunta, I, p. 278 ff.
6. Ibid., I, pp. 297-299.
7. Lommel, loc. cit., p. 160.
8. Ashley-Montagu, "Ritual Mutilation," loc. cit., p. 428.
9. Firth, op. cit., pp. 423-424.
10. S. Freud, "The Acquisition of Power Over Fire," Col-
lected Papers, V, p. 288.
12. B. Blackwood, op. cit., pp. 216-217.
14. Warner, op. cit., p. 290 ff.
15. Berndt, Kunapipi.
16. Ibid., p. 16.
17. Ibid., p. 13.
18. Ibid., pp. 20-23.
19. Ibid., p. 25.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid., p. 31.
22. Ibid., p. 41.
24. Ibid., p. 278.
25. Ibid.
26. Ibid., p. 287.
27. Berndt, Kunapipi, p. 110
28. Ibid., p. 168.
INDEX
Numbers in parentheses correspond to numbered author-references in
the text. Full bibliographical data, with the same numbering, is given
by chapters under References, pp. 176-178.
Aberle, D. F., 10(3), 47(16) Baptism, 117, 155
Abomey, 144 Barton, G. A., 95(22)
Abraham (bib.), 109 Basutoland, 113
Abraham, K., 31n, 115(17) Bateson, G., 18(13), 111-112(5),
Adnjamatana, 97 118(22)
Age groups, 24, 34, 119-121 Benedict, R., 137-138(14), 154
Aggressiveness, sexual, 150 (2)
Ait Yusi, 93 Bergmann, Paul, 9
Akikuyu, 116 Berndt, R. M., 123-124(3, 4, 5,
Ambivalence, adult toward youth, 6), 139(20), 170-174(15, 16, 17,
144-145; female toward feminine 18, 19, 20, 21, 22), 175(27, 28)
role, 29-30, 51-52; female to- Berndt, R. M., and Berndt, C. H.,
ward menstruation, 27-29, 51; 18(14), 63-64 (10, 11, 12), 67
male toward females, 30-32, 53; (21), 88(17, 18, 19), 96(26)
male toward menstruation, 136- Bias, in the observer, 62-66
138 Biological antithesis, 19-20, 147-
Amputation, ritual, 78 151
Androcentric bias, 55-58, 122 Biological models in psychoanal-
Anthropology, functional, 12, 17- ysis, 40
18 Birth enclosure, sacral, 23
Antilles, 91 Birth fantasies, male, 41
Antithesis, biological, 19-20, 54- Bisexuality, 41n
55, 147-151 Blackwood, B., 125(9), 126(10,
Anus: see Rectum 11), 127(12), 169(12)
Apaches, 137 Blood, as sacrificial offering, 93-
Arapesh, 118 95; ceremonial use of, 162;
Arnhem Land, Western, 63 "good" vs. "bad," 175; men-
Art, paleolithic, 83-84 strual, 171 ff.
Arunta, 161 ff.; sequence of rites, Blue jeans, 149

