The Sexual Curriculum: Coitality, Koitomimesis and Coitarche

The Sexual Curriculum (Oct., 2002)

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [I] [II] [III] [IV]

Janssen, D. F. (Oct., 2002). Growing Up Sexually. Volume II: The Sexual Curriculum: The Manufacture and Performance of Pre-Adult Sexualities. Interim Report. Amsterdam, The Netherlands

6 [previous chapter] [next chapter]

Coitality, Koitomimesis and Coitarche. Construing "The" Sexual Act

"Ndize?"[1]

Summary: A contemporary scripting approach (cf. §1.1.3.1) to human coitus development is used as a starting point for facilitating a demonstration of cross-cultural variations in prepubertal sexual behaviour. It is explored how the form and formality of such behaviour reflects social contextualisations used by children to actively shape legitimising scenarios. A modification of traditional script theory is explored in describing children as "using" legitimising scripts (e.g., "marriage") that may facilitate the fulfilment of thus hidden scripts (genital behaviour). In this sense, children may modify existing scenarios to fit specific agendas, and, within such ad hoc scenarios, recruit potential partners. Coital patterning scripts (curricular scripts) are closely related to other patterning scripts, such as those addressing intimacy and pairbonding. Thus, form and timing of coitarche proper and coital patterning proper are shaped according to curricularising tendencies that, cross-culturally, are variably legitimised and organised. Genitality in nonprototypical (self-invented scenarios, nondyadicism) or protovariant (non-quasi "marital") contexts were interpreted as allowing the situational generating and modification of scripts, as opposed to the adoption of complete stereotypical ones. It was further observed that legitimising categories as "play" may actively be used by pubescents in negotiating personal concepts of "sexarche", as demonstrated by three ethnographic cases.

Contents [up]

Coitality, Koitomimesis and Coitarche. 1

6.0 Introduction 2

6.1 Theoretical Preliminaries 2

6.1.1 Play Sexuality: Phenomenological to Operational Frameworks 3

6.1.2 Scripting Cultural Copulation: Agents and Structure 3

6.1.3 Play Coitus vs Coitarche 4

6.1.4 Pre-Coitalism in Coitocentric Society: Mistaken Sex and Ridiculous Coitus 7

6.2 Construing Coitus and Coitality: An Ethnographic Exploration 8

6.2.1 Social Recognition of Pre-Formal Coitus: The Name of the Game 9

6.2.2 Koitomimesis and the Reproductive Cycle: Coitus and Reproductive Scripts 9

6.2.3 Husband and Wife, etc. 10

6.2.4 Negotiated Games 10

6.2.5 All the Way and Further: Adultery, Co-Wive and Other Games 11

6.2.6 All Made Up: Self-Invented Scenarios and Scripting Plasticity 12

6.2.7 Your Own Place: Pseudo- and Semi-Institutional Residences and Compartimentalised Coital Curricula 13

6.2.8 Improvised Juices: Lubricating Scripts 13

6.2.9 Script Matrices and Coital Patterning 14

6.2.10 Transitional Nondyadicism: Informal and Formal Group Sex 14

6.2.11 The "Pseudocoitus": Societal Shaping and "Precoitarchal Coitality" 15

6.2.12 The "Infantile Coitus": Western Development of Coital "Scripts" 15

6.2.13 Applied Developmental Coitology: The Coital Doll 17

6.3 Discussion 17

6.x Addendum: Anatomising Coitarche 18

Notes 19

6.0 Introduction [up] [Contents]

Malinowski (1927:p56)[2] formulated a definite need for Melanesian children to organise contextuality around their sex. Be it marriage, picnics, or ceremonial trade exchanges, "[c]rude sensual pleasure alone does not seem to satisfy them; in [...] more elaborate games it must be blended with some imaginative and romantic interest". Just how much this is part of a transmitted, perhaps hidden, stratified folklore appears to be as variable as its occurrence, yet common patterns can be recognised. "Playing marriage", for instance, was documented by ethnographers in distant pasts. As cited by Buch (1882:p45)[3]:

"Ostrowsky [?] erzählt von einem Spiele, das von Mädchen [u]nd Burschen gespielt und Heiratsspiel genannt wird. Einige Bursche und Mädchen vertheilen sich paarweise; jeder Bursche wählt sich ein Mädchen, wobei es selbstverständlich nicht immer ohne Streit abgeht; jedes Paar versteckt sich dann an einem dunklen Orte, wo das Spiel dann sehr realistisch aufgefasst werden soll, darauf versammeln sich die "Familienpaare" alle wider zur Fortsetzung des Spieles".

The numerous, remarkably uniform descriptions of this game in ethnographic communications are suggestive of a principle for human sexual development (e.g., John Money). To provide a rough baseline cross-cultural localisation for the human case in the formation of sexual behaviour trajectories, an extensive literature search provides some preliminary insights for an ethology, social construction and performance analysis of "coital development".

