142

TAJA 1992 3:3

Foucault in the Highlands: the Production of Men
in Papua New Guinea Societies
Robert Ariss
Macquarie University
'Ritualised Homosexuality' in PNG Societies
What has come to be conceptualized as 'ritualized homosexuality' in ethuographic
accounts occurs, or did until recent colonial intrusion, in three main areas of Papua
New Guinea - the south-west of PNG (and the neighbouring south cast corner of Irian
Jaya), the Papuan Plateau of the southern highlands, and the extreme east end of the
eastern highlands, a most inaccessible and only recently contacted area. Each of these
tribal gronps share a general set of ritual practices dealing with the growth of boys into
men through repeated iuseminatious, a practice which distiuguishes them from all
other groups in PNG.
Despite local variation"" a general set of themes and practices common to all groups
can he identified. Different groups utilize predominantly one, hut occasionally a variety
of practices of insemination: oral ingestion by fellatio - Sambia (Herdt 1981), Barnya
(Goddier 1982), Ikwaye (Mimica 1981), Bedamini (Sorum 1982) and Etoro (Kelly
1977); anal intercourse - Kimam (Serpenti 1984), Marind Anim (Van Baal 1966),
Keraki (Williams 1936); or the smearing of initiates' bodies with semen said to be
absorbed through the skin - Onabasulu (Ernst 1984), Kimam (Serpenti 1984), Marind
Anim (Van Baal 1966). Typically a group sees its particular method as most
appropriate and others as improper, ineffective, or even disgusting.
Because these practices are instigated within a ritualized time and space concerned
with the initiation of boys into manhood, there are always accompanying initiatory
instructions. These may include knowledge ahout the polluting nature of the human
body, the nature of its substances and the necessity and means of controlling them, the
nature and necessity of warfare, and of course the sacred secrets regarding the
necessity of semen ingestion in order for boys to physiologically grow to manhood. The
FOUCAULT INTIfE HIGHLANDS ... 143
rites are punctuatcd by degrees of body mutilations; change of status, privileges and
obligations; periods of seclusion from women ranging from weeks (Bedamini) to years
(Sambia); and a variably rigorous regime of food taboos. Completion of initiation and
the re-entry of males into the community through marriage signifies the achievement
of full masculinity.
Even this brief description of ritualized homosexuality demonstrates the wide
divergcnce of this phenomenon from the more familiar constructions of homosexuality
in European societies. It is misleading to conccptualin, mal.es in thesc PNG societies
as 'homosexual' in the nominal sense, or such activities as '(homo)sexual'. The
phenomenon we call homosexuality evolved in European societies through the ethical
problematization of male to male relations (Foucault 11986). The 'problem' of
homosexuality is inseparable from the religious, medical, and political discourses which
have elaborated homosexuality into a social concern for wcstern societies. 'Gay'
homoscxuality has emerged only during the last two decades in the west, seeking
through the politicization of a homosexual identity, to reverfe the current interdiction
on homosexual behaviour which had its origins in ancient Greco-Roman times
(Foucault 1985, 1986; Halperin 1990). Gay identity is discursively constructed, by gay-
identifying people, as oppositional to a dominant heterosexuality, as a field of
resistance to a hegemonic sexual norm (see Altman 1971). This ncw gay identity finds
articulation within a 'sexual community' (D'Emilio 1983) defined through sets of
sodal, cultural and sexual practices.
The phenomenon referred to as ritualized homosexuality in PNG, by contrast, is a
set of practices contained within a sometimes elaborate initiation regime which is
normative and prescriptive for all male members of particular tribal groups. It is a
discipline of the body supported by a discourse on the male and female body,
masculinity and femininity, which incites specific relations to the self, to other males,
and to women. Such practices, which in no way can be labelled 'sexual' in the sense of
that term as it is understood in western discourses, are meaningful only in terms of
local rcgimes of truth about the male body.
Foucault's 'Techniques of the Selr
My point of departure for a reinterpretation of ritualized homosexuality is a set of
conccpts to be found in Miehel Foucault's studies on the history of sexuality in the west
(Foucault 1978, 1985, 1986). In these studies, Foucault sought to rescue the subject
from the determining weight of 'structures' and 'systems', positioning the subject as a
participant in thc constitution of the self via relations to externally defined principles
and practices. He sought 'to look for the forms and modalities of the relation to self by
which the individual constitutes and recognizes himself qua subject ... the forming of
oneself as a subject' (Foucault 1985:6).
