CULTURE:

MainstreamCulture
8
Ritualized Homosexuality in a
Nacirema Subculture
MICHAEL KIMMEL
All emillellt schofar (!f l)(lth g('llder and sC:\"lwfity, Kimll1ef hrings his kllOll'fclkc
and experience to bear ill anllfyzill,SZ the hch,wior (?f a ]'1ortfl AlIleri(<111 tribc) tfIC
Nacirl:'lIhl. Expmufi/lg Oil Afillcr's illtrodllrtioll 4tflis gmll]J to ttIC s()ciofo,f;icllf
Uteri/fllre, Killlmcf delves iI/to members' rituals as tlICY pcrrilill to sex roles,
(om rllll11ity , membersflip, illitialioll, statlls withill tlie gn)ltp, ,wei (ore
1101'1115 a1ld fhlfw's, Despite their 'lIlthropolo,szirai distinctlJ('ss, i1l /11(111)' W<l)'S the
Nadrema display key feature.' (?f mainstream AII/erial/1 witurc throl(l?fr their
fW/Hosocial bOlldirlg and scxual exploitation i?fothers COli/billed with represscd
Readers' rC.1pomcs to Kill/me/'s il/wly.,is moy rlIlIgcJiwlI
mmlsed to il/sl/fted, III/t we hope thilt 501lleflllli it i1l I r(SZI Iill,e:, Does il shed 111'//'
illsiRfll jllY YOII?
S
tudents ofanthropology have longbeen awart' ofthe esoteric cllstoms oftht'
Nacirema, a culture situated in the northern in the territory
between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare ofMexico, and the
Carib and the Arawak ofthe Antilles (see Miner, 1(56). According to Horace
Mint'r, tht' Michigan anthropologist who first discovered them, the NacirClllJ
exhibit a strange and almmt perverse preoccUpJtioIl with the body and its ritual
punficltion, spending t'normom amollnts of tillle, and exchanging significant
,Hllollnts ofcurrencies to purify what the;' believe is ,l\1 disgustingand
t"l,tid physical (or11l,
Wehave recently becollleaware ofan evell 1110re esotericsubcultureamong
the Nacirem;l, one more curiously preon:upied with body riwal. and especi<ll1y
with ritualized h0111()';exuality, Thissubculture. knowl1 as theTarts. IS thesubject
ofthis essay.
T: \lith.ld KlllllllL'L "Ri[tuillc,l I[,m"",xlI.llit\ 1Il ,l
'\uhculnln:'" hy Pl'f1l11,... inn ofth,,' .lllthpL
65
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66 PAR T II Sociological Blueprints
RELATED LITERATURE
Ritual homosexual behavior is certainly not unknown to cultural anthropologists.
In perhaps the most fllllOUS eX;1I11ple. Gilbert Herdt described the sexual rituals of
the Sambia. a mountain people who live in Papua New Guinea. The Sambia
practice ritualized homosexuality as J way to initiate young boys into tllll adult
manhood. YOllllg boys ritually tl'lbte the older boys and men so that they (the
younger boys) can receive the vital lite tluid (semen) trOl11 the older men and thus
become men. "A boy must be initi;ltt'd and 10rallyJ il1St'l11in,lted, otherwise the
girl betrothed to him will olltgrow him and run away to another man," was the
way one Salllbia elder put it. "If a boy doesll't eat semen, he remaim small and
weak" (Herdt, 19X1, p. 163).
When they reach puberty, these boys are then tellated by a new crop of
younger boys. Throughout this initiation, the boys scrupulously avoid girls, and
have no knowledge of heterosexuality llntil they are married. Neither the boys
nor the older men think of themselves as engaging in homosexual behavior: In
flct. when Herdt suggested that this behavior made them homosexual, or at least
hisexuaL they grew angry and diffident. This had nothing whatever to do \':ith
homosexuality, they assured Herdt. The older men are married to women, and
the younger men flllly expect to be. There is no adult homosexuality among the
Sambia. 13ut these young boys must become, as Herdt puts it, "reluctant war-
riors." How dse are the boys to rt'ceive the vital life force that will enable them
to be real men and warriors? (Herdt, 1(1) 1, p. Xl).
A nearby culture. the Keraki. engage in a related practice. There, the boys
are sodomized by older men. because the Keraki believe that without the older
men's semen, the boys will not grow to be men. This ritual practice occurs until
the boys hit puberty and secol1ci;rry sex characteristics appear-,cial hair,
dropped voice--at which point the ritual has accomplished its task. When an
anthropologist asked Keraki mell if they had been sodomized, many responded
by saying "Why, yes! Otherwise how should I haw grown?" Other ritualized
homosexual practices have been reported fi'olll other cultures (Williams, 1936:
13'); see aho Schiet1lin, 1')j6; Kelly. 1977; Carrier, 1977).