6.1 Theoretical Preliminaries [up] [Contents]

6.1.1 Play Sexuality: Phenomenological to Operational Frameworks [up] [Contents]

Money and Ehrhardt[4] described the identity of prepubertal sexuality as private rather than latent, and self-consolidating rather than complementary ([1996:p201]). Money repeatedly discussed the supposed place of behaviour in his (ethnologically informed) concept of lovemap formation[5], but he never researched it beyond a single specifically motivated stay among Aborigines. As for an alternative formulation, Erikson[6] postulated that "[s]ex play ends when the final act begins, narrowing choice, dictating tempo, and giving reign to "nature" " ([1963:p214]). Of course, this is as far from an operationalisation as it gets. A phenomenological baseline, however, is lacking[7].

It is reasonable to observe on the outset that hardly any material reviewed here is of satisfactory quality to justify extensive hypothesis testing. Still, ethnosexological data on childhood are primarily presented for the purpose of proving specific theses on the human situation. One such hypothesis, for instance, holds that children's experimental pleasures "embody the political logic of local sexualities" (Streicker, 1993)[8]. Thus, "[w]itnessing heterosexual relations does not necessarily make little boys want to experience heterosex, but to perform penetrative sex". According to this constructionist perspective, coitus is a function of learning variables that define the contours and mallets that are to contain both its possible and its probable occurrence. That is, children "operationalise" (legitimise, authorise, institutionalise) coitus on the basis of its contextual significance: the actors, the motives, the circumstances, the story. Within this framework, children may not be able to do "Coitus" by the grace of their being children: the "actor" requirements are not met, and the thing is play, not coitus. A sexologist, thus, has to examine the discursive relation between the application of scripts and the performance (renegotiation) of transmitted scripts.

6.1.2 Scripting Cultural Copulation: Agents and Structure [up] [Contents]

The fundamentals of "script" theory of "coitus" (e.g., Gagnon) being followed here predict that nothing coitally is likely to take place "[w]ithout the proper elements of a script that defines the situation, names the actors, and plots the behavior". Thus providing a starting definition for the following exploration, coitus (as any behaviour) takes place if and when existing scenarios are utilised to legitimise its taking place, this being effected by identification, and application of existing complementary roles.

Judging from ethnographic accounts, genital play is either facilitated by or seen as a part of an integral role-play scenario, or requires participants to assume existing role configurations to legitimise the temporary pairbonding commitment needed for such contacts. One assumes this use of collateral legitimisation (either to possible partners or authority figures) gradually to erode under the development of a personality that dismisses "as-if" sexualities as obsolete. Rather, the collateral discourse becomes central, actors, at least theoretically, becoming acting sexual beings.

Zoologists have sufficiently delineated the occurrence and significance of preadult and prereproductive coitus in several primates[9]. In humans, the hybrid category of "sex play" is a social construct informed by the invocation of both species of behaviour (e.g., Huizinga, 1964:p43)[10]. There are, however, theoretical barriers to the semantics involved (G. H. Mead)[11]. More importantly, there is the issue of agency. The behaviours here reviewed are almost invariably "child-structured", in the sense of being created "on their own" and "out of sight"; and, as Schwartzman[12] notes while introducing Goldman's admirable effort, the recognition and study of this species of play is a recent accomplishment within the anthropological field. However impossible a detailed analysis of "sex play", the current paper encircles the scene by listing observed antecedents, environments, local organization, attitudinal ramifications, authoritative categorisation, etc., to arrive at a tentative localisation of sex-as-play within a format that accommodates agency as well as structural conditionality. No attempt was made to test or apply existing theoretical frameworks of play, or to address critically the methodological foundations for the observations reviewed below.

6.1.3 Play Coitus vs Coitarche [up] [Contents]

6.1.3.0 Academics on "Firsts" [up] [Contents]

According to Siegel and Shaughnessy (1995)[13], American sexual and social "firsts" would be "imbued with an inordinate amount of emotional investment". Societies (that is, individuals as a collective[14]) differ in their rigidity in the thematic dramatising of discourses woven around "the" "coitus": the initiation, the transition, the "first time". Over the ethnographic spectrum, this institutionalisation of coitus is often a ritually dramatised index of social transitions, persona and transactions.

Lambek (1983)[15] explored the social construction of femaleness among the Islamic Malagasy speakers of Moyotte, Comoro Islands, in the western Indian Ocean. Lambek argued that "defloration in the appropriate ritual context has a complex but essentially positive meaning for women, transforming child into adult, and expressing both her morality and the pleasures of adult sexuality. Moreover, when the bride's role in preserving her virginity until the wedding is considered, her active role in the exchange process can be understood. The gifts she receives represent recognition of her as a person. The wedding is a major step in the development of material, social, and psychological autonomy".