Against particular codes, rules, interdictions and obligations. come <techniques of the
self - ways in which the individual establishes relations to I'ules and recognizes the
obligation of particular praetices of work on the self.
144 THE AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ANl11ROPOLOGY
While these frameworks emerged from a reading of classical Greek and Roman
texts for a study of western 'desiring man', I wish to explore here their utility in seeking
to understand questions of subjectivity, truth and power in non-western cultures. The
first point is to refuse the universality of such concepts a. '(homo)sexuality', Rather
than building an inventory of sexual practices and their meanings in other cultures, this
exercise must seek to identify the mechani.ms through which knowledge, subjectivity
and power relations are constituted. In these PNG societies, practices which may be
configured a. 'techniques of the self' are to be found in the homosexual-like activities
and related practices of male initiation.
Such practices are contained within a wider truth-constructing system. KnOWledge ,.
never uniformly distributed throughout society, as in for example Durkheim's
'conscience collective'. Rather, any number of distinguishable knowledgcs may be in
circulation at any time in any given society. This heterogeneity of truths is distributed
along lines of, say, class, status, gender or age, Gender, the differentiation of male and
female, is the organiz;ng feature of these PNG societies, and it is through the
mechanism of initiation ritual that the production and distribution of gendered subjects
takes place,
Until recently, Melanesian ethnography configured gendcr differentiation in terms
of 'sexual antagonism', 'ambivalence', <male hegemony', 'dominatiou' or even
'exploitation' (see Read 1952; Meggitt 1964; Languess 1%7; Creed 1984). Some
anthropologists, including some of the early cxponents of the 'sexual antagonism'
thesi., are recognizing the inadequacy of these analyses in their neglcct of the details
and spccificities of power relations. Relations between persons are constructed
according to specific contcxts and the intentions, history and status of social actors, I
intend to demonstrate below that it is through the finer distinctions of the stages of
masculine self-development that power relations are articulated. The distinction of
maleness and femaleness is but the first step in an elaborate process of gender
constIUetion through ritual induction. Knowledge of the male self is further elaborated
by situating the body within a hierarchy of other males.
Male Initiation Ritual in the Papua New Guinea Highlands
The Sambia is a group of people living in the extreme eastern highlands of Papua
New Guinea. The Sambian male self, as described by Gilbert Herdt, is constructed
through prolonged ritual nurturing within an all-male community beginning at the age
of seven or so. The rituals, as a system of knowledge and practices, are the means,
whercby boys have revealed to them a dogma, and discover through practice the
nature of their own bodies 3S containers of certain substances. Before initifition begins,
the male body is said to be pervaded with feminine substances from the mother's
womb and breast. These substances must first be forcefully expelled, the body de-
polluted in preparation to receive male substances - semen, a substance which is not
spontaneously created within the body but which must be implanted there through
fellatio with older males (Herdt 1981:212).
FOUCAULT INTIlE HIGHLANDS ... 145
This first stage of initiation, a restraining practice on the passive subject, involves the
purification of the neophyte body of female substances, by the older men, through
periodic nose-bleeding and cane-swallowing. Only then are boys physiologically
prepared to receive semen, through the technique of fellatio" from older bachelors age
14-15, and possibly but with less frequency from boys age 16-17 who are near the end
of the initiation sequence and already betrothed to womcn (iibid:223).
All these initiates enter into specifically dcfined relationships with each other, firstly
as fcllator and then as fellated. These roles are strictly adhered to. Reversal of role is
unthinkablc given that the primary (but not exclusive) purposc of the relationships is
the transmission of semen. Three clearly defined progressive phases of initiation exist,
each entailing specific bodily practices. Boys have no s,emen and are therefore
impolent as donors of the substance. Only older bachelors C<ln play this role, bachelors
who have already received a reserve of semen from earlier initiations. Older married
initiates enter into a period as fellateds to both boys and wives. Intercourse is strictly
forbidden until the wife's first menstruation. Thereafter such activity with boys is
strictly forbidden and one's physical relations are restricted to women.
Initially in thc ritual procedure bachelors - as givers of semen, and men - as
authoritative disciplinarians, are resisted by novices. 'Boys are reluctant men'
(ibid:305). It is this resistance which qualifies the nature of these relationships within
the male hierarchy. The resistance is taken as being indicative of a boy's unmanliness.
We may ask how this disciplinary regimen orders young males' relations to themselves
and others? How does it thereby contribute to the constru<:tion and maintenance of
power relations?
