%0 Journal Article
%T The Issue of Sex Relations in Australian Myths – the “Matryoshka Principle”
%A Szyjewski, Andrzej
%J Studia Religiologica
%V 2012
%R 10.4467/20844077SR.12.009.0825
%N Volume 45, Issue 2
%P 117-124
%K Australian Aborigines, mythology, Fertility Mother, Rainbow Serpent, gender relations, bull-roarer, initiation, gender symbols
%@ 0137-2432
%D 2012
%U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/studia-religiologica/article/problem-relacji-plciowych-w-mitach-australijskich-zasada-matrioszki
%X 
	This paper discusses the ambiguity of sex identity within Aboriginal mythology. Male/female relations are the main point of the well-known Wawilag Sisters myth from Arnhem Land, based on a series of equivalent mythical unions: the penis in the vagina (male in female) ≡the serpent in the hut (male in female) ≡Wawilag sisters pregnancy (male in female) ≡Wawilag sisters devoured by the serpent (female in male) ≡subincised penis (female in male). The effect of such equivalencies may be compared to a “matryoshka”doll: the male (child) is in the female (sisters) which is in the male (serpent), which in a way also renders the male symbols female (this is why the serpent is called “pregnant”). The basis of such a construction may be understood as the creation of a series of transformations male>female>male>female etc., which eventually leads to realisation of the exchange of female with male blood; their equipoise is necessary for initiation ceremonies.