The Meaning and Message of Symbolic Sexual Violence in Tukanoan Ritual

Tukanoan rituals involving symbolic physical violence towards women (metaphorical gang rape, ceremonial bride capture, and the death threat represented by Yurupari flutes) are analyzed in the context of Tukanoan social structure. It is argued that Tukanoan female symbols represent not only woman but also heterosexuality and affinity, and that since all three categories challenge Tukanoan cosmology's premise of male centrality, self-sufficiency, and invulnerability, females must at times be ritually depicted as needing to be controlled, punished, or banished. [sexual violence, lowland South America, ritual, gender roles]