168-169 Bliiher, H., 120(30)
Ashley-Montagu, M. F., 15-16(2, Bohannan, P., 76(32), 80-81(39,
3), 18(12), 64(14), 97(27), 100 40)
(40), 106(54, 57), 107 (62, 63), Bonaparte, M., 42(14), 140-141
162(2), 166(8) (24, 25), 145(31)
Australian aborigines, cultural in- Boulia District, 105
tactness, 161-162; deities, 65; Braidwood, R. J., 86(12)
education of, 64 ff.; headman, Breasts, boys' wish for, 32
67; rites, 161-175; sex knowledge ritual removal of, 91
of children, 64 ff.; sexual equal- Breasts growing, analogous male
ity, 158; see also: Initiation, ritual, 126-127; and girls' rites,
Australian rites 134-135
Aurignacian statuettes, 85 Briffault, R. 82(1),
f 109(1), 110
Autonomy, 148, 151 (3), 130(20)
Autoplastic behavior, 46-47 Browe, P., 90(1, 2), 91(4)
Autoplastic culture, 49 Bryk, F., 80(37), 99(38, 39), 106
(58), 139(23), 140, 141(26),
Baganda, 144 144(30)
Bamasemola, 112 Buffalo dances, Sioux, 87
Bantu, 140 Buka, 126-127, 169n
187
188 / Index
Bull-roarer, 125«; myth of origin, 20, 37-40, 147; religious motiva-
169n tion, 81; started by women, 96-
98; theories on origin, 95
Capitalism, 67 Civilization, evolution of, 168; see
"Castrating" mothers: see Mother also: Society
figures Clitoridean sexuality, 139
Castration, history of, 90-92; rit- Clitoridectomy: see Clitoris, ex-
ual, 102 cision of
Castration anxiety, and infant cir- Clitoris, as phallus, 140-141; eaten
cumcision, 152-160; biological by boys, 94; elongation of, 140,
roots of, 147; psychoanalytic 143; excision of, 30, 138 ff.; see
theory of, 37-40 also: Excision, female; Genitals,
Catholicism, 155 female
Caudill, William, ix Clothing: see Transvestism
Cave paintings, 83-84 Clotilde, chamber of, 83-84
Caves, symbolism of, 85 Coitus, group, 34, 63, 120; ritual,
Ceram, 113 164-165
Cewa (Africa), 134 Communion, Catholic, 155
Chadwick, M., 32(5)«, 56(21), Competitiveness, 151
182w Conception: see Procreation
Chaga, 112, 120, 128-131 Confirmation, 155
Charcot, J. M., 60 Congo, 99
Chazac, P. P., 93(10) Corroboree, women's, 123
Chicago, University of, 9, 24 Cosmetic surgery: see Plastic sur-
Childbearing, male envy of, 31, gery
53-54, 151 Couvade, 109-111
Childbirth, male re-enactment of, Crawley, E., 113(11), 119(26)
109; sacred songs of, 122-123; Creation, myths of, 158
secrecy of, 122-123; women's Crocodile spirit, 115
rites at, 109, 117, 166/r Cross-cultural influences, 68, 104
Children, compared to preliterates, Cuba, 34
x Cuna Indians, 136
Children, emotionally disturbed, "Curse," menstrual, 11, 28
24; see also; Schizophrenia Cybele, rites of, 91-92, 159
Christ, 157 Czekanowski, I., 99(36)
Christian deity, 65, 74
Christianity, and circumcision, Dahomey, 143
157; use of paganism in, 154 Daly, C. D., 91
Circumcision, and birth fantasies, Damaras, 119
41; and castration anxiety, 19, Dancing, ritual, 165
37-43, 147; and fertility, 95, 160; Darius, 90
and menstruation, 97 ff., 112; Darwin, Charles, 37
and status, 81; antiquity of, 66rc, Davidson, D. S., 108(65)
. 108; as mark of maturity, 32-34; Deception: see Secrets, male
as sacrifice, 95; as symbolic cas- Defecation: see Rectum
tration, 65-66; before coitus or Defloration, ritual, 72n, 139, 143-
marriage, 81, 99, 159, 175; boys' 144
wish for, 32 ff., 50; diffusion of, Denial, as psychic defense, 148
15, 154; distribution of, 15; fe- Devereux, G., 138(15, 16, 17)
male, 53, 59, 138-141; hygienic, Devil, 114n
157; hypotheses on, 45; infant, Diderot, Denis, 39
20, 75, 152-160; Jewish, 75, 95, Diffusion, of circumcision, 15, 154;
152-160; male reactions to, 50, of ritual surgery, 108
80-81; modern spread of, 68, Duality of sexes: see Biological
157; myths of origin, 96-100; antithesis