Interestingly. slIch ritual practices, as among the Sambia and Keraki, are
more evident in cultures in which sex segregation is high and women's statns is
low. This conforms to other ethnographic evidence that suggests that elaborate
rituals of male bOllding have the of excluding women tl-om life,
and thus correlate with women's lower status (Davenport. 1 'J77; see also Herdt,
cd. 1lJX-l-: ()()).
Herdt'.; book was grc'ctcd with signitlcJl1t .ll'.llklllic ,lCd,lim and equally
significant shock disbelief :lI11ong undcfgradu:lte studellts. When this writer
h:1S asked ,tudents what they think they would do if thl'Y \VlTe brought up among
the Sambia. the 1l1,lk studcllts illvariahly lkclare that thev would be the first
S,lI11bian youth to retlisc to 1I1gl'St the ft)rcc'. Thl'\, mOl\' end up ,t,'rik outcasts,
hm hettlT that tlUIl to be g:ly.
ART I C L E 8 Ritualized Homosexuality in a Nacirema Subculture 67
SEXUAL ROLES
Among the Nacirellla. there is ample evidence of homosexual activity. especially
among males, that is neither experienced nor understood to be homosexual in
nature. A researcher named Prok, who studied sexual behavior among Nacirema
males, found that ti.llly 2 in 5 h,ld had at least Ol1e homosexual experience to
orgasm. In the largest villages, fiw example, there is often a group OfY0lll1g males,
many of whom are married and virtually all of whom consider themselves to be
heterosexual, \vl1o have "ex with other 111en for money. The "reltsuh" (pro-
nounced rt'lt-suh), as he is known, will typically only perf(mn certain acts (anal
penetration) or will only allow certain acts (permittiug themselves to be fellated,
but they will not reciprocate). By remaining the "insertor" ill homosexual acts,
these males maintain a heterosexu,ll identity, and identity as "men:' Men are
insertors, whether \vith women or \vith men; so as long as they remain insertors,
they believe their masculinity is not compromised.
A casual observer may believe that if two males are engaging m sex, it is, by
definition. "gay sex," yet these Nacirema males do not see it that way. They
believe that the meaning of sexual acts does not inhere ill the gender identity of
the actor, but rather either iJl the sexual orientation of the actor or in the acts
themselves. Thus, they believe that if two heterosexual males engage in sex, it is
heterosexual sex; conjointly, if one of the males pertorms as heterosexual males
peIioml-that is, remains the pel1etrator and scrupulously avoids being pene-
trated-he is still a male, i.e. heterosexual.
However, these relatively exotic denizens of the Nacirema demimonde are
only the tip of the ritualized homosexual iceberg. It turns out that there is a large
subculture of Nacirema males who engage in ritualized homosexual activities
guite openly. They are the "Tarf" subculture.
GEOGRAPHY AND CULTURE
The Tarf subculture has developed in villages where the youth of the culture
gather fix education and entertailll11t'nt. The youth of the culture who gather in
these villages are called "del1tstuds" (pronounced dent-stoods). While most of the
village's youth are dentstuds, not ;111 are Tarts. Tarts art' a special group of
dentstuds.
I )entstuds congrq.>;ate \\'ithl11 these \'illagt's in al1 enclosed area called the
",uplllac" (pro11ou11ced sup-mack). SUplllKS encompass lllany buildings f<x cer-
ellHJIlial illdlKtiollS. NaClrelll<1 instruction, and often ;l!sO have a special type of
buildillg called all "Mrod" (proIlOllllCt'd em-rod). Mrods arc long houses where
the l11emhers of the village. Iklltstllds, live and sncialize. They eat in special
dilllllg huts. and are oftl'll l'xpectt'd to eat Illf<'rior food.
T,lrts, lHl\\evt'r. l1Iost otten lin;' apart in L'erel11onial men's huts that abut or
arc adjacellt to the Suplllac. Thesl' Illt'll's huts are rindly f()rbiddt'll to women;
intked a r t ~ celebrate St'X 't'greg;ltioll as a lleCL'SSary illgredient in their main
68 PAR T II Sociological Blueprints
activity: exclusionary bonding. It is the defining feature of the Tarf subculture
that they develop hyper-extended kinship networks, appropriating kinship terms
like "brother" to denote the specialness of their relationship. However, as we
shall see, this further complicates the ritualized homosexuality among the Tarf
subculture, lending an element of incest to its mix.