One can interpret the ritual regimen as one which incites in Sambian males a
discipline of self-regulation, a disciplinary modality of the second kind as discnssed by
Foucault. Beyond the moment of initial resistance, a male muest assume a responsibility
to self, an autonomy in the regulation 'of one's own physioloBY and masculinity. Hence
the ritually induced practices of nose-bleeding and other purifying procedures do not
end with the initiation period itself, but rather continue, as a system of self-discipline
throughout adulthood (see Herdt 1982). In adulthood, quite extensive and intimate
contact with women requires regular disciplining of the body to rid it of contaminating
substances and to sustain health. Also the loss of semen through intercourse must be
replenished by the ingestion of tree sap, a metaphoric transformation of semen (Herdt
1981:250). Hence with an approaching mastery of self unaided by others comes
increascd privilege and status. Control of self indicates a preparedness to regulate
others - younger males and females. In both public and private situations, in sex and in
battle, the ritual cult depends upon a man's personal control - autonomy, vigilance,
self-regulation - as well as hostility toward wife and enemies (Herdt 1982:222).
In this personal assimilation of masculine cultural knowledge we can see the final
victory of discursive practices over the self. The self becomes the conscious and willing
propagator of a set of practices and dogmas which construct bounded and recoguizable
cultural persons within a grid of social relations.
146 'lHEAUSfRALlA"I JOURNAL OF ANIlIROPOLOGY
Though men are in many ways the major beneficiaries of these political
arrangements we must avoid viewing this system as one simply of male hegemony or
exploitation. Men are also constrained within the system just as are women, and the
presence of women itself places a constraining effect on men. Men not only exercise
control over others, but also subject themselves to a rigorous di.ciplinary regimen,
sometimes reluctantly and with various degrees of commitment (Herdt 1982:210).
Women are not simply the victims of this system but participate in the construction
of their own status and personhood and may even benefit by it. Just as boys learn to
regulate themselves, so there is a parallel disciplinary regimen, though not as arduous,
deployed in the female community. There are female initiation rites, coordinated by
elder women in collaboration \vith the men, during which time a girl is given
knowledge of bodily pollution, cleansing procedures, morality and correct social
etiquette regarding her approaching statns as wife and adult woman (Herdt 1981:182).
11 is through this very construction of femininity, not in denial of it, that the
conditions of possibility for a resistance to male power are located. Women sabotage
and refuse marriage arrangements, abort and practise contraception (in order to
deceive men, so men say). They may practise sorcery and threaten pollution (or so
men say), commit suicide or infanticide (ibid: 197-8).
Women are not subject to a demanding discipline of the body, their physiology is
constructed in public discourse as qualitatively different to that of males. Females grow
spontaneously, it is said, without stimnlation from external sources. A blood-producing
organ is already contained within the female anatomy (ibid:182). There are no body
mutilations or disciplinary tactics. If mastery of the female self applies at aU, it takes
the form of simple confinement to appropriate social spaces rather than through direct
bodily intervention.
It is within these gender configurations that eroticism, desire and even pleasure arc
culturally constructed and rendered experiential. For example, males fe-enter relations
with women, after initiation, as husbands to women from exogamOU<i groups. Such
groups arc ordinarily in the structural position of enemy to the wife-receiving group. In
this men perceive themselves as precariously balanced between intimacy and
avoidance. At one level intimacy with women, copulation in order to is
characterized as 'work' and dangerous. At another it is a highly privileged access to
pleasure (Herdt 1982:221). The eroticism of male-female relations is thus structured
around this polar quality of women. They are at once beings which are arousing, a
sourc.e of pleasure, while simultaneously being polluting and threatening to
masculinity.
There is no information on how women conceptualize men, but Herdt has noted that
some women dispute aspects of men's discourse, at least that which they are cognizaut
of, i.e. that which speak. of femininity (Herdt 1981:180). Sambian men do not
recognize that women experience orgasm. Rather, women's 'licentiousness' is
conceptualized in terms of their desire to aequire semen, and therefore indirectly steal
strength from men. The denial of women as beings without erotic pleasure effectively
denies them power except as resistors, as possible threats to established male power.
FOUCAULT INTIlE HIGHlANDS . 147
We begin to sec here a link between pleasure and political power. The regulation of
semen, and therefore of pleasure, is connected to this maswline power game which
ultimately empowers men politically as controllers of others. The effect of the ritual
regimen is male political ascendancy within Sambian society. Thus Herdt notes, ' ...
men are in full charge of public affairs: women are relegated to heavy, dirty garden
work and the polluting business of childbearing; ritual secrecy remains an enduring
political and psychological force that suppresses women and children... .' (Herdt
1982:194).
