Cultural Alternatives and a Feminist Anthropology

The Chambri of Papua New Guinea are well known as being the Tchambuli of Margaret Mead''s influential work Sex and Temperament in which she described them as people among whom in contrast to Western society women dominated over men. In this book the authors analyze Mead''s data and present original material to reveal that Mead misinterpreted the Chambri situation. In fact Chambri women neither dominate men nor vice versa. They use this reformulated interpretation to discuss the relevance of the Chambri case for the understanding of gender relations in Western society today showing that male dominance is not inevitable. At the same time they use their knowledge of cultural alternatives to clarify Western feminist objectives.