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Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Religious Right and the Reshaping of Sexual Policy -- 3. Black Sexuality, Indigenous Moral Panics, and Respectability -- 4. The "Gay Plague" Revisited -- 5. Gay Marriage -- 6. Postcolonial Amnesia -- 7. Transient Feelings -- About the Contributors -- Index

Biomedical research on a rare hermaphroditic condition among males of the rural Dominican Republic has supported biologically reductionist explanations of male gender identity development. I reinterpret this research by comparison to a parallel case among the Sambia of Papua New Guinea. Meanings of mistaken gender are reviewed to contrast sex assignment and socialization in two‐sex and three‐sex cultural systems. I refute the unicausal biological model and suggest that psychocultural factors in these cultures are more salient in the explanation of hermaphroditic sex‐role change.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Introduction to the Transaction Edition -- Editor's Preface -- 1 INTRODUCTION -- 2 FETISH AND FANTASY IN SAMBIA INITIATION -- 3 THE RITUAL FORGING OF IDENTITY: Aspects of Person and Self in Bimin-Kuskusmin Male Initiation -- 4 THE BAU A CEREMONIAL HUNTING LODGE: An Alternative to Initiation -- 5 OPPOSITION AND COMPLEMENTARITY OF THE SEXES IN NOUMEA INITIATION -- 6 THE MAKING OF MEN: Ritual and Meaning in Awa Male Initiation -- 7 THE FATHER WHO BORE ME: The Role of Tsambunwuro during Chambri Initiation Ceremonies -- 8 RITUAL VIOLENCE AMONG THE ILAHITA ARAPESH: The Dynamics of Moral and Religious Uncertainty -- INDEX