psychoanalytic theory of, 18- Dueling, 119
Index / 189
Durkheim, E., 65(16), 78(33), 79 Finger, symbolic mutilation of, 26,
(35) 28-29, 78
Dwoma (N. Guinea), 106 Fire, andenuresis, 167; and phal-
lic pleasure, 166-170; and uri-
Eating: see Food taboos; Oral in- nation, 165; cultural acquisition
corporation of, 166 ff.; myth of origin, 165;
Education: see Initiation; Learn- power over, 164
ing Fire ceremony, 162-166
Education to cleanliness, 72 ff. Fire god, 156
Eggan, Fred, ix Fire goddesses, 166
Ego, in preliterate man, 46 ff.; role Fire stick, 96, 164-165
in initiation, 55 Firth, R., 69(29), 80(38), 94(17),
Ego psychology, 21, 142 166(9)
Egypt, 154 Fliess, Robert, ix
Eiselen, W., 112(6) Font-de-Gaune, 84
Ejaculation, first, 134 Food sources, regeneration of, 89
Engwura, 162-166 Food taboos, 106
Enuresis, and fire, 167 Football, 148
Envy: see Sexual envy Forepleasure, 150
Erikson, E. H., 39(6) Foreskin, as offering, 93-95
Ethnocentrism, 11 Fraternities, college, 120
Eunuchs, 90, 92n Frazer, J. G., xii, 15(1), 112(7, 9),
Evolution, theory of, 74 114(12, 13), 116 (18, 19), 161
Examinations (ed.), 168 Free association, 61
Excision, female, 30, 52-53, 138 ff. Freud, acquisition of fire, 166(10);
Exodus (bib.), 159 anthropological sources, 161(1);
biological antithesis of the sexes
Family, as subsociety, 67 19(15), 20(16, 17); blinders of
Father, distant, 39; primeval, 37- narcissism, 74(31) ff.; castra-
43 tion anxiety, 37(1, 2), 38(3, 4),
Fear, male denial of, 149 39(5), 62(6), 63(7), 147; civil-
Feces: see Rectum ization, 155; comparative psy-
Female circumcision, hypotheses chology, 46(15); development
on, 45 of theories, 59(1, 2), 60(3);
Female mutilation, and Jewish cir- female excision, 140; infant cir-
cumcision, 152 cumcision, 75, 152; maternal
Female rites:see Girls' rites deities, 159(8); meaning of fire,
Female role in initiation, 165; see 156; on Moses, 154; origins of
also.- Fertility rites; Mother god- society, 120-121; perversions,
dess 150; polymorphous - perverse
Female sexuality, dual nature of, disposition, 51(19); ritual de-
139-140 floration, 72(30)n; sociology and
Feminine tasks, girls' aversion to, anthropology, 61-62; taboo,
149 136-137(11, 12, 13)
Feminity, acceptance of, 51, 78 ff.; Fromm, E., 56(24)
resentment of, 26
Fenichel, O., 21(18), 33(7), 42 Galloi, 91 ff.
(13), 50(18), 94(15), 156(6) Gang murder, 34
167(11) Genitals, ritual eating of, 93 -94
Ferenczi, 32(4)«
S., Genitals, female, boys' wish for,
Fertility, and subincision, 103; 53; manipulation of, 52; mutila-
male symbol of, 88 tion of, 97-98; see also; Cli-
Fertility cult: see Mother goddess toris; Girls' rites
Fertility antiquity of, 86;
rites, German fraternal "corps," 119—
hypotheses on, 45; women's role 120
in, 123-124 Girls' rites, 133-146, see also:
190 / Index
Circumcision, female; Genitals, 166; and sacraments, 155; and
female; Learning transvestism, 54, 92, 98, Hi-
Gitelson, Maxwell, 9 ll 3, 149; anthropological inter-
God: see Christian deity, Jahwe; pretations, 16-18; as learning
Old Testament experience, 69-74; Australian
Goddess: See Mother goddess rites, 85 ff., 93 ff., 97-98, 100 ff.,
Goulbourn Islanders, 87-88 117, 120-123, 134-136, 138,
Graves, R., 10(4) 161-175; girls, vs. boys' rites,
Gravid female figures, 84 ff. 56; hypotheses on, 45; origins
Great Mother: see Mother god- of, 15 ff.; pain in, 32-34, 43, 76
dess ff., 79-80; positive aspects of,
Greece, 124 21-22, 53-54, 70-71, 142-145,
Groddeck, G., 56 148, 154; positive instinctual
Gutmann, 68(22),
B., 119(28), appeal of, 71
psychoanalytic
ff.;
129(15), 130(18, 19) interpretations of, 18-20; pur-

