Herdt Socialisation for Aggression in Sambia Society

7/30/2019 Herdt Socialisation for Aggression in Sambia Society

1/11

Aspects of Socialization for Aggression in Sambia Ritual and WarfareAuthor(s): Gilbert HerdtSource: Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 4, Culture and Aggression (Oct., 1986), pp. 160-164+200-204Published by: The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic ResearchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3317329

Accessed: 12/08/2010 10:00

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you

may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ifer.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed

page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

The George Washington University Institute for Ethnographic Research is collaborating with JSTOR to

digitize, preserve and extend access toAnthropological Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3317329?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iferhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=iferhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/3317329?origin=JSTOR-pdf


2/11

ASPECTS OF SOCIALIZATIONFOR AGGRESSIONIN SAMBIA RITUALAND WARFAREGILBERT HERDTThe University of Chicago

Selectedaspectsof aggressionare described mongtheSambiaof theEasternHighlands,PapuaNew Guinea.Twotypesof aggressivebehaviorarestudied n thedevelopmental ycleofSambia: instrumental ggression,n which heagentproducesdistress n others o achievepragmaticgoals, and hostileaggression, n whichhurting heotherpersonis an end in itselfand servesto establisha powerbalancebetweenagentand object. nitiationceremoniesarehere viewedas the main mediatingmechanism n changesin aggressivebehaviorbetweenchildhoodand adulthood. Some discussionof the Sambiafindings in contrast to otherMelanesiansocieties is providedas a broaderarealfocus.

The anthropological study of aggressionin Melanesia has focused on three behav-ioral forms: warfare, sorcery, and in-groupinterpersonal violence. The complexity ofthese behaviors and their diverse culturalcontexts has made it difficult to generalizeabout their causes and consequences forMelanesia as a cultural area. Few observersagree completely, for instance, about theultimate, let alone the proximate, causes ofwarfare in New Guinea societies (seeHallpike 1973; Meggitt 1977; Sillitoe 1978;reviewed in Brown's and Ross's papers inthis volume). Warfare as a culturally-consti-tuted form of aggressive behavior defies anysimple categorization into biological,"essen-tialism"or social "environmentalism," lthoughin New Guinea the accounts of war appeal tosociocultural factors as critical determinantsof the boundary conditions, target goals, andthe quality of the aggression involved. Oneaspect of these cultural factors that hasbeen emphasized by a few observers issocialization for aggression (Brown 1978b;Langness 1972; Mead 1935; Read 1954). Inthis paper I will concentrate on ritualsocialization for aggression in line withthese previous accounts, but I also offer asomewhat differentperspective which stressesthe systematic introduction of differentforms of aggression across the develop-mental lifespan in order to understand howtraining in ritual and warfare were inex-tricably linked, particularly with regard tomale development.One approach to understanding social-ization for aggression is to contrast the vari-able forms of training for or implicit rein-forcement of aggressiveness in differentstages of social development. Schwartz

(1973) and Read (1954) have suggested thatthe generalized ethos of Melanesia and theNew Guinea Highlands is dominated byimages of aggressiveness, and I have takena similar view in a recent work (Herdt 1987).Yet this ethos and the values underlyingaggressive behavior may shape people'slives in different ways in childhood, adoles-cence, and adulthood. Children, reared inthe safety of what Lawrence (1966) referredto as a "security circle," are somewhatremoved fromwarfare violence, for example,even though they sometimes suffer from itas victims. The transition from adolescenceto adulthood, however, seems to entail theperson's increasing involvement in planning,staging, and carrying out aggression, espec-ially that related to group warfare. In thissense, initiation rites, a critical component oftransition from childhood to adulthood,transform nonresponsible, passive victims toresponsible, active agents who can aggress.The recent studies inRitualsofManhood:MaleInitiation in Papua New Guinea (Herdt, ed.1982) underscore this point, and I havetaken the same perspective in my work onmasculine development among the Sambia,a hunting and horticultural people of theEastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea(Herdt 1981).Initiation is a type of aggressive trainingregime for males. Ritual tasks expose boysto new challenges and dangers, such ashunting, scaling tall trees, and journeying onlong treks in unknown territory. Initiationalso actively teaches boys, in a vicariousway, about the images and dangers ofenemies inother tribes and pseudo-enemiesin nearby villages. Masculine values areintroduced and reinforced for fighting,

