She Speaks Her Anger: Myths and Conversations of Gimi Women: A Psychological Ethnography in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea (Culture, Mind, and Society)

Editor’s Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
List of Figures
1: Introduction
	Visual Perspectives and Lone Protagonists
	Gimi Interpretations of Human Neoteny3
	Contested Interpretations of Menstrual Blood
	The Myth of the Flutes: Gimi Men’s Account of the Origin of Menstruation
	The Myth of the Giant Penis: Gimi Women’s Account of the Origin of Menstruation
	Totem and Taboo Revisited
	The Vagina as Killing Field
	The Primordial Gimi Universe
	References
2: Daily Life in an Eastern Highlands Village
	Getting Started
	Childbirth
	Situpe and His Daughters and Granddaughters
	A Feud in the Extended Family
	Relations Among the Women of a Compound
	Gardening
	Benaro and His Infant Daughter
	The Death of Naname’s Infant Daughter
	Part II
	The Case of Keparano
	References
3: Portrait of Karapmene
	How to Get Rid of a Co-Wife: Lessons of Girls’ Initiation
	The Nature of Magic
	Karapmene’s Tale of the ‘Wild Woman’
	Karapmene and Her Co-Wife Came to Blows and Went to Court
	Karapmene Ran Away
	Rules of Allegiance in Wartime Still Determined Men’s and Women’s Relationships
	Suspicion of Adultery Comes with Being a Wife
	Karapmene Fought Her Co-Wife from the Start
	Karapmene’s Early Life
	Karapmene Bore a Son by Her “Crazy” First Husband
	Karapmene’s “Crazy” First Husband Married a Wild Woman
	References
4: Totem and Taboo in the New Guinea Highlands: The Collusion of Sisters and Brothers
	The Myth of the Dream Man1
	Adventures of the Giant Penis
	The Rape of the Python: The Menstruating Girl Acquires a ‘Second Vagina’ on Her Face
	At the Dawn of Time and Human Existence …
	Myth and Rite: A Meticulous Match-Up of Giants
	“Eating the Head of the Child:” Women’s Myths Provide the ‘Recipe’ for the Totemic Meal Shared by All
	Part II
	Stories of Women – Stories of Men: Conversations with a Sister and Brother
	Men’s Secret Myth of the Flutes
	Neither the First Woman nor the Primal Father Is What She or He Appears to Be
	Why the Secrecy?
	References
5: “Eating the Head of the Child:” Ritual Exchange as Remedy for Crimes of the Mythic Past
	The Conjoined Primal Parent
	Further Discussions with Goran and Kamale
	The Gift of the Head Part I: Exchange as ‘Remedy’ for the Myths of Both Sexes
	Further Adventures of the Giant Penis and His Firstborn Son: Women’s Myth of the Home Invaders
	Gift of the Head Part II: Using Intrauterine ‘Events’ as the Model, Men’s Rites of Exchange Remake the Child Outside Its Mother’s Body
	The Primal Scene and the Primal Crime
	‘Defects’ of Adolescent Anatomy
	Zero Sum Game: Blame as an ‘Object of Exchange’ Between the Sexes
	References
6: The Problem with Women
	Is Anatomy Destiny?
	The Myth of the Torrent Lark
	The Dance of the Torrent Lark
	Two Bamboo Babies
	The Myth of ‘Eros and Psyche’
	Gimi Men Portray the Conjoined Primal Parents Differently than do Women
	References
7: The Mother’s Crime and the Cycle of Blame
	Women’s Interpretations of Cannibalism: On ‘Being Eaten from the Inside’
	Exchanges Outside the Mother’s Body Between Her First and Second Husbands
	The Cycle of Blame
	The Mother’s Crime
	To See is to Dispossess – To Dispossess is to Humiliate
	References
8: Conclusion: Totem and Taboo Revisited
	Totem and Taboo Revisited
	The Hatred of Women
	The Magic of Motherhood
	Cycle of Blame: ‘The Gift’ as Accusation
	“Why Can’t a Woman Be Just Like a Man?”
	“In the Beginning Was The Deed”
	Part II
	“Eating the Head of the Child”
	A Return Visit with the Boys Left at Home Alone
	Gimi Men ‘Package’ Women’s Narratives of Incest and Murder as Objects of Exchange
	References
Note on Appendices I and II: Shared Features of the Myths of Gimi Women and Men
Appendix I Gimi Women’s Myths: Stories of the Wild Woman
Appendix II Gimi Men’s Myths: Stories of the First Woman or Two Women and a Hybrid Men’s Tale
Index