pose of, 134; ritual vs. sponta-
Hair, in ritual, 126-127 neous, 51-54; role of superego
Hallowe'en, 35-36, 54 in, 69 ff.; timing of, 20, 133 ft
Harem, 92n Initiation, female, instruction at,
Harley, G. W., 94(16), 115(14, 129, 133, 143-144; origin of,
16), 121(33), 125(7), 155(5) 22-23; see also: Girls' rites
Harrison, B. M., 99(33) Initiation, male, as rebirth, 113-
Harvest time, and initiation, 87 118; as separation, 118-121; as
Hazing, 168 shared experience, 73; at har-
Head-hunters, 148 vest time, 87; avoidance of, 67-
Henry, Jules, 9 68; female functions copied in,
Henry, J., and Henry, Z., 131(21) 53-54, 105-107, 109, 113-118,
Herskovits, M. J., 143(27), 126-130, 172 ff.; secrecy of,
144(299), 146 113-114, 122-132, 169n; wom-
Hindu mythology, 91 en's role in, 52, 57, 93-100, 102
History, verbal transmission of, ff., 148, 169
121 Initiation rite, spontaneous, 25-27

Hittites,90 Initiation society, spontaneous, 34
Hogbin, H. I., 105-106(51) see also; Age groups
Hollis, A. C, 113(10), 117(20) Instruction: see Learning
Holyorders, Catholic, 155 Intellectual creation, theory of or-
Homosexuality, 11, 91, 120 igin, 56, 129n
Human nature, differing views of, Intercourse, sexual: see Circumci-
21-23 sion; Coitus; Sex relations
Hygiene, and circumcision, 157 Intertribal organizations, 121
Hymen: see Defloration, ritual Introcision, male and female,
Hypotheses, on initiation, 45 138-139
Inventions, destructive, 151
Ilpirra, 162; see also; Australian Italy, 138
aborigines
Im Thurn, E. F., 109-110(2) Jacobson, E., 56-57(25)
Incest: see Castration anxiety, Jahwe, 156
psychoanalytic theory of Janowitz, Morris, 9
Incest taboo, and girls' rites, 133 Jarmo, 86
Increase rites: see Fertility rites Jewish circumcision, 75, 95, 152-
Indians (Virginia), 119 160; see also; Circumcision, in-
Infant circumcision: see Circum- fant
cision, infant Judaism, and phallicism, 131; see
Infantile sexuality, 150 also; Old Testament
Initiation, and fertility, 22-23, 86- Julunggul (Rainbow Snake), 171
87; and fire ceremonies, 162- ff.
Index / 191
Jung, C. G., 57, 65(15)«, 150(3) Marriage classes, 65
Marriage rites, 155
Kaberry, P. M., 64(13), 67(19, Masai (S. E. Africa), 80, 119
20), 82(2, 3), 104(46), 109, Masculine bias: see Androcentric
123(1, 2), 139(22), 158(7) bias
Kakian association, 113 Masquerade: see Transvestism
Kavka, Dr. Jerome, 34« Masturbation, and castration anx-
Kikuyu, 93, 155 iety, 63; and circumcision, 33;
Klein, M., 56(22) inhibition of, 40; social ap-
Knowledge, sociology of, 59-62 proval of, 143
Kparve, 80 Maternal deities: see Mother god-
Kramer, A., 87(16) dess
Kris, E., 59 Mathew, J., 139(21)
Kunapipi rites, 170-175; origin of, Maturity: see Sexual maturity
123 Maxi, 144
McKim, F., 136(10)
Labia minora, elongation of, 140,
Mead, M., 18(11), 118(23, 24),
143; extirpation of, 138 ff.
134(3)
Landauer, K., 56(20)
Memory traces, 38 ff., 75, 147
La Pasiega, 84 Menstrual blood, ceremonial use
Larken, P. M., 99(35)
of, 107-108
Laubscher, B. J. F., 68(23, 24),
Menstrual taboo, 22-23, 106, 129,
119(27) 136-138, 142
Leach, E. R., 12(7)
Menstruating girl, veneration of,
Learning, at girls' initiation, 129,
137-138
133, 143-144; initiation as, 17,
Menstruation, and girls' rites, 135;
69-74; motivations in, 72-74
and 105-108; as
subincision,
Levy, G. R., 84(5, 7), 85(8, 9,
magic, 27-28, 107-108; as un-
10), 86(11)
clean, 27, 106; conspicuous dis-
Libido: see Organ libido
play of, 27; female attitudes on,
Lightning, as origin of fire, 167
27-29; first, 24; male attitudes
Loeb, B. M., 69(28), 95(21, 23)
on, 136-138; mimicry in male
Lommel, A., 63(8), 105(49), rites, 129; related to penis, 29,
165(7)
52; secrecy of, 122; simulated,
Lowie, R. H., 119(29), 125(8)
3 In; see also; "Curse," men-
Lunga, 139
strual; "Man's menstruation"
Luvale (African), 134, 143
Merker, M., 80(36)
Madonna, 138 Micturation: see Urination
