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Featured: Caroline Islands [Palauans, Yapese, Trukese, Ponape, Ulithi, Ifaluk], Gilbert Isl., Marshall Isl.
“Carolinian marriages were formerly arranged
by the parents of the girl, and girls were married off very young, sometimes
even before the onset of menstruation. This is unusual now” (Joseph and
Murry, 1951:p75)[1]. “We were unable to get much
information regarding the prevalence of masturbation and other sex play among
children. All our informants were more or less evasive on the subject, which
they evidently did not consider a proper topic for discussion. They generally
appeared not to understand the question at first, then either flatly denied
the existence of such practices or said that if there were children who did
such things, they had never heard of them. This was, at least, revealing as
to the attitude of the adults” (p64). “Pre-adolescent masturbation and sex
interests were denied by our Carolinian informants as by the Chamorros, but their attitude toward these topics was
strikingly different. While the Chamorros were embarrased and evasive, the
Carolines could and did describe sexual practices in full detail and with
entire freedom” (p77). “A Carolinian informant stated homosexual relations
between older men and young boys occurred among Chamorros, but not among
Carolinians. We heard no reports of homosexuality among girls or women”
(p274).
Damm (1938:p189)[2] noted that on Faraulip coitus
should not be practised before marriage, “doch wird es jetzt zumindest nicht
sehr genau damit genommen. Das Coitieren […] wird beiden Geschlechtern
von den alten Leuten systematisch gelehrt”. On Sorol, a beard signified boy’s mariageability; in
girls, it was menarche (p267).
Sex is never discussed
before children, especially girls (Ford and Beach, 1951:p180)[3].
Janssen,
D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin:
Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology, Berlin
Last
revised: Sept 2004
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