ANTH 1150 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Tapa Cloth, Umbilical Cord, Gender Role
18 Apr 2017
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John barker is a canadian anthropologist, and author of the ethnography. Ancestral lines; the maisin of papua new guinea and the fate of the. Also the chapter looks into kinship and descent, and marriage. From a very young age the maisin children are put into gender roles, starting much early with females. In that sense a newly born baby is not socially human because it doesn"t know yet the basic social conduct that the maisin follow. Also the maisin people believe that a newly born child is considered very vulnerable to attacks from spirits because its soul is not fully attached to its body. Also the person who takes the items to the tree must return by the same path acting as a spiritual guide for the baby. These tokens are the first examples of a gender role, it the baby is a girl the token will be grass rings, which symbolizes the straps used to carry firewood.