Magna Mater: Miller, N., 17(8, 9), 119(25)
see Mother god-
dess Missionaries, 68
Mahlobo, G. W. K. and Krige, E. Mohammedans, 81
J., 134(2) Monogamy, 139
Mair, L., 134(5) Monotheism, and circumcision,
Male bias: see Androcentric bias 152-160
Male dominance, 119, 158; see Mores, context of, 63-66
also.- Sexual dominance Moses (bib.), 159
Male envy, 30 ff.; studies of, 56 ff. Mother figures, archaic, 103; "cas-
Malekula, 23 trating," 41; offerings to, 93-96
Malinowski, B., 18(10), 110(4) Mother goddess, 23, 85-89; and
Manliness, overstressing of, 148- old Testament, 159; castrates
149 serving, 90-92; Freud on, 159
"Man's menstruation," 106 Murngin, 106, 174
Marett, R. R., 84(6) Murphy, Gardner, 9
Marquis, Ruth, 9 Myths, bull-roarer, 169«; chang-
Marriage: see Circumcision being meaning of, 154-156; cir-
fore marriage cumcision, 96-100; creation,
192 / Index
158; fire, 165; Kunapipi, 171- Phallic pride, 33, 131
173; menstrual blood, 171-173; Phallic religion, 131
upi, 127 Phallic symbolism, 130
Phallus, female, 140
Names, given at initiation, 119 Phylogeny-ontogeny, 40, 46
Nandi, 80, 112-113, 117, 119, 139, Pilaga (S. America), 131
141 Pitta-Pitta, 105
Narcissism, as block to knowl- Plains Indians, 10
edge, 74 Plastic surgery, 76-80, 142
Naven, 111 Plug (ngoso): see Rectum
Neumann, E., 22-23(19, 20), Poe, E. A., 42
57(26) Polygamy, 133
Nevermann, H., 87(15) Polymorphous-perverse disposi-
New Guinea, 106, 117 tion, 51, 150
New Hebrides, 98 Polyvalent tendencies, 150
New Ireland, 87 Poro society (Liberia), 94, 114—
Nigeria: see Tiv 116, 121, 124, 155
Nocturnal emissions, 26 Praz, M., 10(5)
Nozhizho rite, 149 Pregnancy, and transvestism, 35;
Nunberg, 33(6, 8), 40-42(7, 8, 9, mimicry in male rites, 129-130;
10, 11, 12), 61(4), 78(34), 141, simulated, 31rc, 54, 118
160 Prehistory, reconstruction of, 37
ff.
Observation vs. theory, 60-61
Preliterate man, equated with
Oedipal complex, 37-43
moderns, 46-51
Old Testament, and phallicism, Preliterate society, social organ-
82; maternal deities in, 159
ization of, 66-68
Old Testament deity, 65, 75, 153 Primal father, 158
ff., 158
Primal horde, 37, 42^13
Omaha Indians, 149
Primitive man, equated with child
Oral incorporation, 155, 172-173;
arid psychotic, 10; psychic life
of genitals, 93-94, 115
of, 46-51
Ordeals, 18, 155
Procreation, knowledge of, 87-88,
Organ 33, 78
libido,
103-104, 108, 115-116, 130 ff.,
Orthogenic School: see Sonia
134
Shankman Orthogenic School Procreation and men, hypotheses
Overmasculinity, 54
on, 45
Prostitution, 120
Paganism, in Christianity, 154
Pain, in initiation, 32-34, 43, 76
Psychoanalysis, and castration
anxiety, 37-43, 147-148; and
ff., 79-80
initiation, 18-20; triple aspect
Paleolithic man, cave paintings,
of, 59
83-84; interest in fertility, 82-
Psychology, comparative, 46
84
Psychotics, equated with primi-
Parricide, 39
tives, 10
Passivity, male, 150-151, 156, 160
Puberty rites: see Initiation
Patriarchy, 158, 168
Pubic hair, 126-127
Peer society: see Age groups
Penance, 155
Penis envy, 29-30, 51-52, 56, 143, Qatu (New Hebrides), 106
145-146
Penis, over-evaluation of, 156-157 Racial unconscious: see Memory
Persians, 90 trucks
Personality structure, preliterate, Rangell, L., 31-32(3)/!
46 ff.
Rapaport, David, 9
Perversion, 150 Raphael, M., 83(4)
Phallicism, 88, 156 Raum, O. F., 112(8), 128(13, 14),
"Phallic Mother," 140 129(17), 133(1)
Index / 193
Ray, Kathleen, 9 Seeley, Jack, 9
Rebirth, and cave paintings, 84; Self-mutilation, 91 ff., 101-102;
Christian, 155; in initiation, in military malingerers, 80
113-118; in Kunapipi rites, Self-realization, 148
174n Seligman, C. G., and Seligman, B.
Rectum, stopping up of, 20, 12&- Z., 68(25, 27), 99(34, 37)
130 Semen: see Ejaculation; Noc-
Redl, Fritz, 9 turnal emissions; Procreation
Red ochre, 97 ff.; see also: Men- Separation, at initiation, 17, 118-
strual blood 121
Reik, T., 31(2)« Sex behavior, native Australian,
