Androgynous Objects: String Bags and Gender in Central New Guinea (Studies in Anthropology and History) - Hardcover

MacKenzie, Maureen A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3718651556 ISBN 13: 9783718651559

Publisher: Routledge, 1992

Synopsis

Androgynous Objects explores the way meaning is encoded in material culture by focusing on the androgynous symbolism of the looped string bag, or bilum, of the Telefol people of Central New Guinea. The web of meanings woven into the string bag is shown to extend beyond women's lives and bodies. It is open to manipulation and reformation in a variety of contexts, and is used both by Telefol women and men to explore, and so explain the complexities and ambiguities inherent in their social life.

About this title

Synopsis

In the 1980s, Melanesian ethnographers expressed a renewed interest in gender symbolism and the social construction of personhood. This book develops these ideas, and integrates them with the study of material culture. The focus is on the androgynous symbolism of the looped string bag, or bilum, of Papua New Guinea. Intended for anthropologists, this book begins with a general survey of the "bilum" in Papua New Guinea and discusses recent innovations, as well as traditional forms and functions. It adopts a developmental view of the object, revealing the social relations in which the bag is constructed. MacKenzie draws together two different modes of analysis and combines a rich description of material forms with a sophisticated cultural analysis.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3718651556
• ISBN 13: 9783718651559
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280