Ethnohistorically speaking, patterned, roughly age-symmetric, coital curricula are regularly begun before puberty, although its social recognition may be variable. In a number of societies, this seems socially equated with "adolescent" coitus, in others it is seen as "play". In still others, the timing of play-to-practice transitions remains indefinite, unexplored or ambiguous[16], and this may well reflect native interpretations. In some societies, an "adolescent" recognition may or may not be ensured by the fact that the other party is an adolescent or adult. Homosexual encounters seem to allude to a "gay" status even in full adulthood. Both phases and categories of sexual behaviour attract individual and societal claims to their respective political status ("fun", "first", etc.).

Venturing along Erikson's idiom, a workable operationalisation of play/debut differences seems to be informed by patterning.

Meyer-Bahlburg (1977)[17] argued that "sociosexual play" in childhood is only sporadic and lacks the regularity of adolescent or adult life. According to the author, "[i]t should be emphasized that all descriptive terms used like "homosexual play" or "coital play" are strictly defined in terms of overt behavior and do not imply that the child who engages in some such behavior necessarily acts with the same or a similar set of motives as the adult would" (p363, ital.add.). Why should this be emphasised? Zabin, Smith et al. (1986)[18] place the following remark between parentheses: "Very early coital incidents [that is, retrospective self-reports], preceding even [menarchal/polluarchal] changes, are extremely rare [no references here], are less regularly distributed [than at a later date], and should probably be interpreted as random historical events" (ital.add.).

As developing before puberty, clinicias would argue that "[s]exual scripts can be considered the blueprints of sexual meaning, which will only be put into practice at a later age"[19]. Expert sexologists, thus, operationalise "coitarche" (sexarche) by its taking place within some sequentiality, thought to be associated with some conscious[20] social agenda, and according to some biological imperative.

In cases where coital patterning is apparently prepubertal, transitions are only broadly identifiable. Malinowski, sketching Trobriand coital transitions (1929:p63-7), locates its organisation in sexual segregation, a higher salience on dyadic stability, and a shift in residence necessitated "[…] now that amorous intercourse has become a passion instead of a game"; "[t]hus adolescence marks the transition between infantile and playful sexualities and those serious permanent relations which precede marriage" [note that the Trobrianders did not observe formal sexologically relevant initiation rites]. Specifically,

"[a]s the boy or girl enters upon adolescence the nature of his or her sexual activity becomes more serious. It ceases to be mere child's play and assumes a prominent place among life's interests. What was before an unstable relation culminating in an exchange of erotic manipulation or an immature sexual act becomes now an absorbing passion, and a matter for serious endeavour. An adolescent gets definitely attached to a given person, wishes to possess her, works purposefully towards this goal, plans to reach the fulfilment of his desires by magical and other means, and finally rejoices in achievement. I have seen young people of this age grow positively miserable through ill-success in love. This stage, in fact, differs from the one before in that personal preference has now come into play and with it a tendency towards a greater permanence in intrigue".

Using an auctorial perspective, Malinowski does not examine how transitions are reflected upon by adolescents themselves. This counterpart of social organisation is examined in more detail for contemporary Xhosa, which case (Africa, ®Xhosa) as a whole is interesting in discussing early sexual behaviour transitions. Two more African cases are included to further illustrate the matter.

6.1.3.1 Nothing Serious to Real I: The Xhosa / Undize Case [up] [Contents] [Africa]

Identifying a multifactorially determined "shift away from parental mediation of sexual enculturation towards a youth and peer-based framework for the same", Ntlabati, Kelly and Mankayi (2001; cf. Kelly and Parker, 2000:p31-3)[21] note how Undize, hide-and-seek[22], was traditionally played in a deep rural area of the Eastern Cape in South Africa by children aged 7 to the early teens. The game acquired a coital, as well as a more invariably sexual, level over the past 50 years. This has strained the definition of curricular categories (cf. Stradler)[23]:

"[…] there used to be a strong distinction between sexual experimentation and sexual intercourse. This distinction appears to have blurred so that sexual experimentation much more rapidly evolves into intercourse, to the extent that Undize now involves sexual penetration, albeit somewhere between experimentation and fully-fledged, passion-driven intercourse".

Thus, while "[l]earning about sex through play is hardly unusual, but in this case the play tends towards reality". This discourse is suggested by the respondents' persistent minimalising of the occurrences:

Female: "[…] it was nothing serious at that stage [12 a 13 to 15]" / "[…] it was not really serious. There was penetration but there was no ejaculation. We were just doing it and we didn't even experience any form of pleasure. Hence I say it was nothing serious". Male: "I was 15 and this was nothing serious. We were just playing Undize".

These ramifications are significant enough to put data such as "[a]n astonishing 22% had their first sexual experience at or below the age of 11 years" on misty grounds (note that the authors omit to define their measure of "sexual debut").

