Gender Symbolism and Power Relations: A Reassessment of the Amb Kor Cult of Mt. Hagen

Abstract

This paper explores expressions of gender symbolism in a fertility cult of Mount Hagen. This cult – the amb kor – has been analysed by Andrew Strathern in terms of its symbolic construction as a set of statements about male/female relations, his emphasis being on the operation of reversal, pairing and opposition within the cult. My contention is that such a structural analysis is insufficient. Through a discussion of historical process in Hagen I attempt to locate amb kor in a more materialist framework, viewing is as a discourse on the state of power relations in Hagen. In this respect, I see amb kor as being equally a set of statements about male/male relations as male/female.