The Cool Knife: Imagery of Gender, Sexuality, and Moral Education inKaguru Initiation Ritual

The Cool Knife: Imagery of Gender, Sexuality, and Moral Education inKaguru Initiation Ritual. T. O. Beidelman. Washington, DO. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997. 312 pp.     

Myth, Memory, and the Oral Tradition: Cicero in the Trobriands

In nonliterate societies, myths are often linked to specific geographical locations. Using Malinowski's Trobriand material and taking a lead from Cicero's De oratore, it is argued that spatial location functions (1) as a mnemonic device for the recall of a corpus of myth, (2) as a structural marker dividing a corpus into separate thinkable units, and (3) as a means of restricting social change at least temporarily to specific institutions. Malinowski's instrumental theory of myth is contrasted with the cognitive theory advanced by LéviStrauss, and certain didactic functions of myth are also discussed . [myth, memory, oral tradition, social space, Trobriands]     

The RNA world meets behavior: A-->I pre-mRNA editing in animals

Speculations on the genetic component of animal behavior have been fueled primarily by single-gene mutations that affect specific behaviors in model organisms. Pre-mRNA editing by adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADARs) provides an additional mechanism for introducing protein diversity and has primarily been observed in signaling components of the nervous system. Two recent reports of mutant mice and Drosophila deficient in ADAR activities provide further evidence that pre-mRNA editing has an ancient and primary role in the evolution of nervous system function and behavior.     

Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions

Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. Catherine Bell. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. 352 pp.     

I Foresee My Life: The Ritual Performance of Autobiography in an Amazonian Community

I Foresee My Life: The Ritual Performance of Autobiography in an Amazonian Community . Suzanne Oakdale. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006. 206 pp.     

Alternating Ontologies: Exchange and Ritual in Anganen History

In this article I examine the changing social and historical context of exchange and ritual amongst the Anganen of the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, a neglected theme in Highland ethnography. I focus primarily on the history of the incorporation of one spirit cult ritual, rimbu, and its relationship to the other major spirit cult, kabit, and just how these two cults inter-relate with two major categories of exchange—the ceremonial pig kill (yasolu) and the more ‘mundane’ forms of exchange associated with such events as marriage and death. It is the structural parallels, differences and interconnections between these two exchange categories and the two ritual types which have guided much of the historical development of local social structure until colonisation. This has resulted in a substantial, though not necessarily stable, integration of ritual and exchange which has been ‘played out’ over the approximately fifteen-year periods between yasolu pig kills. I argue that it is this set of oppositions that provides the structural basis for different potentialities for male capacity. On occasion these may be so graphically distinct that they may be called differing social ontologies, different baselines for being and action. Different aspects of rimbu were adopted from around the turn of the twentieth century until colonisation some 50 years later when both kabit and rimbu were abandoned under mission pressure. However, to talk about the adoption of rimbu and the changes to Anganen social structure which it helped to produce as ‘pre-colonial’ history is misleading to the extent that much of the impetus for change was bound up in the efflorescence of trade caused by the Australian pearling industry in the Torres Strait. I call this period ‘ante-colonial’ in order to highlight the impact of the Australians and the irony that what the Australians indirectly helped create, rimbu as a central feature to Anganen social life, was destroyed with the direct colonial presence and missionisation.     

The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia

The Gay Archipelago: Sexuality and Nation in Indonesia . Tom Boellstorff. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. 282 pp.     

Sexuality and hermaphroditism in fishes. I. Synchronous functional hermaphroditism in the serranid fish Serranus scriba L

Anatomical and histological examination of Serranus scriba L. showed the existence of primary females (67%), hermaphrodites (31%) and primary males (2%). Synchronous functional hermaphroditism is described on the basis of an anatomical and histological study of the gonads. Although they function simultaneously, the testicular and ovarian parts of hermaphrodite gonads have completely separate ducts. Females and hermaphrodites have the same annual reproduction cycle. In hermaphrodites, the testicular part matures one month sooner than the ovarian part. Cross fertilization between primary females and hermaphrodite individuals and between two different hermaphrodites probably occurs, while self-fertilization is less likely. The testicular tissues of primary males are of the acinar type and those of hermaphrodites are of the radial type. It is possible that primary males do not take part in reproduction. Serranus scriba in Egyptian Mediterranean waters is a longperiod spawner, which spawns from June to the end of October, i.e. it is a summer-autumn spawner.     

Painful Memories: Ritual and the Transformation of Community Trauma

This paper explores the question of how ritual can heal community pain or trauma. Drawing together recent insights into the ideological nature of healing with a focus on ritual process, I argue that in cases of social violence and healing, ritual's ability to assuage pain is linked to the ways in which it draws pain into the process of reconstructing memory. The argument is illustrated through an examination of how the Betsimisaraka of east Madagascar used rituals of cattle sacrifice to transform the pain they experienced during an anticolonial rebellion that took place in 1947.