{"title":"Engendering Sexual Desire: Love Magic, Sexuality and Agency in Papua New Guinea","authors":"R. Eves","doi":"10.1080/00664677.2020.1846497","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Through a study of love magic, this paper examines the ways in which sexual desire is culturally mediated among the Lelet of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. The Lelet regulate sexuality heavily through what Foucault refers to as ‘prescriptive discourses’ which severely constrain expressions of sexuality, especially for women, who are construed as properly lacking sexual desire. While women are readily the object of men’s desire, men are not readily the object of women’s desire. Despite passionlessness being the ideal for women, men turn to love magic as a means of cultivating sexual desire in them.","PeriodicalId":45505,"journal":{"name":"Anthropological Forum","volume":"225 1","pages":"426 - 442"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2020-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Anthropological Forum","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2020.1846497","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
ABSTRACT Through a study of love magic, this paper examines the ways in which sexual desire is culturally mediated among the Lelet of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea. The Lelet regulate sexuality heavily through what Foucault refers to as ‘prescriptive discourses’ which severely constrain expressions of sexuality, especially for women, who are construed as properly lacking sexual desire. While women are readily the object of men’s desire, men are not readily the object of women’s desire. Despite passionlessness being the ideal for women, men turn to love magic as a means of cultivating sexual desire in them.
期刊介绍:
Anthropological Forum is a journal of social anthropology and comparative sociology that was founded in 1963 and has a distinguished publication history. The journal provides a forum for both established and innovative approaches to anthropological research. A special section devoted to contributions on applied anthropology appears periodically. The editors are especially keen to publish new approaches based on ethnographic and theoretical work in the journal"s established areas of strength: Australian culture and society, Aboriginal Australia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.