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See
also: Rotuman
Child betrothal has
already been discussed. On the LauIslands, Fiji, “[u]p to
the age of eleven or twelve no special attention is paid to the sex life of
children except that the speaking tabu is enforced between brothers and
sisters and parallel cousins of opposite sex. Apparently many girls as well
as boys masturbate, and young mothers who are nursing babies- and hence
forbidden sexual intercourse- occasionally do so also. According to the girls
themselves, homosexual relationships among girls are not rare. These
relationships usually begin by imitation of other girls before a girl’s first
menstruation” (Thompson, 1940a:p47-8)[1].
If a girl had sexual intercourse either before or during the tattooing period
of about a year (begun shortly after a girl’s first menstruation by a female
who “felt the patient’s thighs to determine whether or not the girl was ready
for the operation”), the operation would be more painful and the wounds would
require more time to heal than otherwise (Thompson, 1940b)[2].
Since boys could not play in mixed groups, “[t]he only emotional outlets for
boys of this age is in masturbation and homosexual relations with other pilos
(prepuberty boys)”[3].
Schidlof (1908:p9-10)[4]
speaks of “recht vorzeitige Geschlechtsbetätigung, die aus Kinder Mütter und
aus jungen Frauen Hexen macht” [genuinely premature sexual indulgence, that
makes mothers of children and witches out of young women].
A girl enters
womanhood through the four-day cohabitation
ritual, resulting from an elopement (Turner, 1986:[p35])[5]. The
“weak”, “formless” and “socially immature” girl is thus “given a socially
approved shape when a senior man instructs her in how to behave as a wife, as
a woman. It is then that the girl, incapable of self-governing behavior, is
turned into a responsible woman” ([p40-2]). Not even ending with marriage,
the entire matagali is concerned
about the girl’s sexual conduct; especially the brother is to watch her
moves.
Additional
refs:
·
Abramson, A. (1987) Beyond the
Samoan controversy in anthropology: a history of sexuality in the eastern
interior of Fiji,
in Caplan, P. (Ed.) The Cultural
Construction of Sexuality. New York:
Tavistock Publications
·
Lester, R. H. (1939/40) Betrothal and marriage customs of Lau, Fiji, Oceania 10:273-85
·
http://www.interpol.int/Public/Children/SexualAbuse/NationalLaws/csaFiji.asp
Janssen,
D. F., Growing Up Sexually. Volume
I. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed.
2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology, Berlin
Last
revised: Dec 2004
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