Another account of Xhosa coitarche performances and negotiations leaves out games entirely, instead identifying intercourse as a performance indicative of "love" and "growing up":

"First sexual encounters were mostly reported to have occurred at a young age, often 12 years, with a male partner who was older by about five years. The consistently reported pattern was that women accepted male requests to establish a liaison, as revealed in the words 'he asked me if we could love each other and then I agreed'. To these young women, agreement to love was equated specifically with having penetrative intercourse and being available sexually. This equation clearly derived from their male partners, who told the women that sex was the 'purpose' of being 'in love', that people 'in love' must have sex 'as often as possible', and that sexual intercourse was 'what grown-ups do'. These constructions of love, apparently defined entirely by men, constituted the major reason to begin and continue sexual activity for the teenage women"[24].

However, the researchers (1997)[25] note that "[m]any of the adolescents described sex as 'playing'. One girl explained that some teenagers (particularly those from poor families) had sex frequently because there were no other activities available to them: 'it starts with the girls because we are lost. You just do a thing, not thinking about the after-effects; it's nice to go with boys' ". Adding to the confusion, male adolescents' sexuality discourse is complicated with themes of violence and infidelity, boys arguing they are "played with"[26] by girls in their love trajectories.

Leaving aside illustrative additional papers[27], the above attempt to delineate the use of "play" in Xhosa adolescent sexuality discourses demonstrates a number of issues, including:

-- minimalisation of curricular sex (it's only play);

-- self-curricularisation (back then it was play; now, it is different);

-- negotiation of sexual relations (why can't we, it's just having fun);

-- justification of political positions (he toys me around, I should dump him).

6.1.3.2 Nothing Serious to Real II: The Pangwe Case [up] [Contents] [Africa]

Adding to Tessmann's own negotiations on the matter (§2.5.1), Pangwe teenagers up to their twenties respond to the question of their having had coitus with a stereotyped apology: "ich bin ein Kind, d. h. unschuldig, ich weiß nichts vom Geschlechtsverkehr; er sicherte sich so das milde Urteil, mit dem wir "Dummejungenstreiche" abtun". To put this in perspective, coital imitations start at age 5, and with 8-9 years this family play is "schon nichts weiter als ein zielbewußter Geschlechtsverkehr" still known as child's play. Though less well documented as the Xhosa case, the project appears to be essentially identical: to contest hegemonic labelling curricula and to enjoy the liberties of an original "pseudolicence" (§5.4.2).

6.1.3.3 Nothing Serious to Real III: The Kunyenga Case [up] [Contents] [Africa]

Kunyenga is homosexual activity of Tanzanian street boys (Rajani and Kudrati; Lockhart). Rajani and Kudrati argued that Kunyenga functions as an "initiation rite", while Lockhart (2002) argued for its transitory status:

"[h]omosexual practices are rooted in a complex set of behaviors and ideologies known as kunyenga, which is a situated aspect of life on the streets and helps maintain the boys' strong dependence on one another. A key aspect of the boys' sexual careers involves a decrease in kunyenga activity as they approach the age of 18 and an increase in heterosexual encounters after the age of 11. There appears to be a critical period between these ages in which heterosexual and kunyenga activities overlap".

6.1.4 Pre-Coitalism in Coitocentric Society: Mistaken Sex and Ridiculous Coitus [up] [Contents]

Lichtenstein[28] argued that "economic and cultural factors weigh heavily on a young women's ability to "be" a virgin", and that "virginity discourse is laden with middle-class assumptions about selfempowerment and achievement". Lying at the centre of adolescent discourses, first vaginal intercourse is an attractor of symbolic status, variable and ambiguous as may be[29]. Medical ("abstinence") curricula have rightly questioned (and, thus, contributed to the salience of) what goes and does not go as "sex" or "abstinence" [30]. Coitarche represents the most central, clinically and medically most relevant, and hence the most significant social "first" in the discourse on human "sexual" curriculum. Coitus occupies a central place in Western erotic folklore, informing its scientia as it did ars. In a paper titled "Getting Started on Sexual Behavior", Udry and Campbell (1994)[31] relate:

"Although most people have sexual feelings and sexual thoughts, some autoinduced sexual experience [sic], and some range of nongenital erotic body contact before experiencing coitus, coitus is a simple identification of starting. Maybe we start here because, as Ira Reiss [[32]] says, Western sex is coitus centered, as contrasted to some imaginary society that is centered on something else" (p187).

