Index
Asia
SCCS:
Burmese:
2,2,3-,3-,4-,4-;2,2)
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BURMA
Index → Asia → Burma, Myanmar
In Burma “[m]arriages below [the age of
fifteen or sixteen] are not common, and child marriages […] never formed a
feature of the Burmese family system (Maung, 1963:p52)[1]. As for sexual education, “[m]ost
women in Yadaw had not had any instruction or advice from the senior
generation, and what sex lore they have is picked up through observation or
peer group talk and speculation” (Nash, 1965:p256)[2]. Children never see parents nude,
and the reverse appears to be prohibited after ages 12 to 13 (boys) or eight
to nine
(girls) (Spiro, 1986:p219)[3]. Children are not instructed but
observe parental intercourse in both urban and rural areas (p221-2). Parents are
ashamed to discuss sexual matters with their children, and children are told
babies drop from the sky or that a baby who likes a particular married couple
enters the stomach of that woman. Some villagers have their first sexual
experience with prostitutes. Young boys may also be initiated by unmarried
women, widows, and divorcées. Girls, unlike boys have no sexual outlet of any
kind, since premarital sex is “the worst possible stigma” (p223). Sex
training begins early. Infant genital handling is counteracted, a
masturbating child is warned or spanked, boys more than girls. “Children
sexual behavior, whether homosexual or heterosexual, also meets with a
spanking, either by parents (if seen in the home) or monks (if seen in the
monastic school). In addition, children are warned that such behavior will be
punished by rebirth in hell, by the loss of friends, by being hated by
others, and so on. If this is not enough, they may also be warned that sex
play leads to venereal disease, and boys may also be threatened with
castration. […] A boy may be threatened with castration for exposing his
penis in a monastery or a pagoda, or for urinating in the presence of others-
he is told to squat or cover his penis with his hand- or for insulting a
playmate by holding out his penis and saying he will copulate with the
latter’s mother. Children are scolded for using other obscenities, and, if
they persist, they may be spanked” (p220-1). At twelve or thirteen, children
are prohibited from playing or being alone together, punished by spanking.
Burmese babies’ nipples are squeezed “to
prevent her from having a large bosom” (Brant and Khaing, 1951:p447)[4]. “Apart from modern legal ideas
concerning the attainment of adulthood, the Burmese view is one is adult when
physiologically mature. Upon reaching pubescence boys as well as girls are
referred to by a term meaning “virgin”. The connotation is that the
individual has now entered a period of life in which the dangers of
temptation are especially great and in which corresponding precautions are
necessary”. Such phenomena as eruption of the skin or sexually delinquent
behaviour preceding the first menstrual period are regarded as evidence that
the “blood is trying to flow”.
Leach (1954
[1970:p133])[5], writing about the Kachin, states that by the
time puberty is reached youth and maiden “[…] are regularly sleeping
together, but courtship and flirtation is carried on in groups rather than by
individuals”; marriage occurs in late teenage.
Among the Burma Karen people, “[c]hild betrothals
were not uncommon in early days” (Marshall, 1922:p176-7)[6].
The children might not know of the arrangement until “later on” (marriage was
to take place in early adulthood). Adolescent life seems to have been
characterised by chastity and etiquette.
Janssen,
D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin:
Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology
Last
revised: Dec 2004
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