Cross-Cultural Research / February 2000

Jankowiak, Ramsey / FEMME FATALE

Femme Fatale and
Status Fatale: A Cross-
Cultural Perspective

William Jankowiak
Angela Ramsey

University of Nevada–Las Vegas

This article presents the results of a cross-cultural survey of 78 cul-
tures that documented (through the use of folklore, ethnographic
accounts, and interviews with ethnographers) the presence or ab-
sence of a femme fatale (a dangerous woman), and a “status fatale”
(a dangerous man). We found that 94% of the cultures had images
of a femme fatale, whereas only 42% of the sampled cultures had
images of a status fatale. Our sample revealed that emotional in-
volvement, rather than sexual gratification, was the primary moti-
vation for becoming involved with a stranger who possessed quali-
ties deemed culturally most desirable in the opposite sex. The
significance of the findings is related to contemporary debates in
evolutionary psychology and cultural anthropology.

57

Authors’ Note: The following individuals assisted in the collection of the
data used in preparing this report: Teresa Bradley, Helen Spauling, Todd
White, and all the students in the 1997 Spring Honors seminar class taught
at UNLV. We thank Jim Bell, Carol Ember, Lee Monroe, Ray Hames,
Barry Hewlett, Holly Mathews, Eliot Oring, Gary Palmer, Paul Shapiro,
Elizabeth Whitt, and two anonymous reviewers for commenting on an ear-
lier version of this article. We especially would like to thank Melvin Ember
for his suggestions.

Cross-Cultural Research, Vol. 34 No. 1, February 2000 57-69
© 2000 Sage Publications, Inc.

A recurrent theme in the Old Testament, Western literature, tele-
vision, and film is the seductive female or femme fatale. From Bib-
lical sirens such as Delilah, Bathshaeba, and Salome, to more con-
temporary embodiments such as Marlene Dietrich (in the film,
Blue Angel), Joan Collins (Alexis of the television show Dynasty),
and Heather Locklear (Amanda of the television show Melrose
Place), the fatale prototype is portrayed as an active agent who
uses physical attractiveness, intelligence, and guile to dominate
and often destroy husbands and lovers. In contrast to the femme
fatale or dangerous woman motif, there is the male equivalent, or
“status fatale,” who relies less upon physical appearance and more
on displaying the markings of social success that disguise an evil
essence. Like the femme fatale character, the status fatale is a per-
vasive image in Western literature. From the historical Casanova,
to the mythic Don Juan, to Hollywood’s remaking of the silent-film
version of the Dracula myth, leading male characters have been
portrayed as strangers who are attractive and in possession of the
markings that signify social distinction. The main purpose of this
article is to document the frequency of the fatale motif around the
world, based on our survey of 78 cultures. We also discuss the
asymmetry in the images—beauty in the female, status in the
male. Finally, we explore some of the correlates of the varying fa-
tale motifs.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Explanations for the dangerous woman, who may be old or

young, a neighbor or a stranger, range from structural (Collier &
Rosaldo, 1981; Hays, 1988; Herdt, 1981; Ortner, 1978) to psycho-
analytical (Barnouw, 1985; Lipset, 1997) to evolutionary (Smuts,
1992). However, no one has explored whether there is a corre-
sponding image of the dangerous male (or status fatale), or docu-
mented the frequency in which the fatale motif is found around the
world. Given the lack of research, it is difficult to determine
whether a particular motif is restricted to a given region, linked to
a culture’s social complexity, or representative of a cultural or
human universal. Moreover, most of this theoretically driven
analysis focuses almost exclusively on the cultural meaning of the
dangerous woman motif, while ignoring the theoretical implica-
tions of the dangerous man motif.