The sexual life of children in coitocentric societies presents an obvious problem (explanandum): its noncoital form. [Other problems, including nonheterosexuality, nonallosexuality, and cross-species issues, will be discussed elsewhere[33]] Especially apparent in anecdotal material on nonnative North America, for which culture descriptive accounts are most voluminous, children, in the absence of curricular coverage, mistake what is referred to as "sex" for what they know to be associated with the courtship routine and the reproductive "cycle". The concept of "having sex" may be subject to diverse associations even in later life[34]. The early indefinite character of "sex" results in the mimesis of courtship practices and public or semi-public "foreplay" as if representing "the sex act", "the" coitus (S. Freud's interpretation allows a reverse relation), representing a phase where sexual behaviour is in its appearance "uninformed" or "mistaken", and therefore ridiculous[35]: courtship is aborted in preliminary phases, or "skips" essential preliminaries. Phases of the reproductive life are copied in isolation, conform children's fragmentary technology. Functional courtship routines are gradually pieced together from scattered data, while in the mean time, events are dysfunctional because of their incomplete, direct (offensive) nature. Children, or so it may seem, suffer from courtship "disorders"[36] or deficiencies, making them potential exhibitionists, frotteurists, voyeurists and rapists. This is so where life phase stratification inhibits anticipating, ad hoc or post hoc parental correction (to functional patterns) or anticipating, ad hoc[37] or post hoc suggestions.

6.2 Construing Coitus and Coitality: An Ethnographic Exploration [up] [Contents]

6.2.1 Social Recognition of Pre-Formal Coitus: The Name of the Game [up] [Contents]

Metropolitan adolescent sexual scenes have been characterised by qualifications as "game", which, according to Anderson, could be mediated by such institutions as "rap"[38]. The use of the category clearly is "emic" to the scene, when arguing from a subculturalist perspective. Within an "etic" domain, children's coital fun is given a specific expression in a number of ethnographies, suggesting an unambiguous appraisal of pre-institutional coitus/sex play scenarios, forms, opportunities or status. In European folklore the marriage and doctor role-playing are stereotypically occurring games, for which the genital Leitmotif is stereotypically acknowledged. The Trobrianders speak of mwaygini kwayta, "copulation amusement" (Malinowski), whereas the Zulu speak of ukwenza isiNcogolo, or playful sexual intercourse (Krige). Among some Aboriginal Australian tribes (Unambal and Worora) a specific expression (jan jan) exists for intercourse before initiation (Lommel). The games that become potentially koitomimic have specific names in several societies, especially in Africa[39]. One variety is especially well described as being played by Bantu speaking children (e.g., Venda, Bemba)[40].

In more than incidental cases, coitarche proper is marked by social recognition even though sexual behaviour is a patterned phenomenon prior to its occurrence. Thus, "Aymara children are aware of genital sexuality from earliest childhood". Nevertheless, they have an expression for "coitarche": lliukattatha (La Barre). In some attempts to establish "coitarche" ages, this leads to problems in defining the variable (e.g., Ghana acc. Bleek; Jamaica acc. Eggleston et al.)[41]. This used to be especially true for Australian Aboriginals, where "even before puberty children are making crude sexual experiments", that is, do coitus. Nevertheless, definite statements about the delay of conjugal "coitarche" until puberty are recorded for some tribes (though prepubertal commencement might have been the rule).

Apart from the mentioned selected cases little is known about children's negotiation over semantic representation of genital behaviour. Therefore, the current "closing in" on sex play as a cultural performance will take place from diverse angles that, hypothetically, contribute to the early social construction of coitus: its reference to the biosocial realm (§6.2.2), hegemonic scenarios, etc.

6.2.2 Koitomimesis and the Reproductive Cycle: Coitus and Reproductive Scripts [up] [Contents]

Childhood koitomimesis[42] is rarely described as being integrated in a full (imagined) reproductive cycle; cyesomimesis (pregnancy)[43], "gennomimesis" (labour) and galactomimesis (lactation) are usually played out in separation, while impregnation rarely seems part of the narrative[44]. Mead: "Detailed symbolic analysis of small children's play suggests that little boys who take their cues from adult life play at copulation, and play at pregnancy, but they play less at impregnation, at a sequence that they initiate and another must finish". The impregnation or "reproduction" games are indeed rare[45], but this finding is probably fraud with the problematic nature of studying children's coital narratives.

Given the universally problematic nature of educating coitus, even associated items (breastfeeding[46], labour, pregnancy[47]) are omitted from formal teaching. Thus, children act upon known isolated items of what may to adults be "complete" scripts. This may include children selecting or rejecting partial scripts.

6.2.3 Husband and Wife, etc. [up] [Contents]

Playing marriage was mentioned in the bible (Math.11:16-7; as cited by Patai, 1960:p186)[48], and is known to have been played with sexual intents by 18th century European children (Van Ussel, 1968 [1971:p171-2]). Playing house might be seen in children as young as age two (Parten, 1933)[49].

The most frequent play scenario in which some form of coitus was noted is the married dyad. The sexual nature of the game is variable, but some ethnographers feel compelled to comment on it even in the negative[50]. It has been documented on all continents, as it is something of an ethnographic cliché[51]. Marriage is taken literally in the wedding or bride-and-groom (defloration) game[52]. In these cases, the coital form is explained by the traditional role of weddings as the public demonstration of virginity loss. This does not explain why the specific narrative of the game would allow microgeographic variations (e.g., Italy acc. Parca).

