Menstruater

Rhythm is the least efficient of the contraceptive methods thus far discussed, because of the variability of the menses even in regular menstruaters, […]

The menstruater is defiled and defiling because, as she bleeds, she strays beyond the socialized towards the realm of death.

Benedict announces the topic of girls' puberty by sketching various rites of passage that display dramatic practices of purity/pollution: first, Carrier Indians who figuratively bury alive novice menstruaters, isolating them for three years; second, Apache attitudes about first menses as occasions for supernatural sources of beneficial cure.