58

Cross-Cultural Research / February 2000

Cultural explanations for the notion of the dangerous woman

have sought to explore male anxiety within an analytical frame-
work that assumes (without documentation) that male anxiety
and hostility toward women is a cultural universal, the intensity of
which varies depending upon a society’s degree of complexity. Ort-
ner (1978) aptly summarizes this perspective when she notes that
in egalitarian societies “women are generally considered danger-
ous to men, but in state-level [more socially stratified] societies,
they are said to be in danger from men, which justifies male protec-
tion and guardianship” (p. 27). Ortner does not elaborate upon the
source of the danger; the implication is that in egalitarian societies
the danger arises out of generalized fears of female sexuality,
whereas in more stratified societies the notion of the dangerous
woman reflects the importance of protecting family honor via the
control and regulation of female behavior (Ortner, 1981). Concur-
ring, Collier and Rosaldo (1981) believe that the origins of the dan-
gerous woman arose out of male-male sexual competition that
threatened male solidarity. Their model of the dominant—albeit
anxious—male holds that women’s sexuality makes them a source
of danger to men in two respects: (a) as a source of cuckoldry and
(b) as a source of male temptation to adultery that in turn threat-
ens male solidarity by creating conflict between men (Smuts,
1992, p. 25).

Smuts (1992) sought to synthesize Ortner’s (1978) cultural posi-

tion by combining it with an evolutionary framework that empha-
sizes the differential survival and reproductive strategies of males
and females (Buss, 1992; Symons, 1979; Townsend, 1998). Smuts
believes that male sexual anxiety, and thus the cultural projection
of fear of the dangerous woman, arises from sex differences in male
and female reproductive interests and the strategies used to
achieve those interests. In these societies, she adds, “women are
often portrayed as dangerous and polluting, and it is their sexual-
ity that makes it so” (Smuts, 1992, p. 25). Although neither Smuts
nor Ortner comments upon whether women may have related
anxieties about men’s behavior, we suspect they would agree that
women are also capable of similar cultural projections toward men.
In this way, gender anxiety is pan-human. By the same token, nei-
ther the cultural model nor the evolutionary model as presently
developed explores other possible motivations that may account
for the pervasiveness of male and female anxiety toward the oppo-
site sex.

Jankowiak, Ramsey / FEMME FATALE

59

From an evolutionary psychological perspective, it is assumed

that men desire nubile, physically attractive women, whereas
women prefer men who will obtain or have obtained some level of
social distinction (Buss, 1992; Symons, 1979; Townsend, 1998). If
the sex differences found in mate-selection criteria are manifesta-
tions of underlying erotic differences, it would follow that there
may be underlying concerns about being emotionally manipu-
lated, publicly humiliated, or physically harmed by what one most
desires in the opposite sex.

METHOD

We drew our data primarily from Murdock and White’s (1969)

standard cross-cultural sample (SCCS) of 186 societies, supple-
menting it where necessary with more recent ethnographic (e.g.,
Chagnon, 1992; Gregor, 1985; Lindholm, 1982; Tuzin, 1994) and his-
torical (e.g., Bascom, 1975; McLaren, 1994) sources. Because few
ethnographers comment upon the dangerous woman or male motif,
we relied almost entirely upon folklore to document the presence
or absence of femme fatale or status fatale in a given culture. We
did not sample, but rather read every available story.

Because many ethnographies did not explore a culture’s emo-

tional domain, the information on deep-seated anxieties and suspi-
cions is often thin or nonexistent for a given society. We therefore
relied on folklore, often collected by nonanthropologists, as our pri-
mary way to document the presence or absence of underlying fears
and misgivings toward the opposite sex (Cohen, 1990; McClelland,
1961). In addition, folktales are often morality tales that “motivate
behavior both because they are consciously employed in natural
settings to enjoin people to avoid certain dire consequences, and
because they show how ordinary actors may plausibly lead to the
very consequences they enjoin” (Mathews, 1992, p. 159). They con-
stitute, therefore, a rich source for documenting the prevalence of a
particular cultural theme.

