Male Cults and Secret Initiations in Melanesia

First published 1967. Melbourne University Press. Previous owner's name on inside page.

In this book the author puts forward a thesis, based partly on anthropological and partly on psycho-analytic theory, for the variety of practices found in the initiation rites of Melanesia. Few subjects in anthropological literature have been so much discussed as male initiation ceremonies, yet none of the existing hypotheses provides a satisfactory explanation of why such ritual should be practiced in one society and not in another.