Tarf huts are residential abodes, in which the Tarfs live, eat and socialize.
TarE, are apparently exempt from most of the formal educational activities that
occupy the time of the m:uority of Dentstuds in the village, for they spend little
time in formal training, and most would have a hard time finding the "yrarbil"
(pronounced y-ar-bill) which is where the sacred texts of the village are housed.
Ceremonial activities occupy most of the Tarf,' time.
Some of these ceremonies include bacchanalian festivals, at which there is a
significant amount of ingestion of alcoholic libations and copious feigned hetero-
sexual contact. During these festivals, Tarfs frequently become intoxicated, and
. attempt to perform heterosexual activities. They call these attempts at hetero-
sexual coupling pukooh (pronounced pook-oo). Apparently, heterosexual acti-
vity is so distasteful to the Tarfs that they need to be sufficiently drunk in order to
accomplish it.
When a Tarf is successful in a pukooh, he immediately tells the other Tarfs,
and they then credit him with successful heterosexual accomplishment. Tallies are
kept of these pukoohs, and the names and physical descriptions of the hetero-
sexual women with whom the Tarfs have "pukooh-ed" are written down in a
sacred book.
However, it is clear that the purpose of the pukooh is not the sexual
satisfaction that might accompany sexual relations among typical heterosexuals
in Nacirema culture, or, indeed, among non-Tarfs in the same supmac. The main
purpose of these feigned heterosexual events is to win the praise of the other
Tarts. Even in Tarf heterosexual behavior, there is a strong undercurrent of
h0111osoc1a1 validation.
RITUALS AND MEMBERSHIP
a r f ~ live for the validation of other TartS. They are willing to undergo extreme
punishment and degradation in order to do so. a r f ~ begin their career not as ful1-
fledged Tarfs, but they must undergo an arduom initiation period, during which
time they are probationary Tarts. When a Tarf is in this probationary stage, he is
called a "Jelp."
Like many cultures, Tarts have developed elaborate rituals of initiation (see,
for example, Gilmore, 1 <)90). These initiation rituals demand that the young
novice prove his worth to enter the society as a tllll-tledged member, often after
undergoing some severe test or hardship. For example, in some East Atrican
cultures the 12 year old boys live alone Jnd isolated tiJr tour years. When they
return, they are circumcised without anesthesia by a stone knite. They must not
Hinch. Among the Mende, a West African culture, boys are scarified by a
69 ART I C L E 8 Ritualized Homosexuality in a Nacirema Subculture
"monster" (an elder in disguise). Among Pueblo Indians (Hopi, Zuni), bchinas
whip the boys with yucca whips until they bleed (kachinas are animal-human
hybrids, also elders in disguise). Others use nasal incision to stimulate bleeding.
But, as several of these examples illustrate, these rituals are supervised and
conducted by elders who prepare the initiation ritual, preside over the events
and conter tlwi,. validation ofmasculinity on the successfill
Tarfsubcultural non11S are slightly difIerent. For one thing, the "elders"
who supervise the ritual initiations are elders only in a symbolic sense; they are
usually no 1110re than one or two years older than the Tarf initiation
rituals are, in organized to take place away from any and all adult super-
vision by the elders who administer the life ofthe supmac. In this way, the
administrators can maintain a 6<;ade of"plausible deniability" in case any legal
challenges are made to the homosexual excesses ofthe Tarfrituals. Adminis-
trators rOlltinely feign surprise and shock when the structure and content of
Tarfrituals are disclosed.
Forthis reason, Tarfrituals are shrouded in the deepest ofsecrecy. Tuisand
theirJelps swear oaths to maintain the strictest ofsecrecy about their activities,
perhaps because there is some shame about their overtly homosexual content.
(Naciremdsociety is amongtheleastpennissiveofthe advancedcultureswehave
studied whenit comes to homosexual behavior.)
It is duringJelp apprenticeship that the true homosexual nature ofTarflife
is revealed. To prove themselves worthy to be Tarts, young men must engage
in a variety ofhomosexual practices with otherJelps. Although, as we have
noted, theseare oftenveiled in secrecy, we havebeen able todescribeseveralof
them here.
Bagging Tea
In Nacirema culture, the small pouch employed to concoct morning libations,
drunkhot, is thoughttoresemble themalescrotum. In the "BaggingTea" ritual,
the Tarfremoveshis trousers and loin cloth, and squats overasleepingJelp. The
Jelp is then awakenedto find a danglingscrotum directly overhis tace. Although
this is intendedto behumiliatingto theJelp, it is not clear ifhethen is expected.
to engage with the otherman's scrotum orally.