Religion, origins of, 15 63 ff.; non-coital, 150
Rhinoplasty, 76-80 Sex differences, observation of,
Riesman, D., 10-11(6) 40, 63
Rites de passage, 16 Sex relations, open, 63; secrecy of,
Rites, passage sans, 24 40, 48; see also: Coitus
Rituals, change in meaning of, Sexual dominance, struggle for, 88
Sin, 95n, 154-155; fertility, 82- Sexual equality, 150-151; Austral-
89; fragmentation of, 86 ian aborigines, 169
Ritual surgery, evolution of, 108; Sexual envy, biological origin, 19-
girls', 138-141; origin of girls', 20, 147
105; see also: Defloration, ritual Sexual forepleasure, 150
Roellenbleck, E., 159-160(9, 10, Sexuality, infantile, 150
11) Sexual maturity, proof of, 26, 52;
Roheim, G., 49(17), 87(14), timing of girls' rites, 133-134
106(55, 56), 107(59, 60, 61), Sexual perversion, 150
129(16) Sexual role, ambivalence toward:
Role playing, 110-111 see Ambivalence; hypotheses
Roscher, H. W., 90(3) on, 45
Roth, W. E., 91(5), 103(45), Sherman, C. C, 152(1)
104, 105(50), 136, 138-139(18, Sioux buffalo dances, 87
19) Smyth, R. B., 106(53)
Routledge, W. S., and Routledge, Snake ritual, 88, 171 ff.
K., 155(3, 4) Snake, the Great Father, 174
Social institutions, psychology of,
Sacraments, Catholic, 155 70-71
Sacrificial offerings, 93-96 Social structure, primitive, 66-68
Sarah (bib.), 109 Society, development of, 46 ff.,
Scalp biting, 78 131, 154-156; origins of, 120-
Scarification, and castration anx- 121
iety, 76 ff.; circumcision as, 76; Songs, childbirth, 123; Kunapipi,
Poro teeth marks, 115 174-175
Schizophrenia, 10, 21, 25, 30, 118, Sonia Shankman Orthogenic
141 School, 9, 24«
Schmidl, F., 62(5) Speiser, F., 17(4, 7)
Schneider, D., 47(16), 65(17), Spencer, B., and Gillen, F. J.,
66(18)/* 17n(5, 6), 85, 93-95(11, 12, 13,
Schwab, G., 115(15) 18, 19, 20), 97-98(28, 29, 30,
Science, development of, 11-12 31, 32), 102-103(41, 42, 43,
Sebeyi, 99 44), 105(47), 108(64), 109,
Secrecy, in children, 125; purpose 121(31, 32), 135(6, 7, 8, 9),
of, 122, 124-125 161-165(3, 4, 5, 6), 169(13)
Secret knowledge, as status, 125 "Spirit child," 88, 104, 109
Secrets, hypothesis on male, 45; Spiro, M. E., 10(1, 2)
male, 113-114, 122-132, 169n Spying on men, penalty for, 124
Secret societies, 155; children's, Stone knife, in circumcision, 91,
26 96, 165, 175; in subincision, 101
194 / Index
Strehlow, C, 86(13) Urination, 156; as phallic pleas-
Suaheli, 144 ure, 33
Subincision, 53, 100-108; and fe- Urination posture, and subinci-
male introcision, 138-139; and sion, 101
fire, 166; and urination, 101; Urrabuna, 106
and women, 102 ff.; as status, Uterus, hut as symbol of, 117
157; hypothesis on, 45; Kuna-
pipi, 173 ff.; present-day spread Vagina, and subincised penis,
of, 68; surgical details of, 11 n, 105-106, 173 ff.; male envy of,
100-101 30 ff., 53, 56 ff.
Subincision wound, as vulva, 175 Vagina dentata, 115
Suckling, 127 Vaginal sexuality, 139-140
Sudan, 99 Van Waters, M., 149(2)
Superego, in preliterate man, 49 Venus of Willendorf (gravid fig-
Superego demands, in monothe- ure), 86
ism, 153 ff. Victoria (Australia), 94, 106
Surgery, ritual, 90-108; see also; Vulva, 105, 135
Girls' rites
War, castration in, 90
Swallowing: see Oral incorpora-
Warner, W. L., 68(26), 96(24,
tion
25), 105(48), 117(21), 170(14),
Symptoms, context of, 51
174(23, 24, 25, 26)
Warramunga, 78
Taboo, menstrual: see Menstrual
Water, ritual submersion in, 117
taboo
Taboos, Freud on, 136-137
Wawilak women, 96 ff., 105, 117,
123, 170 ff.
Talion law, 90
Webster, H., 63(9), 106(52)
Teaching, in girls' initiation, 129;
69-74 Weigert-VowinkeL E., 90, 91-
in initiation,
92(6, 7, 8, 9)
Teeth, knocking out of, 17; sac-
Weisinger, H., 12(7)
crificial offering of, 93-95; see
Weisskopf, Walter, 9
also; Vagina dentata
Werner, A., 149(1)
Theories, sociology of, 59-62
Westermarck, E. 93(14)
Tikopia, and superincision, 80 f
Timing, of girls' rites, 133 ff.

