Manhood in the Making

What does it mean to "be a man" in different cultures around the world? Anthropologist David D. Gilmore explores this question in "a provocative, rewarding cross-cultural survey." (Publishers Weekly) In the first cross-cultural study of manhood as an achieved status, anthropologist David D. Gilmore finds that a culturally sanctioned stress on manliness-on toughness and aggressiveness, stoicism and sexuality-is almost universal, deeply ingrained in the consciousness of hunters and fishermen, workers and warriors, poets and peasants who have little else in common.