We decided to rely upon folklore collections as our primary,

albeit not exclusive, means to document a culture’s awareness and
response to the dangerous woman/dangerous man image. We found
that the quantity of tales varied greatly between cultural areas.
For instance, the cultural areas of the Mediterranean, North Amer-
ica, South America, and East Asia have the most comprehensive

60

Cross-Cultural Research / February 2000

folklore collections. The Insular Pacific and sub-Saharan African
cultural areas, on the other hand, have the least comprehensive
collections. This presented problems with our sample. It would
have been ideal if every sampled culture had a comprehensive folk-
lore collection. From a data source of that size, we could have read-
ily determined whether a particular motif was truly present or
absent. However, this was seldom the case. Many cultures, espe-
cially those in the Insular Pacific and sub-Saharan Africa, often
had no more than five available folklore tales. Rather than drop
them from the sample, which would have meant dropping an addi-
tional 21 cultures, we decided to include in our sample any culture
that had at least one fatale motif. Significantly, in only 2 of the 21
cultures that had five or less tales did we fail to find evidence of a
fatale motif. In contrast, in only 3 (e.g., Utes, Ge, and Black Carib)
of 55 cultures that had 100 or more tales did we find no fatale motif.

Whenever possible, an ethnographer who had worked with a

sample population was questioned about the presence or absence
of stories, proverbs, or folk understandings describing the femme
fatale or status fatale motif. Some of these people were contacted
by phone (e.g., Thomas Gregor, personal communication, 1997;
Philip Kilbride, personal communication, 1997; Charles Lindholm,
personal communication, 1997), some by e-mail (e.g., Barry Hew-
lett, personal communication, March, 1997), and some were inter-
viewed at a professional meeting (e.g., Richard Lee, personal com-
munication, 1997; Nancy Mullenix, personal communication,
1997; Gary Palmer, personal communication, 1997; Helen Regis,
personal communication, 1997). Utilizing these outside sources, we
were able to expand our sample to 78 societies.

Definition of Fatale and Its Attributes

We assumed that cultures value physical attractiveness and

social distinction and thus have stories noting positive outcomes
arising from encountering individuals who possessed these
desired attributes. What we wanted to determine was whether any
cultures caution against an individual indiscriminately pursuing
someone who has these admired attributes. The femme fatale or
dangerous woman motif was coded as present if the tale implicitly
or explicitly noted that someone suffered in some way due to
involvement with a physically attractive female. A male beauty
fatale was coded as present if suffering resulted from contact with

Jankowiak, Ramsey / FEMME FATALE

61

a physically attractive male. The tale was considered to have a
status fatale motif if it noted that someone suffered as a result of
his or her involvement with a person of social distinction.

In addition to examining the universality of the femme fatale

and status fatale motif, we also wanted to test the Ortner (1978)
and Smuts (1992) hypothesis that the manifestation of the danger-
ous woman motif varies by the degree of social stratification. We
therefore clustered our sample into two categories: egalitarian and
stratified. If the stratification hypothesis is correct, we should find
more femme fatales in egalitarian societies than in stratified socie-
ties, and we should find fewer status fatales in egalitarian than in
stratified societies. Societies were classified as egalitarian if all
persons of a given age or sex category had equal access to economic
resources, power, and prestige, whereas they were classified as
stratified if there was unequal access to status positions and
prestige.

The motivation for becoming involved with a stranger was coded

as sexual, romantic, or both. Sexual desire was coded as present if
the encounter was brief and did not result in a long-term associa-
tion. Love was coded as present if the encounter resulted in mar-
riage, some form of long-term association, or the presence of a deep
attachment was noted. If the story noted the presence of sex and
love together, we coded both motivations as present. If the tale did
not mention love or sex, or was unclear about duration, it was
coded as not clear.

Coding reliability was ensured by having two graduate students

independently read the accounts and record whether the context
illustrated a person’s humiliation or death due to contact with
either an attractive or prestigious woman or man. Discrepancies
were reanalyzed and recorded; in three instances, consensus could
not be established through discussion, and the sample society was
dropped from the study.

DISCUSSION

The femme fatale motif was nearly universal in the cultures

examined (73 out of 78 cultures, or 94%), much more common than
the male beauty fatale (n = 20 out of 78, or 26%), and the status
fatale (n = 25 out of 50 cultures, or 50%). We did not find a single
story that dealt with a female status fatale.

