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CASHINAHUA(Eastern Peru, Brazil)
Also featured: Sharanahua, Machiguenga, Shipibo, Amahuaca;
®Aymara
Kesinger (1995:p79-80)[1] states that children learn from
direct observation and via the gossip of adults. Coitus is observed
frequently, “a fact that is amply demonstrated in their play, much to the
amusement of the watching adults”. Children are taken by their mothers to
their [mothers’] erotic adventures.
“Prepubescent boys frequently gave
me explicit descriptions of sexual activity they observed while play hunting
in the areas frequented by lovers. Both boys and girls are enjoined from
having sex before they have completed the month-long initiation rites, which
are held at roughly five-year intervals, when the initiates are between nine
and thirteen years old. My data indicate that they behave as expected. Most
girls marry shortly after initiation and begin having sexual intercourse well
before their first menses. Boys frequently are taught the techniques of
seduction and sexual intercourse by older women of the kin class xanu, including
older brother’s wife, father’s father’s brother’s
wife, and father’s mother. They become sexually active as soon as their
hunting skills permit them to compete for lovers with adult male hunters, but
they are frequently warned to limit their sexual activity until they are
older lest it inhibit both their physical growth and the development of their
skills as hunters. I never witnessed any masturbatory or other sexual play as
described by Jacques Lizot (1985)[[2]] for the Yanomami.
Although the Cashinahua have terms (actually
descriptive phrases) for male and female masturbation, terms they say they
borrowed from the neighbouring Marinahua, they
insist that such practices are unnecessary because sexual partners are
readily available”.
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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