160


3/11

SOCIALIZATIONFOR AGGRESSIONIN SAMBIARITUAL 161bravery, autonomy, and aggressiveness ingeneral. Sambia, like similar peoples in NewGuinea, have a complex, multistage initiationsequence, which is begun for boys at ages 7to 10, and which continues over six stages ofinitiation, spread over the next 15 years orso, until males are in the mid-twenties, aremarriedand have families. Duringthese suc-cessive initiations, the men are trained inwarriorskills, planning and fighting, and theirtraining culminates in long-distance raids,the most dangerous and daring of warfareactivities, and also the most aggressive anddeadly. And yet, these males begin life in thesecurity circle, primarily attached to theirmothers and protected by them. As children,they are dependent, emotional, and given totemper tantrums; they are unaggressive andgenerally avoid adult violence. Indeed, themen perceive them as too "soft"-like theirwives-and too much enmeshed in thewomen's world and values to be of help inwarfare. Thus, initiation resocializes them,retrains them as warriors. Inthis sense, ritualnot only "undoes" the boys' childhood train-ing, but it anticipates the context of warfarein which the boys must prove themselvescompetent. What the men's view overlooks,however, is that aggressiveness of a dif-ferent form is already present during theboys' childhood. We may see this earlierdevelopmental form as antecedent to theadult form;these two faces of aggression gohand in hand, I will argue, but they areexpressed in different situations and havedivergent consequences.Two Forms ofAggression

For the sake of brevity, we may refer totwo forms of aggression identified by thepsychologist Hartup (1974) ina classic studyof Minnesota school children. He labeledthese types "hostile" and "instrumental"aggression. Hartup found that in instrumen-tal aggression, children produce distress inothers to obtain something they want,whereas in hostile aggression, hurting theother person becomes an end in itself (seeMaccoby 1980:147). Both behavioral formsare goal-directed; in both, a latent potentialfor aggression is expressed, usually withintentionality. Yet the manifest aims of thesetwo kinds of aggression diverge. Develop-

mentalists have found that instrumentalaggression generally decreases in fre-quency with age, whereas hostile aggres-sion is stable over the life-course. Hostileaggression, moreover, assumes meaningsassociated with power. In effect, hostileattacks become a means of restoring abalance in power between two persons, theworking out of which represents cognitive,symbolic, and emotional mastery inthe child,entailing a clearer sense of self and anunderstanding of one's status position in thepower and symbolic hierarchy.Myaim is to explore such types of aggres-sion in the socialization of Sambia males,particularlyas ritual anticipates warfare. Mypresentation must be preliminary. Many ofthe methodological issues besetting the his-torical study of aggression in Sambia war-fare, a now defunct institution which wasforcibly stopped in 1964-65 by the colonialgovernment, are beyond the scope of thispaper. (Meggitt [1977] addressed theseissues in his masterful study of Mae Engawarfare, in the Western Highlands of NewGuinea.) Specifically, I will show that the"instrumental/hostile" distinction illuminatesSambia male development across the life-span; indeed, Sambia culture capitalizes onthe potential for aggression by situationallyexploiting both forms of attack in differentways.Sambia today number 2,400 people dis-persed in small nucleated villages over abroken rain forest terrain. Initiation rites arestill performed to recruit and train boys aswarriors,for warfare was chronic throughoutthe region of Sambia and of their Anganeighbors. Marriage to members of some-times hostile groups created intense sexualantagonism, which complicated early child-rearing, and facilitated ritual cult secrecy asa means to enhance male solidarity (seeHerdt 1981).Aggression and its control are centralthemes in male development. I have arguedelsewhere (Herdt, 1987) that boys are unrulyand uncontrolled moral agents. They areoften allowed to act out instrumental aggres-sive acts before they are initiated. Mothers,young siblings, and peers are the primarytargets, but the main object of hostileaggression is parental authority, the mother


