High in the mountains of New Guinea live the Sambia people, a warlike tribe whose secret rituals of initiation are designed to make their warriors courageous and bold. In this society, the roles of men and women are sharply delineated. They live in separate spaces in round huts. A woman must crouch if she is in the same space as her husband. Her menstrual blood is considered a pollutant, damaging to her husband's vigor. Male children live with their mothers until they are old enough to move to the boys' house and for many, the separation from their mother is a painful one.

When it is time for the boys to become men, they undergo a severe initiation. Each is assigned an older guardian who accompanies him during the process. They are thrashed, deprived of food and sleep, and have ginger root rubbed into their wounds, a painful experience. The initiates share these experiences and details about the most secret part of the initiation, the sexual rites.

Guardians of the Flutes is a fascinating look at a society shaped by the ritualized distinction between male and female roles.

For mature audiences.

American Anthropological Association, 1996
American Psychological Association, 1996