Anxious Pleasures

"Good fish get dull but sex is always fun." So say the Mehinaku people of Brazil. But Thomas Gregor shows that sex brings a supreme ambiguity to the villagers' lives. In their elaborate rituals - especially those practiced by the men in their secret societies - the Mehinaku give expression to a system of symbols reminiscent of psychosexual neuroses identified by Freud: castration anxiety, Oedipal conflict, fantasies of loss of strength through sex, and a host of others. "If we look carefully," writes Gregor, "we will see reflections of our own sexual nature in the life ways of an Amazonian people." The book is illustrated with Mehinaku drawings of ritual texts and myths, as well as with photographs of the villagers taking part in both everyday and ceremonial activities. -- Publisher description.

First sentence: IN 1887, THE GERMAN EXPLORER KARL VON DEN STEINEN SET OUT WITH A pack train of oxen and mules to explore the headwaters of the Xingu River.

Year

1985

Language

English

Publisher

University Of Chicago Press

Editions

4

Pages

231

ISBN

9780226307435

Data source: Wikidata