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ARAUCANIANS (Chile,
Argentina)
Sister Hilger (1957)[1] states that child betrothal was
rare, in which case marriage would be delayed till fifteen (p329, 389). Hilger
(1957) has no arguments on child sexuality. Among the Argentine Araucanians,
a girl is prepared for menarche, but not explained its purpose. (p293).
“Neither boys not girls were given sex instructions. Speaking of sex matters
was practically taboo. “We would not talk about it; it was too delicate. Things
were very strict formerly. A girl of 20 years old knew nothing about sex;
today very young girls know everything they should not know [ch. Chippeway].
Formerly, if a young man touched a girl, like putting his hands on hers of
holding hers, his father had to make a payment in animals to the girl’s
father”. In rare instances, however, a mother or a gandmother told the girl
the purpose of menstruation” (p292). At menarche, girls are secluded; boy’s
pubescence is not ritually marked.
Thus, among the Araucanians of Chile, girls
are not instructed about sex or menarche (p57), and there are no puberty
rites for either sex. Children among themselves are said to be “modest” (p57,
244).
The Mapuche feel that premarital sexual
experimentation is “natural and even desirous”, but also urge their children
to settle down to married life after a few years’ sexual freedom (Faron,
1968:p40)[2]. At age twelve a boy may be told about
“manhood” and the rules of marriage. Faron (1961:p157-9)[3] states that senior members of
children’s play groups act as “[…] founts of information about sexual
matters. By and large, these groups are composed of closely related
youngsters who are members of the same lineage and who tend not to engage in
sexual experimentation among themselves, although they discuss sexual matters
avidly. Children are aware of their parents’ sex activities and occasion make
lewd reference to them among their peers. […] Parents do not inform young
children about sex and its functions and, indeed, there seems no appreciable
difference in this knowing between adolescents and their elders. […] very
little information about sexual functions passes directly from father to son.
Mothers usually advise their daughters at the onset of their first menses
with regard to bodily cleanliness and the care of soiled garments, but again
little or nothing about sexual activity is transmitted from mother to
unmarried daughter”. Nevertheless, “[p]remarital sexual activity is expected
to begin at about the onset of puberty, though parents restrict their
children’s opportunity for sexuality in an attempt to keep it within
respectable bounds. […] Sexual intercourse is often first experienced by boys
during early adolescence, while still attending school. For most girls,
however, it is said that this experience comes a few years later and usually
under the guise of courtship”.
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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