Heteronormativity and the deflection of male same-sex attraction among the Pitjantjatjara people of Australia's Western Desert

This paper describes findings from fieldwork conducted among Pitjantjatjara tribespeople of Central Australia between 1989 and 1997. The study examined the impact of a distinctive gender system and practices of masculinity, particularly sexual and ritual practices, on the risk of contracting sexually transmissible infections and other blood-borne diseases. The research was designed as an ethnography of masculinity, conducted via participant observation, life history interviews, ritual analysis, and critical reflection on the work of early ethnographers. The paper presents selected field data, examined in the light of early twentieth century anthropological description of Pitjantjatjara sexuality. It identifies a systematic deflection of male same-sex attraction away from possible resolution through sexual practices between men. Key components of this deflection are the ritual construction of a culturally distinctive masculinity, the inextricable linkage between masculinity rites and the system for arranging marriages, and the cultural coding of the penis during ritual. The paper concludes that although men may feel erotic attraction for each other, the gender and kinship systems of the Pitjantjatjara conspire to limit completely the possibilities for the physical, sexual expression of this attraction. The findings reported here add to our understanding of the cultural basis of heteronormativity.