62

Cross-Cultural Research / February 2000

Overall, we found that all the fatales are clustered around a per-

sona that embodies what, from an evolutionary perspective
(Symons, 1979), is presumably the most erotically desirable in the
opposite sex. For men, it is physical attractiveness, and for women,
it is evidence of social standing. In addition, the fatale characters
are overwhelmingly active agents of manipulation. This is consis-
tent with Smuts’s (1992) suggestion that the dangerous woman or
femme fatale motif stems less from societal factors and more from
underlying bio-psychological proclivities that are muted or inten-
sified depending upon the social context.

To provide a more revealing illustration of our findings, eight

ethnographic examples are presented below to highlight the anxi-
ety, romantic expectations, and conflict that are recurrent themes
in the fatale folktales. Indigenous representations of femme fatale
can be found in the first four examples.

1.

The pursuit of a beautiful woman may result in serious problems
that range from humiliation to death. In the Southern Nigeria Ibo
tale, “A Pretty Stranger Who Killed A King,” a man falls for a strik-
ingly pretty woman who is really a witch in disguise; after falling
asleep she cuts off his head (Bascom, 1975, p. 33).

2.

In South America, among the Mocovi Indians, there are numerous
“Fox as Trickster” tales that deal with a fox who transforms itself
into a woman for the sake of seduction. The man who is the object of
the seduction and/or other characters who serve as obstacles to the
seduction (object’s wife, parents, etc.) are often destroyed by the
fox/woman (Wilbert & Simonean, 1988, pp. 160-161).

3.

The Australian Aborigines believe that there are spirits who live in
the water who can assume the shape of a pretty woman “who will
sing all day and night sweetheart songs as they lay on rock places
like the crocodile do in cold weather time. . . . [It is assumed that
once a man hears their magic-songs], he must go to that water-girl
who will hold him with her finger like crab till him dead” (Harney,
1959, p. 40).

4.

The male anxiety over wanting yet fearing that which they desire is
a familiar theme in Chinese literature. There are many well-known
and popular stories involving a fox fairy or spirit (hulijin) who
takes the form of a beautiful woman in order to seduce and then kill
her lover. Chinese young men often tease one another that a par-
ticularly beautiful woman might be a fox fairy. As such, these sto-
ries constitute cautionary tales that remind men that beautiful
women can be potentially dangerous (Jankowiak, 1993, p. 183).

5.

The image of the male beauty and status fatale is illustrated in the
Dinka tale, “Ngor and the Girls.” Ngor, who is extremely handsome

Jankowiak, Ramsey / FEMME FATALE

63

as well as skilled in dancing and ritual chanting, attracts girls so
strongly that they impose themselves on him, dance with him,
accompany him, and sleep with him. In the end, he eats them all,
leaving only their heads (Deng, 1974, p. 168).

6.

The combination of the male beauty and status fatale is found in
the Southern Nigerian Hausa story, “The Disobedient Daughter
Who Married A Skull.” In the tale, a young woman is frightened
and publicly humiliated when she is attracted to a very handsome
stranger who turns out to be a being from the spirit world who
wants to eat her (Bascom, 1975, p. 59).

7.

A representation of intentional trickery sometimes used by a status
fatale is found in the Hindu tale, “Shall I Show You My Real Face?”
In the tale, a tiger takes the shape of a learned and respected Brah-
man who is able to marry villagers’ daughters who are impressed
with his knowledge. In the end, these girls are humiliated after
their offspring turns out to be tiger cubs (Ramanujan, 1991).

8.

Another example of a status fatale is found in the Eskimo tale of the
“Raven Who Married the Arrogant Girl Who Refused Men.” In this
story, a young, attractive girl suffers when she chooses to follow her
own romantic inclinations and ignore the advice of her parents.
After stubbornly refusing various marriage proposals by her
numerous suitors, she meets a well-dressed stranger bearing gifts
and accepts his offer to marry. She quickly is plunged into despair,
however, when she discovers that her husband is not a human
being, but a raven who lives high up on a rock. Amidst sobs, she
runs away from her husband, and it is said that since the experi-
ence she has lost her arrogance and has married the first man who
came to the settlement asking for her (Boas, 1964, pp. 157-158).