Western culture, contact with, 68,
104
Tiv (Nigeria), 66n, 80-81, 99
White, C. M. N., 134(4), 144(28)
Toilet training, 72 ff.
White culture: see Western cul-
Tomba ceremony, 134
ture
Totemic social groupings, 120
Toys, 142
Wogeo (N. Guinea), 106
Transvestism, 10, 35-36, 54, 92, Wolff, W., 31(1)«
98, 111-113, 143, 149
Womanliness, overstressing of,
Trauma, emotional context of, 76 148-149

ff., 152 Women, psycho-social role of, 57
Tribal horde, as homicidal broth- Wunambal myth, 165, 167
ers, 121 Wyatt, Fred, 9
Tribal law, breakdown of, 68
Xosa, 119
Tribal lore, teaching of, 69 ff.;
see also: Teaching Yirrkalla (Arnhem Land), 175
Trobriand Islanders, 91 Youth movements, scarification
in, 119
Uli cult (New Ireland), 87
Unconscious, contents of the, 50; Zilboorg, G., 56(23), 57(27, 28),
sympathy of the, 61 58(29)
Unthippa women, 97 ff. Zimmerman, F., 160(12)
Upi, donning the, 126-127 Zipporah (bib.), 93, 159
Urethral eroticism, 156 Zulus, 134
PSYCHOLOGY
The author of
'LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH"
finds in primitive
rituals the meaning of
male envy of womart
Traditionally, circumcision has been regarded by anthropologists
and by psychoanalysts as a symbolic substitu-
as "rite of passage"
book Bruno Bettelheim compares his
tion for castration. In this
own thorough clinical knowledge of adolescents with the evidence
of primitive puberty rites in order to develop a provocative
thesis — that men feel envy in regard to the sex organs and func-
tions of women, and that male initiation ceremonies are an at-
tempted solution to this problem. His study, ranging broadly over