In contrast to this de-eroticization and depoliticization of women's bodies, boys and
bachelors are said, in male discourse, to experience pleasure and desire in their
relations with each other. Pleasure is in fact an organizing principle instructing and
sustaining relations between them. Boys are encouraged to learn to enjoy fellating
bachelors and are assumed that they will. Elders exclaimed to Herdt 'When you sleep
with men you should not be afraid of eating their penises. You will soon enjoy eating
them ... if you try it (semen) it is just like the milk of your mother's breast. You can
ingest it all of the time and grow quickly' (Herdt 1981:235).
In this manner the ingestion of semen by boys is normalized, validated and made
desirable through its eroticization. The effectiveness of this discourse is born out by the
universal participation of boys in fellatio, though in varying degrees of enthusiasm, and
boys' own reports of excitation (Herdt 1984:180). Similarly, bachelors claim to enjoy
being fellated. It is in the transition to the role of semen giver that males are given the
first ethical teachings in self-mastery regarding the loss of semen. Too much loss, they
are warned, threatens their hard won masculinity (Herdt 1981:181).
Boys learn, by this stage, the first two lessons in the mastery of bodily pleasure:
introduction to bodily practices through the process of eroticization, an incitement to
pleasure; and later a beginning of a mastery of desire and the substances associated
with the body - semen and blood. In the final instance, boys are observed competing
for bachelors in a race to acquire semen, and bachelors show some concern in
regulating loss of semen through such activity. However, this last problem of semen
depletion through relations with boys is not seen as anything like as dangerous as
similar activity with women (ibid:252). This is probably, I would suggest, because boys
are not seen as polluting in the way that intimacy with women is.
We can see in this schema of relations, therefore, a distribution of pleasures among
boys, bachelors, newly married men, adult men, newly marri<:d and fully adult women.
This distribution of pleasures directly correlates with the differential access to
knowledge regarding the nature of the human body, status and privilege. It is evident
that these discourses regarding the body and pleasure, initiated within the ritual
context, but in no way confmed to it, in part facilitate the experiential organization of
self and the political arrangement of persons in society.
148 'OmAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Conclusion
We have seen two modalities of discipline present in male intitiation in Sambian
society which together constitute techniques of the self. The fIrst, the early stages of
male ritual regimen where resistant young boys are instructed by force in the practices
of bodily intervention, is a system which constrains and pacifIes bodies for the purposes
of discipline. The second, evident in later ritual stages, requires Sambian males to
become active participants in their own self-construction.
And what of the relationship between PNG societies which practiee rituali'ed
homosexuality and those which do not? In the eastern highland societies of PNG, and
especially those which practice ritualized homosexuality, personhood is constructed
through an intensifIcation of the relations of the self to the body, specifically a body
which is constructed essentially as a receptor, transformer and transmitter of
substances. This can be contrasted with the western highlands (see e.g. M. Strathem
1981) where an emphasis is on the individuation of the male self visa-vis others, on a
degree of independence which allows the cultivation of the self through the
manipulation of otherSe There, the male subject is singular and competitive,
conceptualized primarily by reference to his effect on others.
Regimens of self-cultivation or techniques of the self are extremely truncated or
entirely absent in the western highland,. There, men's identity is the product of status
buildiug through the participation in competitive economic exchange relationships "ith
others. In geographical areas lying intermediate between these two opposite cultural
arrangements, we see societies such as the Gahuku Gama or Bena Bena where
exchange transactions are less important than those in the west, and initiation rituals
are as regular and as intense as those farther east, and with very similar themcs
1
symbolic idioms and practices. But there is one important exception - the centrality of
semen as a growth-inducing substance is absent in these societies' procreation theories.
Hence there is no ritualized homosexuality in these societies. In the ea,tem highland"
by contrast, it is more the case that the self is an object of self-transformation. Mastery
of self i, the essential prerequisite to mastery over others. In those societies which
practise ritualized homosexuality, the usc of semen becomes a central concern in this
work on the self.
Thus, in scanning across different highland societies, this concept of the male subject
as constituted through techniques of the self takes on a wider, comparative utility.
Differences between societies, as well as the mechanisms which produce and sustain
internal differences become visihle. While Foucault's analysis of the western desiring
man may have been a specifIc historic undertaking, his work informs a wider field of
inquiry into the nature of human society. We may productively deploy analytic
concepts and frameworks, such as those developed by Foucault in his last studies, for
re-considering our similarities and differences with other societies, such as those of the
PNG highlands.
FOUCAULT IN THE HIGHLANDS ..
149
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