The Walk of the Elephants
In this ritual, all the Jelps are stripped naked and stand in a straight line, one
behind the other. EachJelp reaches through the leb'rS oftheJell' standingin from
ofhim, andgrabs thatman's penis. Theentire effect resembles aline ofeleph;mts
walking in a single line, in which each holds the other's tail in his trunk. By
performingthe Walk ofthe Eleph;lIlts, theJelps learn the homosexual behavior
that is expected ofthem by otherTartS. Appart'ntly, it is !lot typical fix Tarts to
\yalk around their secrt't 1I1l'1l\; hut in this way during nonritual periods. or at
\cclIlar times. Ollly durlllg ritual events are they permitted to do m.
70 PAR T II Sociological Blueprints
Anal Egg Transport
In this collective ritual, each Jelp is asked to place a peeled hard boiled egg in his
rectum and then all proceed to walk a certain distance, either inside the cere-
monial men's hut or in a secluded place. While this ritual clearly signifies anal
intercourse, it is unclear whether older Tarts insert the eggs into the Jelp's
rectum, or if the Jelp is required to do this himself.
Block Party
In this ritual, Tarfs and Jelps stand on a balcony or ledge of a building. The Tarfs
measure a rope, with a cinderblock tied to one end, so that it reaches almost, but
not quite to the ground. Then the Taris tie the other end of the rope to the Je\p's
penis. They tell him that only if his penis is large enough will the cinderblock
reach the ground; othenvise, the weight of the block falling will likely rip oiTthe
Jelp'5 penis. While the maniiest function, according to of this ritual is to
test how much trust the Jelp has ior his future brothers, it also reveals Tarf and
Jelp anxiety about penis size. Since Tarf culture revolves so centrally around
ritualized homosexuality, anxiety about penis size-whether they measure up-is
heightened tor the Jelps.
Ookie Cookie
As if in imitation of the Sambia, this ritual is one of the most overtly homosexual
of the entire Tarf subculture. Tarts masturbate together (although they are
prohibited from masturbating each other) and ejaculate on a cookie. Jelps are
then required to eat the cookie. In this homosexual foml of communion, bonds
of solidarity are torged, and the J elps can ingest the T arf liie iorce fi'ol11 their
elders. Among all Dentstuds within a particular supmac, are the most closely
allied with their Sambi a cousins.
Gnag Gnab
This is a particularly odious variation of the oookie cookie, in which the shared
semen is placed in the genitals of a drugged female, who is often unconscious
or at least incapable of consenting to heterosexual sex. The llnconscious or
unconsenting woman is then said to "have sex" with several Tarts or J elps.
This "heterosexual" activity is a most cleverly disguised homosexual ritual,
since it involves many dit1erent male Tarts seemingly having heterosexual sex
with the same woman. However, as Sanday (1991) and others h.lVe observed,
participants in Gnag Gnabs often say that the best part was teeling the semen of
the other Tarts inside the uw.:ollScious \'loman. While technically illegal, the
absence of any supmac administrators, and the veneer of "plausible deniability"
the occurrence of such activitie,>, emure that the illegal Ktivities otten go
unpunished.
71 ART I C L E 8 Ritualized Homosexuality in a Nacirema Subculture
Of course, like Herdt's Sambia, the vigorously deny the obviolls
homosexual elements in their rituals. Indeed, when pointed Ollt to them by
the nai've researcher, several threatened physical harm to the researcher for
suggesting it. This reaction leads us to the obviolls psychoanalytic conclusion:
the the dC/lial is directly rcllltl'd to the o/Il'ltmslless l!f the beilal';or beillg
dCllied.
Norp
There is one other ritual that \ve must consider: IIOlp. Norp consists of images and
pictures, and also movies, of naked people engaged in sexual relations. We
suspect that these films were originally created tor physicians and other health
professionals because they use extreme close ups of the genitals to reveal the
various methods people llse to engage in sexual intercourse. The actors in the
movies possess enormolls penises, so as to enable the viewer to observe all tacets
of erection, coitus, and ejaculation. Concerns for birth control are evident, as
well, because the male in the norp movie ejaculates outside the female, to ensure
that she will not conceive. (We can only briefly comment here that slIch a
method of birth control is obviously ineflective, judging from the high rates of
unwanted pregnancies among the Nacirema. However, it should be noted that
other cultures whose territories abut that of the Nacirema are Elr more adept at
providing adequate contraception and therefore have lower rates of unwanted
pregnancy.) These clinical depictions of sex are interesting to the anthropologist
because we can only conclude trom watchiing them that the Nacirema do not like
sex very much at all. I
Yet norp is everywhere in Nacirema society. It is especially prevalent in
educational villages, where it may appear on the information boxes that all the
I)entstllds lise to record int()fJllation. And it is omnipresent in the Tarf subcul-
ture. We understand from our informants that they enjoy norp because it
tKilitates masturbation, Its function is to arouse viewers sexually, leading to
masturbation. Only a small fj'action of the Nacirema-and an even smaller
percentage of T llorp in their heterosexual unions; its use is mostly
a solitary experience.
