The development of masculinity: a cross-cultural contribution

Abstract

We have examined, using data from a Stone-Age New Guinea culture, two hypotheses regarding the development of masculinity: that a prolonged and too gratifying mother-son symbiosis threatens a boy's chances of becoming masculine and that a boy, to create masculinity, must raise a psychic barrier against the urge to be merged with his mother. The data show the hypothesized forces to be at work in these New Guineans much as in Western society.