Although our data lend some validation to our theoretical

“Smuts-Ortner model,” it is noteworthy that the “man as sexual
predator” theme is not more pervasive in our sample findings. As
noted, only 25 out of 50, or 50%, of complex societies have stories
involving a status fatale. Perhaps the status fatale stories reflect
less the concerns of a senior generation’s attempts at socialization
and more the individual’s fear of being misled by blindly following
his or her impulses.

Men, due perhaps to their ability to idealize physical attractive-

ness, are much quicker to become involved with a stranger who is
attractive. Thus, 20 out of 78, or 26% of the femme fatale stories
involve encounters with women who are unaware of (or indifferent
to) a male’s interest (see Table 1). From an evolutionary perspec-
tive, this may reflect an underlying sex difference in how men and
women respond to an encounter with an unfamiliar member of the

64

Cross-Cultural Research / February 2000

opposite sex.

1

The literature notes that for females, the dominant

response to an unfamiliar male is an assessment of threat or dan-
ger (Linder, Lewis, & Kenrick, 1995), whereas the more typical
response for males to an unfamiliar female is an increase in sexual
attraction (Allen, Kenrick, Linder, & McCall, 1989; Dutton & Aron,
1974; Kenrick & Johnson, 1979). This sex difference may account
for the scarcity of the passive agent (or unintentional fatale; n = 2
out of 33, or 6%) compared to the active agent (or intentional status
fatale; n = 31 out of 33, or 94%). If the male becomes injured in his
pursuit of the woman, it is entirely due to his blind obsession, and
not her manipulation. In contrast, there are only two cases in which
a woman blindly pursues a male beauty or status fatale, reinforc-
ing the notion of a different sexual aesthetic for men and women.

Sex-linked criteria may also account for the relative infre-

quency of folktales portraying men as pursued solely for their
physical appearance. If we compare egalitarian and state-level
societies, we find that only 25% (7 out of 28) of the egalitarian socie-
ties and 26% (13 out of 50) of the state-level societies are concerned
with the dangers of becoming involved with a good-looking
stranger. However, the occurrence of a male beauty fatale (n = 18
out of 20, or 90%) appears to be localized and restricted primarily
to tropical environments, with 16 of the tales found in sub-Saharan
Africa. Physical attractiveness in this context may represent
something other than a desire for physical attractiveness in and of

Jankowiak, Ramsey / FEMME FATALE

65

TABLE 1

Status Fatale and Social Complexity

n

%

Egalitarian

7 of 28

25

Complex

25 of 50

50

Total

33 of 78

42

TABLE 2

Male Beauty Fatale

n

%

Egalitarian

7 of 28

25

Complex

13 of 50

26

Total

20 of 78

25.6

itself. In these regions, symmetrical appearance and healthy skin
tone imply good health. Perhaps a “good looking” man in the trop-
ics, where there is a higher occurrence of parasitic infections, is
representative of good health or, in this context, a status object.
Here, physical attractiveness is an index of social well being. On
the other hand, the relative absence of male beauty fatale stories
(n = 2) in other tropical environments, suggests that this type of
fatale is restricted to sub-Saharan culture, and thus should be
regarded as an artifact of culture and not biology (Barry Hewlett,
personal communication, March, 1997).

The Smuts-Ortner model suggest that the origins of male anxi-

ety toward women stem from the desire to control female sexual
behavior. However, if you look at the motives attributed in the sto-
ries for a person’s involvement with a stranger of the opposite sex,
54 out of 60 (90%) of the stories (where the motivation could be
determined) involve emotional involvement beyond sexual gratifi-
cation.