4/11

162 ANTHROPOLOGICAL UARTERLYin particular,an image explicitly discussed inthe discourse of ritual nose-bleeding (Herdt1982).1 After initiation, the forms and direc-tion of male aggression undergo significantchange, for boys live only inthe men's house.Adult men try to make boys accountablemoral agents, who are reliable warriors andyet obedient sons. Warfare is ever present inthe initiators' minds.Warfare and ritual are thus inextricablylinked, both symbolically and behaviorally.Sambia themselves see initiation as social-ization into the warrior role. The term "tofight," mulu, can be modified in any of fourways, though erut-mulu, "bow-fight," andpweiyu-mulu, "ritual fight," are the mostsalient of these. Ritual (pweiyu) nvolving anyphysical pain, such as thrashing or nose-bleeding, is categorized as aggressiveaction. The Sambia Valley area boasts fight-grounds, where ceremonialized bow-fightstake place, and dance-grounds, where ritualactivities such as moonlight dancing are per-formed. These areas are located within ahundred yards of each other, and the sym-bolic conflict of ritual today sometimes spillsover physically onto the nearby fight-ground.Paula Brown (1978b) has documentedexamples of such war and ritual links else-where in Highlands New Guinea.Sambia initiation is often violent and isexperienced as traumatic by many boys. Theactions of adult male initiators are highlydominating and instrumentally aggressive.Thrashing rites and severe nose-bleedings,stinging-nettle ceremonies and constant,frightening surprises make the atmosphereof initiation highly charged and "aggressive."Ritual teachings stress the "instrumental"aspect of this; the activities "toughen boysas warriors" and prepare them for spartanlife in the men's house. Yet, nose-bleedingand related teachings express men's hostileaggression, mainly said to be "payback"punishment for the men's anger and humilia-tion at young boys' mocking of their rituallife. During first-stage initiation, the initiatesare permitted only two forms of "aggressive"response. First, there is peer competitionwith each other to be "strong" warrior-recruits, expressed in the idiom ofjerundu,toattain status. Second, there is situationalhostile aggression toward older bachelors--

prospective homosexual partners-whomthey can "pay back" for their ritual"pain"by"stealing" the bachelors' semen, hostilityconfined mainly to the erotics of the fluteceremony.2First-stage initiation thus reveals a pro-found transformation in the masculinity ofboys, coupled with both forms of aggressivity.The implicit"message" of these rites "speaks"to the prior stage of childhood in the boys'developmental histories. Their impetuous,unmanly behavior draws out retaliation inthe men, and boys are given some channel ofresponse to the trauma of the initiationviolence. The hostility of homosexual activityis a theme which carries over into adoles-

cence, for here, aggression is sexualizedand put into the service both of heterosexualrepression and of conditioning for a general-ized erotic dimension of certain male/maleritual cult hierarchical relationships (Herdt1987). The sexualization of this hostileaggression has implications, moreover, forthe form of "sexual antagonism" whichoccurs among the Sambia (see Herdt andPoole 1982). Finally, these public ritualactivities, which are observed by women andboys (whereas the secret flute ceremony ishidden) send an important "message" to theuninitiated that men are capable of aggres-sion, and that uninitiated boys have this fatelying in store for them.Following first-stage initiation, no overtaggression towards older village males ispermitted, and boys are punished fortransgressions. Instead, the targets foraggression- especially hostile aggression-are members of two generalized categories:"enemies" (particularly members of othertribes, ikumamulu) nd women (particularlyofneighboring villages who are potentialbrides). At this stage, however, aggressiontowards either is merely imagined by theboys.By puberty, and third-stage initiation, thissocial fantasy is transformed into behavioralreality. Bachelor-initiates journey on war-raids to kill and loot enemy groups, and, onoccasion, to bring back women as wives.Thus, both hostile and instrumental aggres-sion are expressed, both to obtain desiredthings and to inflict damage as an end initself. At the same time, severe nose-


5/11

SOCIALIZATIONFOR AGGRESSIONIN SAMBIA RITUAL 163bleeding is used again to reiterate thatbachelors must not aggress against theirseniors and must show strict obediencetoward elders as authorities (Herdt 1982).Youths become increasingly verbally aggres-sive toward females. However, they com-pletely avoid women, and all heterosexualactivity is forbidden to them, meaning thatthe bachelor's aggression toward women isfundamentally "hostile" in nature. Interest-ingly enough, this is the developmentalstage at which boys begin to express fears ofhostile aggression from women in the formsof pollution and sorcery, a theme of sexualantagonism that continues throughout theremainder of the male lifespan.