6.2.4 Negotiated Games [up] [Contents]

Some cases acquire a semi-institutional character, played by adolescents and under the auspices of parents; the sex play here is controlled whereas in most more or less unsupervised cases full intercourse is probable.

In Senegal, adolescents are permitted to "play husband and wife" (suka-sehil) which is regarded as immature courtship or flirtation and does not lead to consummation or marriage (Wane). In the harvest season, Shona early adolescents would be allowed a parentally supervised one-month period of play marriage; supposedly, this muhumbwe (or mahungwe, mahumbwe) and takes place in shelters does not include full intercourse (Gelfand, Shire). Among the Pedi, "childish" temporary pseudo-marriage unions, "although little more than a game", are frequent, and recognised by adults as a social institution which provides practice in home management. Although usually dissolved when the "pseudo-husband" enters lodika, a form of tribal initiation school, the union may be revived with the consent of both sets of parents (Krige and Krige). Concerning Kanuri children's elaborate mai-mai, "[a]dults expressed satisfaction with this type of play and remarked on its instructive value for the children" (Cohen); "[a]dults thought this play was instructive and remarked that it was a good way for the children to learn the customs of the people" (Cohen). The sphere of meaning is thus negotiated: "Wedding foods in miniature are passed around to the adults who accept the mock food with a show of seriousness although they may comment on or question some detail of the ceremony carried out mistakenly or omitted by the children".

In this selection of examples one is justified to assume that the categories of formal and play sexuality are created by children and based on the communications or metacommunicative frameworking by parents.

6.2.5 All the Way and Further: Adultery, Co-Wife and Other Games [up] [Contents]

It is a fact that house playing in the "traditional" sections of manhood is, with few exceptions, very realistic[53]. Children may erect an entire village, and coitus may seem a modest inclusion in the whole scenario. The same is seen in various places in Africa, where children's societies closely mimic adult hierarchical structures (cf. Malinowski's "children's Republic"). Kanuri children rebuild a whole political society under the name mai-mai; this also includes adult sexual politics. It is clear that sex life is fully integrated in every-day economics, and this organisation is well understood by "imitating" children.

All courtship phases are stage-acted by children, usually in isolation of the full, functional routine; variations, however, are also covered. Moll (1908 [1912])[54] already referred to a "number of little boys and girls, almost all under eight years of age, played at being prostitutes, souteneurs, and men-about-town". Grützner[55] noted among the Basuto,

"neben der sanctionierten Hurerei eine Heimliche, welche die kleinsten Kinder, treiben, und wobei die Knaben den Mädchen perlen, Messingdraht, u.s.w. als Hurenlohn geben".

Children are known to practice coitus within scenarios that clearly anticipate adult customs: adultery (Australia, Normaby Island, Yanoama, Mehinaku), co-wives (!Kung), "wife abduction" (Crow), wife-exchange ("let me taste yours"; Pedi), and elopement (Sioux). Other examples include prostitution (Basuto, Germany), rape (Mehinaku), pornography (nonnative North America) and "age-graded" seduction. Incidental anecdotes include statements on play homosexuality, play paedophilia, play exhibitionism, play voyeurism, etc., all in apparent imitation of observed adult stereotypes.

A particularly interesting pattern of meta-realistic imitation is that certain Eskimo tribes "are known to choke each other as part of their sexual activity and it is common for their children to suspend themselves by the neck in playing" (Freuchen). Both issues are mentioned by many ethnographers. Although it is not reported that children's play coitus (which is well documented for Eskimo tribes) includes asphyxia, boyhood masturbation might (a fatal case is reported by De Coccola and King).

These cases justify the hypothesis that children get to "select" scenarios when offered more than a single. They also suggest that children actively recombine (instead of confuse) scripts.

6.2.6 All Made Up: Self-Invented Scenarios and Scripting Plasticity [up] [Contents]

Turney-High marks for the Flathead that "[i]n common with the children of many tribes there was considerable sex exploration. This seems never have been formalized into sex games, nor does it have been normally heterosexual". The meaning of this statement remains unclear, but suggests either atypical or hypertypical "explorations". Genitalia are occasionally known to surface in unorthodox scenarios that appear to be ad hoc inventions to smoothly legitimise and facilitate such surfacing. The names are neologisms, the acts commonly noncoital. Examples include "fun house" (Martinson, 1973:p36)[56], "horror house" (p42-3), "upper and lower" (p45); "we are a boy" (Ribal, 1973:p62)[57], etc. This improvisation, or recourse to nonstereotypical legitimisation, together with the noncoital form suggest both the lack of coital technology and the absence of translocating genitality discursively localised within the concept of the marital stereotype (as sex education was apt to provoke in the early 1970s).

