Anxious Pleasures

"e;Good fish get dull but sex is always fun."e; So say the Mehinaku people of Brazil. But Thomas Gregor shows that sex brings a supreme ambiguity to the villagers' lives. In their elaborate rituals-especially those practiced by the men in their secret societies-the Mehinaku give expression to a system of symbols reminiscent of psychosexual neuroses identified by Freud: castration anxiety, Oedipal conflict, fantasies of loss of strength through sex, and a host of others. "e;If we look carefully,"e; writes Gregor, "e;we will see reflections of our own sexual nature in the life ways of an Amazonian people."e; The book is illustrated with Mehinaku drawings of ritual texts and myths, as well as with photographs of the villagers taking part in both everyday and ceremonial activities.