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By Gregory Bateson
"Naven" is the identify of a weird ritual practiced by means of Iatmul, a head-hunting tribe of latest Guinea.Th e rite is played to congratulate participants of the tribe upon the crowning glory of striking accomplishments, between which murder ranks maximum. more often than not this tribe insists upon an severe distinction among the sexes, yet within the "naven" rite, tranvestitism and formality homosexuality are represented. The "naven" serves during this booklet as a cause round which the writer has built the most influential works of box anthropology ever written.
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Extra resources for Naven: A Survey of the Problems suggested by a Composite Picture of the Culture of a New Guinea Tribe drawn from Three Points of View
Sample text
Of this ritual pantomime acted by the wau appears to me to be a representation of the birth of the little girl from the belly of her mother's brother, though none of my male informants (in Kankanamun where I made enquiries) had ever heard of the custom of tying the woman in labour on a stretcher. The dance of the mbora (mother's brother's wife), with her arms stretched back behind her head, also probably represents the position of a woman in labour. A general presentation of food and valuables followed this ceremony.
Thus we have worked down from the study of cultural individual processes to the study of individual psychology, linking the " scale by the abstract 1 concept of the stan- two ends of the dardised individual Returning now ". raw material of anthropology, the down by the field worker, we may see the whole of this mass as relevant to a final facts of native to the behaviour noted separable discipline. This is concerned with the effects of behaviour in satisfying the needs of groups of individuals, in maintaining or impeding the continued existence of that abstract organism the Society.
Using the term in this sense might say that the naven ceremonies are a function of we all those elements of culture or properties of society upon whose presence the existence of the ceremonies depends. If, further, it can be shown that the naven ceremonies play some part in the integration of the community, we may say that the size of the latmul villages is a function of amongst other things The Concepts of Structure and Function 27 the naven ceremonies. This is a perfectly consistent and logical use of the term and one which anthropologists might do well to adopt.