These instances pose a challenge to scripting theory if one assumes that genital play may only be operationalised within cultural stereotypes (marriage, doctors). Rather, genital behaviour acquires its own "script" and demands a situational legitimisation for its practice and necessary recruitment of partners. Children may "use" such legitimising scripts to facilitate the fulfilment of secondary (or primary) scripts, this situation perhaps being a silent mutual agreement on such facilitation. The "coitus" taking place is the result of a negotiation of roles within the children's reconstruction of the adult coital world, pieced together from (fragmentary, ambiguous, etc.) impressions. Western data suggest that these impressions generally are of a kind, quality and frequency as not to facilitate a pragmatic coitality before it is assimilated within the pre- and pseudoinstitutional dyadic scripts of "love" or "steady" commitments; hence the (probably) sporadic occurrence of such preinstitutional coitus.

The following typology of pre-institutional sexual behaviour contextualisation is based on the theoretical formulations of "performed sexuality" rather than, for instance, a zoological account[58];

(i) protoerotic / protosexual and preformative scripts[59];

(ii) quasi-sexual / borrowed scripts (as-if parental coitus);

(iii) sexualised - modified scripts (genital "tag", fireman, cow milking);

(iv) institutionalised age-stratified game scripts ("kiss", spin bottle, pantsing);

(v) "idiosyncratic" sexual negotiations (show me/show yours; "…used to give me pennies if I would pull down my pants…").

The performative tasks in the various types immediately become apparent: reproduction and application (ii), modification and recombinaton (iii), structuring, organising and institutionalisation (iv), and negotiation (v). It should be noted that "adult sexuality" is tacitly presumed to be based primarily on an idiosyncratic negotiation curriculum (sex-as-sex), however interpreted as "games"[60] or "play".

6.2.7 Your Own Place: Pseudo- and Semi-Institutional Residences and Compartimentalised Coital Curricula [up] [Contents]

Departing from the Trobriand cue that places are an important index to the social significance of coitus, one is reminded of ethologist perspectives stating that coital privacy lessens the threat posed by dominant males to the pairbonding stability of the copulating dyad (Schiefenhövel; Money & Ehrhardt). Money even replaced Freudian "latency" by the concept of coital privacy development. Indeed, past-infancy "sexual" games are isolated from adult and, increasingly so, peer observers. This suggests a dual evolution that emancipates the boy from (anticipated) paternal rebuttal and introduces (Freud: reorients) him into a more horizontal competitive field. This also severely compromises adult, particularly parental and ethnographers', observation as an indicator of occurring sexual activity.

Langfeldt (1990:p191)[61] speaks of kindergarten "fucking rooms". In preindustrial settings, the bush is the most frequently mentioned place, in some cases not different from the elders. In the context of play marriage, improvised huts are built where coitus can take place outside the visual range of adults[62]. Lamba children even know three "generations" of hut building: one for childhood, boyhood and girlhood (Doke, 1931:p143-6)[63], and although no observations were made on sex play, obscenity and genital preparation was to take place here. Another pattern is that children have sexual get-togethers in the camp, while adults are away (or asleep), as noted for the Fulbe (Hopen) and Australians (Kaberry). As for some Aboriginals, "[a]t the age of eight or ten boys and girls frequently have their own little houses" (Róheim) outside the adult camp. Other places for boys to do or play sex include the institutional bachelor's hut systems. Briefly identified in §7.2.10, the introduction of the child in these residences is a hallmark social transition with definite implications for his/her daily schedule, including sexual activity. In other societies, the domestication of girls, or the settlement of boys on out-posts (herding cattle) dramatically reissues sexual opportunities.

The former data suggest that children contribute to a coital/sexual order that is based on compartimentalisation and curricular segmentalisation (cf. §10.2.3). The child "creates" the coital scene according to the structuring rules pertaining to time and space.

6.2.8 Improvised Juices: Lubricating Scripts [up] [Contents]

Although little is known on prepubertal sexual fluids[64], the use of saliva and other lubricants by children is frequently noted[65]. These aspects image children trying to "make it work" even when physiology would veto the scene. It suggests that children seek recourse to effecting scenarios that incorporate specific anticipated realities (ejaculation, etc.). It is also suggested that cultures modify such anticipation by offering the realities involved. In some societies, boys understand that ejacularche ends copulatory fun, as described for the Kanuri[66]. (In this respect, it is also to be noted that in some societies, girls delay the disclosure of their menarche in order to enjoy the freedoms of childhood as long as possible [De Rachewiltz]).

"Juices", thus, are anticipated, negotiated, and fabricated within a social and practical space. If anything, the case illustrates how children "substitute" in their curricula, and compensate for deficiencies so as to "lubricate" the doing of sex, to make "it" (the sex including the fluid) work.

