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APINAYÉ(Brazil)
The Apinayé were
said to believe that defloration was a prerequisite to menarche (Nimuendajú, 1939:p75; Nimuendajú,
1946:p120-1)[1]. Thus,
“Oddly enough, the Apinayé are thoroughly convinced that menstruation is
impossible before defloration; its absolute prerequisite. […] references to a
maiden’s first menses among civilized neighbors are
met with derisive superciliousness. This view, incidentally, agrees with that
of the Canella. Of course, such a theory could persist only among a people
whose girls only exceptionally attain their first menses as virgins.
Actually, this holds for the contemporary Apinayé.
To marry off immature girls of ten or twelve is accordingly an ancient Apinayé custom, not an innovation. Among the Šere’nte this practice is an innovation” (N., 1939).
The Apinayé forbid
masturbation from infancy (Ford & Beach, 1951:p180)[2]. Nimuendajú
(1939:p74) relates that the Apinayé “declare that
masturbation must not be tolerated because it enfeebles young folk and unfits
them for log races. Guilty boys are recognized by the retractability
of the prepuce. How girls are detected, I do not know; I was merely told that
it was by the appearance of the genitalia”. At the log-race, boys are lined
up and punished severely if thus detected.
Janssen,
D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin:
Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology
Last
revised: Sept 2004
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