When Men Are Women: Manhood Among the Gabra Nomads of East Africa

by John Colman Wood

In this fascinating exploration of the cultural models of manhood, When Men Are Women examines the unique world of the nomadic Gabra people, a camel-herding society in northern Kenya. Gabra men... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0299165949
• ISBN13: 9780299165949
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Very Interesting Piece of the Gabra Tradition, Probably Lacking One Crucial Insight

I read the assumingly original paperback edition of 1999. It is based on altogether 22 months of fieldwork done between 1991 and 1993 among the Gabra camel-herders, who live in Kenya and Ethiopia. The book offers 225 regular text pages, including almost 20 monochrome pictures. The title suggests a focus on gender studies. About a most unusual concept. It is not about men who dress like women. Not about men who behave like women. And not about men fulfilling any of the same functions as women. I don't blame you, should you ask, what may possibly be left. Well, John Colman Wood needs more than 200 pages to explain that, but in a nutshell: certain men supplement women, retaining the blurry distinction between addition and replacement. To use the vocabulary of the author. In prayers and blessings they are said to "give birth" to Gabra tradition, once they have become "d'abella". Which all men become, should they get old enough. In other words, the d'abella tradition is an institutionalized part of religion. Hence d'abella are not female, but women. Many rules apply to them which do not apply to anyone else. You may have figured out by now that reading a review does not enlighten as much as reading the book itself. About men giving birth in this non-transgender context, please read Pregnant Man (Social Orders) about a similiar concept in medieval Europe. Which marks the final threshold of patriarchy usurping power from matriarchy by symbolically transferring the birth concept, which was necessary for legitimacy of power. John C. Wood does NOT go into this notion, which seems to be obvious as he explains that Gabra men denigrate women and feminine things, yet regard their most prestigious men as women. That's why I have subtracted one star from the otherwise well-written book. You may also be interested in Nigeria's Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in an African Society and Women Who Become Men: Albanian Sworn Virgins (Dress, Body, Culture), both of which deal with gender peculiarities in the battles of patriarchy.