ON FEMALE PRESENCES AND ABSENCES IN HEAVENLY PLACES

James (Oceania 1991) criticizes some of my interpretive proposals on t he political ideology of ancient Tonga, claiming that my emphasis on p redominantly male relationships in the titular system reduces 'Polynes ian truths' to 'Freudian dogma'. James sees Tonga as a 'markedly bilat eral' rather than 'patrilineal' society, manifesting symptoms of Malin owski's 'matrilineal complex', particularly an incestuous fixation on the sister rather than the mother, correlated with the importance of t he brother/sister relationship in social structure, and the alleged tr ansmission of rank through females only. James attempts to find eviden ce for her claims in the origin myth of the titular system. I show tha t - contrary to her interpretation - no brother/sister incest can be f ound in this myth, where, moreover, the female presence is subdued and desexualized. My rejoinder raises issues of general anthropological i nterest in the realms of symbolism, gender, the analysis of political myth, and of the interrelationship of psychological and cultural proce sses.