the ceremonies of many tribes, is a stimulating integration of
anthropological evidence with ego psychology.
"Rich in clinical insight, sound in metapsychological thinking, and

intensely stimulating and fertile in its application of these ideas to
social phenomena, both primitive and modern."

— International Journal of Psycho-Analysis
"This is a fascinating book."— American Journal of Sociology
COLLIER BOOKS
PRINTED IN U.S.A. 07548

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bs 554 $1.

How man masters fear

Puberty Rites and

Collier Books is a division of The Crowell-Collier Publishing

First Collier Books Edition 1962

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following publishers

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-18552

Copyright 1954 by The Free Press, a Corporation

Reopening the Case 24

WHOSE THEORIES ON SEX AND

In planning and drafting this book, in collecting and

The observations on children living at the Sonia Shank-

their criticism I in the body of the text.

I am convinced that all men share certain feelings, de-

beings in their interactions: the overall generalizations

Probably the first inventions of the human mind,

some rudiments of religious ritual and belief. The origin

efforts to rivet the youth securely to the regnant social

analysts and influenced the thinking of many nonprofes-

in this antithesis, might even have been attempts to re-

* See pages 100, 128.

One other aspect of this study of puberty rites should

But even when such integrative efforts do not succeed,

is the place of childbearing the sacral place of female life

Reopening the Case

Some time ago I observed a group of adolescent chil-

A Spontaneous "Initiation Rite"

set out to plan their lives. To them, this meant becoming

strual discharge is ambivalent, a mixture of fascinated

became her penis; it was the finger only in erect stiffness.

For many months, whenever she menstruated, she

Penis envy in girls is so well known and has been so

urinate standing up; this would have been too profound a

The wish to have a cirmumcised penis is very different

vagina is the same organ as the penis, as reflected in the statement

in the female t K e same organ goes in . .

out vagina." Parallel observations have been made by Ferenczi^ and

Dressing up in bizarre costumes at Hallowe'en is part

pregnancy. Interestingly enough, we have never seen the

These, then, are some of our observations of spontane-

Among the theoretical formulations of psychoanalysis

plicitly recognizes that it is questionable to reconstruct

mother and murder his father. If he had such power he

eny. This supposed parallel has been carried too far in

Beyond the work

child's] first great fear in relation to the community and,

girls' ideas, and the purpose and expected result was by

1. Initiation rites, including circumcision, should be

No single set of theories can cover more than the es-

At this point the question may be asked: How is one

with the psychology of the neurotic will reveal nu-

merous points of correspondence," 15 then he refers to

of childhood experiences have since been used freely to

Two very thoughtful reviewers took strong exception to

ance. For obvious reasons the following example is

a desire is supported by the conviction of society (includ-

Roheim has said without qualification that the Aus-

Some Initial Comparisons

by women and from the desire to overpower them.