Male sex role resolutions

Handbook of Cross-Cultural Human Development • Garlant STPM Press • New York • Published In • Pages: 611-632 •
By Munroe, Robert L., Munroe, Ruth H., Whiting, John W.M.

Hypothesis

Societies with close mother-infant contact and patrilineage will practice male circumcision ceremonies. In societies with close mother-infant contact and without patrilineages, the couvade will be present (627).

Test

Test NameSupportSignificanceCoefficientTail
Chi squareSupportedUNKNOWNUNKNOWNUNKNOWN

Variables

Variable NameVariable Type OCM Term(s)
DescentIndependentRule Of Descent
Male Circumcision CeremoniesDependentBody Alterations
Mother-infant ContactCombinedInfant Care
The CouvadeDependentPregnancy

Related Hypotheses

Main AuthorHypothesis
Munroe, Robert L."Societies in which mothers are highly salient to their infants as a consequence of being carried in close contact should also perform male circumcision rites or practice the couvade or both as a method of resolving or expressing sex-identity conflict" (626).
Munroe, Robert L.Patrilocal residence will predict circumcision ceremonies and matrilocal residence will predict the couvade (626).
Gray, J. PatrickClose father-infant degree of contact is associated with curve line dominant art (39).
Munroe, Robert L."The prediction . . . was that the couvade would be found in association with mother-infant sleeping arrangements, and/or matri-residence. . . . Relatively low male salience, as experienced by male children in societies characterized by a form of matri-residence [or] . . . in the presence of exclusive mother-infant sleeping arrangements . . . might lead to cross-sex identity and to a particular projective system outcome--the couvade" (40, 39)
Kitahara, MichioSocieties in which mother and son sleep in the same bed and the father sleeps in another hut/village will be more likely to have male circumcision than societies in which the father sleeps in the same hut (280).