In adulthood, Sambia men are expectedto be autonomous and self-controlled. This isa problematic posture because the ethos ofSambia condones aggression and yet rewardssociality (Herdt 1987). Theirconcept, jerungdu,which represents virility,valor and abundantsemen, at first motivates instrumentalaggres-sion to achieve prominence and allows hos-tile aggression to attain equivalence ofpower with others. Elders are not challenged,however; Sambia personality is far tooauthoritarian for that. Aggression of all kindsis played down in the village, wherein fearsof sorcery symbolically substitute and aresometimes directed toward outside women(see Newman 1981). Shamanic rites areused to keep the village status quo intact.Women shamans provide the best exampleof female instrumental aggression, sociallyrecognized and used by Sambia in the sym-bolic context of healing ceremonies (seeHerdt 1987). Yet the self-possessed, too-powerful shaman can be done away with byhis own group, and stories of past homicidesemphasize the point. In this way, the overlyaggressive shaman or the hot-headed war-leader-key symbols of male aggressive-ness-are threats to the hierarchical pattern;they are too uncontrolled, too aggressive,not enough "in balance," as Read (1959)argued for the Gahuku-Gama of the NewGuinea Eastern Highlands. Inthis context, itshould be added that the normative trendtoward aggression in certain individualsfinds its most exaggerated form in "wild-man" temporary madness: hyper-aggres-

siveness for males and hypersexuality forfemales (Herdt 1986).In the normative development pattern ofSambia, three phases of change in aggres-sion can be outlined. First is childhood,before initiation, in which hostile and instru-mental acts are directed only toward mem-bers of one's in-group,especially the nuclearfamily. Second is the post-initiation period,from late childhood through early middleage. Here, instrumental aggression can beexpressed and used vis-a-vis other males ofdifferent social statuses, especially those ofone's in-group; whereas hostile aggression,done merely to harm, is expressed towardenemies or women, members of out-groups,mainly to express power or reassert abalance of power. The third phase iselderhood, during which verbal and symbolicaction substitute for overt physical aggres-sion. Elders are self-controlled and use theirknowledge of ritual and sorcery to promotethemselves and their groups. They canexpect no instrumental aggression fromverymuch younger males and compete only witheach other. In this sense they use hostileaggressive behavior in magic and ritual aspolitical directors of village activities, toachieve a power balance with other villages.Overall, the thrust of aggression and self-discipline in the lifelong structure of nose-bleeding rites is to condition the autonomous,controlled, mature personality (Herdt 1982).Conclusion

Aggression, like most other human be-haviors, cannot be understood apart fromthe cultural context in which it occurs. Cul-ture defines to whom people feel close ordistant and delineates who is inside or out-side the group, both of which are key con-tingencies of aggression. Inthis paper Ihaveargued forthe study of aggression in relationto the socialization regimes of a society. Incontrasting instrumental with hostile aggres-sion, I am suggesting that a developmentaldifference found in Western culture occursalso in New Guinea society, although putinto the service of Sambian goals, values,and adaptation to an environment of warfare.To this developmental perspective I have


6/11

164 ANTHROPOLOGICAL UARTERLYadded the component of ritual as a primarymodifier of aggressive development. Ritualboth reflects upon the childhood stage ofSambia males and anticipates the outcomesexpected of them in socialization duringadolescence and adulthood. Initiation istherefore the main mediating mechanism ofdevelopmental changes in aggressiveness,each "stage" of which prepares boys for real-life events of violence and antagonism.Support for the above model of Sambiadevelopment can be found in comparableMelanesian studies. Langness (1972) notesthat the in/out-group distinction prefiguredthe technology and rules of war in NewGuinea societies, with raw aggression direc-ted outside. Joint initiation with an outsidegroup limits hostilities between the two, andinitiators are careful in the aggressionstoward each others' sons, for fear of retribu-tion (see Herdt, ed. 1982). Warfare and ritualthus clarify the boundaries of aggression inthese societies. Inthis light,it is interestingthat Bateson (1958), in hisclassic Naven,generated his concept of schismogenesisfromNewGuinea materialson aggression inritual, ex role relationships,and inter-groupconflict.Bateson's notionsof schismogenesiswas that cumulative interactions could dis-tort and ultimatelydestroya relationshipbe-tweentwoagents.Unregulatedrsymmetricalschismogenesis, as in the escalating armsrace, is akin to instrumental aggression: tit-for-tat threatens to destroy world order.

Complementary schismogenesis amongcultural dyads is like hostile aggression, inthat one's action serves to restore a balanceof interlocking powers, as between husband/wife, bachelor/initiate, parent/child. Sambiaand similar Melanesian peoples required theexpression of aggression for militarydefense.To control the consequences of this in per-sonal situations, they socialized for con-trolled aggression. They used ritual totransform childhood behavior into adultrequirements and may have gotten morethan they bargained for. The consequencesof this aggression in childrearing and sexrole performance are far-reaching, andsometimes even deleterious (Stoller andHerdt 1982). Yet, their ritualsystem did keepaggression in check inside the group, andhostile responses to the outside weretolerated and even encouraged so long as acomplementary ethic of power assuredvillage stability.

