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Common to a range of PNG peoples, Read (1965 [1980:p19])[1] notes that (adult) hands where continually ‘reaching out’ that, beside the fondling of male and female adult genitalia, included a baby’s penis being “nuzzled”. “The instructions novices received in the men’s house included methods of enticing women to their charms” (p154). A boy has to await to group-wise receive “the official approval of their elders to have intercourse with the girls to whom they had been betrothed. […] The young men, in their early twenties, had been betrothed several years before at the time of initiation. During the intervening period they had been required to avoid their future wives, waiting until their elders considered they were physically mature and ready for cohabitation” (p111). Anyway, “[…] little harm was done unless the girl became pregnant” (p144). In the courting houses (p192-3), there was no adult supervision, and courting was conventionally confined to ‘singing and to petting, where a couple faced each other lying on their sides, the girl’s head pillowed on the boy’s forearm while they rubbed their chins and lips together aggressively. Girls were to reject any closer intimacy than this, loudly publicizing any attempt at penetration and thereby shaming an overeager partner. But the boys hoped to prevail”.
Janssen,
D. F., Growing Up Sexually. Last revised: Apr 2005 |
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