Abstract

BONNEMERE, Pascale. El estatus del tío materno entre los ankave-anga: iniciaciones masculinas, ciclos de vida, género y parentesco en papúa nueva-guinea. Horiz. antropol. [online]. 2010, vol.16, n.34, pp. 405-426. ISSN 0104-7183.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0104-71832010000200017.

According to previous analyses of Anga initiations in Papua New Guinea, which are based on male activities only, the aim of these rituals was to make boys grow, to fortify them in a context of inter-tribal conflicts as well as to drum into them the rules of male domination and to legitimate its existence. The ethnography of the Ankave-Anga permits an alternative interpretation, however, since masculine life there is punctuated with rituals whose efficacy depends on men's participation but above all on the presence of some specific kinswomen. The analysis of the ritual actions performed by these characters when a son - a brother, a uterine nephew - is initiated, and then has his first child and finally when he dies reveals other major aspects of these rituals, such as reaching parenthood and maternal uncle status, which implies that a series of relational transformations has previously taken place.

Keywords : first birth; male rituals; maternal kin; relational transformations.