Naive readers may assume that since the depictions of sexual congress
contained in norp are images of heterosexual couples, then the viewing experi-
ence would hardly quality as ritualized homosexuality. However, in our field
research we noticed that vvithin the Tarf subculture. even the most evidently
heterosexual experiences CJn he transt<Jrllled into ritualized homosexuality.
Illdeed, it lll,ly be that the Tart' subculture tt:els a bit ashamed about its evident
rampant homosexuality, and they Jttel11pt to conceal it under a veil of
heterosexuality. If norp is lnanifL'stly hdL'rOSL'xuaL its latent fi.ll1ction may be to
provide an outlet for ritlulized homosexuality.
Tarts tend to \'iew llorp collectively. They will gather together, drink alcoholic
IibatiollS, and sit very close to one another Oil the As they w;ltch the norp
together. they will. of course. begin to becol1le sexually aroused, but there are strict
prnhibitions against ackllO\yledgeJ1lel1t of that arousaL let alone penllissioll to
72 PAR T 11 Sociological Blueprints
masturbate in the presence of the other TartS. Thus, T arfs are frustrated in the
gratification of their arousal, and we can only conclude that this' frustration is
intentional: they want to have their heterosexual impulses (heterosexual fantasies
tend to accompany their masturbation) frustrated in order to facilitate their ritua-
lized homosexual arousal.
However, Tarfs feel so guilty about their homosexual arousal that their
frustration becomes aggression, as would be predicted by social psychologists.
This aggression is often directed not at other men but at the images of women
depicted in norp. The Tarfs will yell at the image of the woman, hoping that the
male actor will hurt her, hit her or "nail her." (We assume that this bears some
relationship to Nacirema spiritual beliefs.) In this way, the Tarts reaffirm their
secret homosexual identities, as they repudiate their interest in women so that
they can remain together.
CONCLUSION
That Tarfs routinely engage in such ritualized homosexuality need not concern
citizens of open and tolerant societies. Indeed, the only concerns we raise here
about ritualized homosexuality in Tarf culture is the layers of homophobic denial
that so often accompany it and the ways in which women become a vehicle by
which the ritualized homosexuality is enacted.
Attitude surveys have consistently found high levels of homophobia among
the Tarf subculture-which is ironic when one considers that the Tarfs spend
virtually all their time together in their men's hut engaging in ritualized homo-
sexual activity. Since the Tarf males so evidently want to be with, and have sex
with, each other, we can only hope that they become active campaigners for
more tolerant attitudes and laws regarding homosexuality. Surely that is in their
interests as Tarts.
Second, we must register concern for the ways in which Tarf denial of
the obvious homoeroticism in their rituals leads to certain compensatory
efforts to demonstrate heterosexuality. Male heterosexual predatory sexual
behavior has been consistently remarked upon by observers of Nacirema life,
especially in its supmacs. While an overall decline in cultural homophobia
among the Nacirema in general might reduce such behavior, we also hope
that the acknowledgment of the manifest homosexual content of Tarf rituals
will enable T a r f ~ particularly, to relax their obsession with proving what they
are unable to prove.
Further, the specific fonns of ritualized homosexuality known as gnag gnabs
must be vigorously prosecuted as crimes. This is hardly a case of tart, being tarf"
or even of yobs being yobs. This requires the active illtervention of administrators
and other elders in the supmac.
Surely, now that the ritualized homosexuality ofrhe Tarfsubclliture has been
described. future researchers will be able to better understand rhe activities of this
strange and esoteric tribe.
73
ART I C L E 8 Ritualized Homosexuality in a Nacirema Subculture
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Kelly, R. 1977. Hero Sodal Sfmctm'. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
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Schieillin, E. L. 1976. 'l7te Sorrow ~ f tilt' LoI1!>fy and the Burning of the Dancers. New York:
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