3

This finding suggests that the origins of the cultural pro-

jection of the femme fatale may reflect a fear of becoming emotion-
ally damaged rather than just a fear of inappropriate sexual or
social encounters. Moreover, this finding is consistent with the
research on the pervasiveness of romantic love cross-culturally
(Jankowiak & Fisher, 1992) that found evidence of romantic pas-
sion in 89.5% of all sample cultures.

The low number of stories (n = 6) that name the pursuit of sexual

gratification as the primary reason for involvement could repre-
sent a translation bias or self-censorship on the part of the story-
tellers. However, the same thing could be said about love stories. It
is significant that given this bias, there are more love stories than
sex stories. This would seem to indicate that the cautionary tales
are warnings against emotional attachments rather than against
unfortunate sexual acts (see Table 3).

CONCLUSION

Our findings reveal that the female seducer, and, to a lesser

extent, the male seducer, is found in folktales around the globe.
The seducers seem incapable of love or are portrayed as willfully
using the love experience to manipulate and dominate the lover.
Cultures recognize the horrific danger of such an encounter; there
are often tales that depict these encounters as leading to

66

Cross-Cultural Research / February 2000

destruction and chaos. By perpetuating these tales, cultures can
instruct their members how to avoid romantic manipulation and,
more importantly, how to recognize authentic human affection.

The Smuts-Ortner model of cultural complexity and sex-linked

reproductive strategies may account for the transformation in
men’s and women’s posturing toward the opposite sex, but they are
not sufficient to account for the origins of the underlying anxiety
that gives rise to the fatale tales found around the world. Whether
the concern is with physical beauty or social distinction, our study
shows that the predominant motive for becoming involved with
another is as much about emotional attachment as it is sexual ful-
fillment. Our study suggests that what human beings around the
world fear is the prospect of becoming emotionally involved with
someone who does not share or reciprocate their sentiments. At the
level of individual psychology, this suggests that the anxieties are
not unique to one gender, but rather are similar for both.

Notes

1. Ethnocentrism and the sexual encounter involve two different

processes. First, there is the fear of the stranger; second, there is a sexual
attraction to novelty, especially physical attractiveness (Don Brown, per-
sonal communication, June, 1997). For men, this may heighten the excite-
ment, whereas for women it may reduce it.

2. Anthropology texts often note that some cultures have a male-

castration complex. By not offering an alternative explanation, however,
it is often tacitly implied that the male fear of castration is cross-culturally
ubiquitous. Although we did not specifically look for tales of castration, it
is significant that out of 78 sample cultures, only 1, Yanomamo, dealt with
sexual castration (Chagnon, 1992). Our findings suggest that the male
castration complex, at least as it is manifested in a culture’s folklore, is a
localized rather than pan-human concern.

Jankowiak, Ramsey / FEMME FATALE

67

TABLE 3

Motives for Involvement

Sex

Love

Both

Not Clear

Femme fatale

3

16

19

34

Status fatale

3

6

13

11

Male beauty fatale

1

7

2

10

Total

7

29

24

55

References

Allen, J. B., Kenrick, D. T., Linder, D. E., & McCall, M. A. (1989, July).

Arousal and attraction: A response-facilitation alternative to misattri-
bution and negative reinforcement models. Paper presented at the Hu-
man Behavior and Evolution Conference, Santa Barbara, CA.

Barnouw, V. (1985). Culture and personality (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wad-

sworth.

Bascom, W. (1975). African dilemma tales. Chicago: Mouton Publishers;

The Hague Press.

Boas, F. (1964). The central Eskimo. Lincoln: University of Nebraska.
Buss, D. (1992). The evolution of desire. New York: Basic Books.
Chagnon, N. (1992). Yanomamo. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Cohen, A. (1990). A cross-cultural study of the effects of environmental un-

predictability on aggression in folktale. American Anthropologist, 92,
474-479.

Collier, J. F., & Rosaldo, M. Z. (1981). Politics and gender in simple socie-

ties. In S. B. Ortner & H. Whitehead (Eds.), Sexual meanings: The cul-
tural construction of gender and sexuality (pp. 275-329). Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press.