NOTES1 Girls are generally negatively reinforced for aggres-sion as they mature;passivity and subordination are traitsexpected of Sambia females in many contexts. Thischange, however, occurs after separation of boys and

girls, following male initiation,when the children are veryyoung. Girls remain with their parents and are socializedinto female tasks, mainlygardening and baby-sitting. Yetsome female aggression does occur, especially of thehostile kind,for example, female-female rivalrybetweenco-wives.2 The bachelors, however, are also instructed byelders to "get back,"for their pain and subjugation, bydominating and hazing the boys as sexual objects (seeHerdt, ed. 1982).


7/11


8/11


9/11


10/11


11/11

204 ANTHROPOLOGICAL UARTERLYStrathern, A. 1979. Ongka.New York:St. Martin's Press.

S1984. A Line of Power. London: TavistockTabin, J. 1985. On the Way to Self New York: Columbia University Press.Taylor, W. B. 1979. Drinking, Homicide and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Tiger, L. 1969. Men in Groups. New York: Random House.Tiger, L., and J. Shepher. 1975. Women in the Kibbutz. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Turnbull, C. 1978. The Politics of Non-aggression. In Learning Non-aggression, ed. A. Montagu. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.Valzelli, L. 1981. Psychobiology of Aggression and Violence. New York: Raven Press.Watson, J. B. 1971. Tairora: The Politics of Despotism in a Small Society. InPolitics in New Guinea, eds. R. M. Berndt and P.

Lawrence. Perth: University of Western Australia Press.Whiting, B. B. 1965. Sex Identity and Physical Violence: A Comparative Study. American Anthroplogist 67(2): 123-40.

S1980. Culture and Social Behavior: A Model for the Development of Social Behavior. Ethos 8: 95-116.Whiting, B., and C. P. Edwards. 1973. A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Sex Differences in the Behavior of Children Aged Threeto Eleven. Journal of Social Psychology 91: 171-88.Whiting, B. B., and J. W. M. Whiting. 1975. Children of Six Cultures:A Psycho-CulturalAnalysis. Cambridge: Harvard Univer-

sity Press.Wilson, E. O. 1975. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.S1978. On Human Nature. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

204 ANTHROPOLOGICAL UARTERLY04 ANTHROPOLOGICAL UARTERLY04 ANTHROPOLOGICAL UARTERLY04 ANTHROPOLOGICAL UARTERLY04 ANTHROPOLOGICAL UARTERLY04 ANTHROPOLOGICAL UARTERLY04 ANTHROPOLOGICAL UARTERLYStrathern, A. 1979. Ongka.New York:St. Martin's Press.

S1984. A Line of Power. London: TavistockTabin, J. 1985. On the Way to Self New York: Columbia University Press.Taylor, W. B. 1979. Drinking, Homicide and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Tiger, L. 1969. Men in Groups. New York: Random House.Tiger, L., and J. Shepher. 1975. Women in the Kibbutz. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Turnbull, C. 1978. The Politics of Non-aggression. In Learning Non-aggression, ed. A. Montagu. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.Valzelli, L. 1981. Psychobiology of Aggression and Violence. New York: Raven Press.Watson, J. B. 1971. Tairora: The Politics of Despotism in a Small Society. InPolitics in New Guinea, eds. R. M. Berndt and P.




Strathern, A. 1979. Ongka.New York:St. Martin's Press.S1984. A Line of Power. London: Tavistock

Tabin, J. 1985. On the Way to Self New York: Columbia University Press.Taylor, W. B. 1979. Drinking, Homicide and Rebellion in Colonial Mexican Villages. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Tiger, L. 1969. Men in Groups. New York: Random House.Tiger, L., and J. Shepher. 1975. Women in the Kibbutz. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.Turnbull, C. 1978. The Politics of Non-aggression. In Learning Non-aggression, ed. A. Montagu. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.Valzelli, L. 1981. Psychobiology of Aggression and Violence. New York: Raven Press.Watson, J. B. 1971. Tairora: The Politics of Despotism in a Small Society. InPolitics in New Guinea, eds. R. M. Berndt and P.





























Documents

Herdt Socialisation for Aggression in Sambia Society