This paper analyses associations between: social conceptions of abjection and sexual differentiation; women's physiological states and nature; transition states and power. It makes use of two authors' approaches of the panema and reima complexes in two different forest societies. The analytical exercise points out the symbolic character and its effectiveness for the establishment of borders, boundaries, hierarchies and social control. It brings to the fore a critical reading of events and meanings, observing current divisions and social contradictions regarding cultural structures that indicate woman's place in social hierarchy.
gender; nature; culture and social control