Deng, F. (1974). Dinka folktales. New York: Africana.
Dutton, D. G., & Aron, A. P. (1974). Some evidence for heightened sexual

attraction under conditions of high anxiety. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 30(4), 510-517.

Gregor, T. (1985). Anxious pleasures. Chicago: University of Chicago

Press.

Harney, B. (1959). Tales from the Aborigines. London: Robert Hale

Limited.

Hays, T. (1988). Myths of matriarchy and the sacred flute complex of the

Papua New Guinea highlands. In D. Gewertz (Ed.), Myths of matriarchy
reconsidered (pp. 98-119). Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney
Press.

Herdt, G. (1981). Guardians of the flutes. New York: McGraw Hill.
Jankowiak, W. (1993). Sex, death and hierarchy in a Chinese city. New

York: Columbia University Press.

Jankowiak, W., & Fisher, T. (1992). Cross-cultural perspective on roman-

tic love. Ethnology, 31, 149-156.

Kenrick, D. T., & Johnson, G. A. (1979). Interpersonal attraction in aver-

sive environments: A problem for the classical conditioning paradigm.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 572-579.

Linder, D., Lewis, B., & Kenrick, D. (1995, July). The arousal-attraction

relationship revisited: An evolutionary interpretation of empirical gen-
der differences. Paper presented at the Human Behavioral and Evolu-
tionary Society Meetings, Santa Barbara, CA.

Lindholm, C. (1982). Generosity and jealousy. New York: Columbia Uni-

versity Press.

Lipset, D. (1997). Mangrove man. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University

Press.

68

Cross-Cultural Research / February 2000

Mathews, H. (1992). The directive force of morality tales in a Mexican

community. In R. d’Andrade and C. Strauss (Eds.), Human motives and
cultural models.

McClelland, D. (1961). The achieving society. Princeton, NJ: Van Nos-

trand.

McLaren, A. (1994). The Chinese femme fatale. Sydney, Australia: The

University of Sydney.

Murdock, G. P., & White, D. (1969). Standard cross-cultural sample. Eth-

nology, 8, 329-369.

Ortner, S. B. (1978). The virgin and the state. Feminist Studies, 4, 19-37.
Ortner, S. B. (1981). Gender and sexuality in hierarchical societies: The

case of Polynesia and some comparative implications. In S. B. Ortner &
H. Whitehead (Eds.), Sexual meanings: The cultural construction of
gender and sexuality (pp. 275-329). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press.

Ramanujan, A. K. (1991). Folktales from India: A selection from twenty-

two languages. New York: Pantheon.

Smuts, B. (1992). Male aggression against women. Human Nature, 3(1),

1-44.

Symons, D. (1979). Human sexuality. New York: Oxford University Press.
Townsend, J. (1998). What women want—what men want. New York: Ox-

ford University Press.

Tuzin, D. (1994). The forgotten passion: Sexuality and anthropology in the

ages of Victorian Bronislaw. Journal of the History of Behavioral Sci-
ence, 9, 114-135.

Wilbert, J., & Simonean, K. (Eds.). (1988). Folk literature of the Mocovi In-

dians. Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center Publications.

William Jankowiak is an associate professor of anthropology at the Uni-
versity of Nevada, Las Vegas. He received his Ph.D. from the University of
California, Santa Barbara. He has conducted extensive field research in
China, Inner Mongolia, and North America. He is the author of numerous
scientific publications, including Romantic Passion, (Columbia University
Press, 1996) and Sex, Death, and Hierarchy in a Chinese City, (Columbia
University Press, 1993). He is presently working on a book focusing on sac-
rifice and affection in a contemporary American polygamous community.

Angela Ramsey earned her master’s degree in anthropology at the Univer-
sity of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1998. She is presently rewriting for publica-
tion her master’s thesis; it explored how strippers use a type of performance
psychology to overcome culturally inspired inhibitions.

Jankowiak, Ramsey / FEMME FATALE

69