6.2.9 Script Matrices and Coital Patterning [up] [Contents]

In some societies, partner choice and coital frequency follow the regulations of the semi-selfregulating dormitory society, in others coital regularity is a less rigidly controlled variable generationally and left to an, at least theoretically, facultative curriculum. Pattern formation of masturbation and allosexual activity is a rarely discussed indicator of preadult sexual socialisation. Patterning of coitus commonly occurs in adolescence, but considerable differences are recorded for its timing. Data allow the differentiation between cultures where its (facultative) childhood occurrence is a daily routine within the peer group (e.g., Muria, Pilagá), and those where the practice suddenly becomes a routine at marriageable age (which may be prepubertal). In most societies, coital patterning evolves from a stereotyped step-wise intimacy curriculum (precoital patterning, petting), which in turn takes place within a stereotyped curriculum of (pre-)institutional pairbonding commitments (see §15.4.4).

Thus, coital patterning scripts are intimately connected to other, "concentric" curricular scripts. Together, the curricular transmission and interpretation of such scripts reinforce sexual behaviour curricularisation.

6.2.10 Transitional Nondyadicism: Informal and Formal Group Sex [up] [Contents]

Some alternative scripts associated with childhood genital pursuits reflect the dyadic norm, such as partner exchange (Marquesan) and adultery. As adult eroticism may be called stereotypically dyadic, or even monogamous, its precursor phases, at least in part, seem to show a distinct tolerance for group interactions, and promiscuity. Hermann (1922)[67] already mentioned childhood grouping with erotic intent. Langfeldt[68], for instance, offered some insights to Norwegian boys' homosexual grouping. Nonbloody genital preparation of girls is commonly done in groups. The organisation and enactment of marriage and village play is ordinarily a group event, though the coitus is usually described as dyadic, or bidyadic. A rough typology includes group contests[69], gang initiations, polydyadic formations, coital piling (Kwoma, Pilagá[70]), and stage-acted gang rape (Mehinaku).

Predyadic sexual interactions, it could be argued, may be transitional in the way they bridge solitary and preformal dyadic scenarios (cf. §15.4.2). As argued supra, a lack of dyadic (or any) scenarios and the pre-operational form of existing ones grants children the freedom to recombine "breaches of scripts" to form creative, situational "sexual scripts" (Frith & Kinzinger, 2000). This would help explaining the presence of genitality in nonprototypical contexts.

6.2.11 The "Pseudocoitus": Societal Shaping and "Precoitarchal Coitality" [up] [Contents]

In most cultures there are institutionalised precoital techniques which by their form or institutional practice confirm the existence of a coitarchal cult. American adolescents have been known to practice "simulated intercourse", "humping"[71], also known as "outercourse"[72]. The Koka Shastra[73] described that "a young girl who is not yet mature must be approached by way of the 'outer' forms of lovemaking"; or embraces[74]. There were two sorts of embrace for those who have not yet declared their love, four embraces by which they can make known their mind, and eight embraces for those who have shared love-pleasure already.

Preconsummatory and perconsummatory tests of virginity have been employed in a number of societies valuing premarital physical intactness, done in a formal[75] or less formalised way, the latter perhaps as a preventative strategy[76] (cf. Paige and Paige, 1981:p89-91)[77]. Ericksen (1989)[78] found 24 out of 115 African societies where tests were present in some form[79]. A number of African societies[80] practice nonpenetrative coitus as a means of preserving premarital virginity, customs at times acquiring a (semi-)institutional status, and a specific name[81] (details)[i]. "Before marriage, in general, adolescents were permitted varied sexual experiences, although completion of the sex act was to be avoided and was often condemned"[82]. Coitus (penetration) is effected without penetration (coitus). In these societies and less formally in many more, the form and timing of coitarche proper and coital patterning proper are shaped according to curricularising "operative rules" (Straver) that are variably organised. [This proves a useful entry in studying all aspects of the sexual "socialisation" process, and is explored for some dimensions elsewhere.]

6.2.12 The "Infantile Coitus": Western Development of Coital "Scripts" [up] [Contents]

Infantile coital movements, as opposed to posturing, are mentioned incidentally in literature (notably Lewis, 1965)[83], but their incidence nor their necessity have been established. Rare "ethological" observations on human prepubertal "mounting" behaviour seem to be done by Langfeldt (1981:p39-40; cf. 1990:p189-90), not an ethologist, who writes:

"Unpublished observations and interviews by the author show that pelvic thrust movements in prepubertal boys engaged in group sex play are mostly accompanied by penile erection. The same was true for mounting behavior. However, when a boy presented himself to another boy, he did not necessarily get an erection. During sex play both boys and girls showed a strong tendency to exhibit both presenting and mounting behavior within the same behavior episode. Again, if a boy exhibits only one of the patterns, he will normally show mounting behavior, while the opposite is true for the girls. […] Probably in all cultures the older boy mounts the younger, and the younger seems to accept the unilateral role pattern".

Contemporary normative data on maternal observations in the industrial West reveals little such rehearsing or observing[84] (Friedrich et al., 1991; Phipps-Yonas et al., 1993; Lindblad et al., 1995; López, Del Campo and Guijo, [1997]; Schoentjes et al, 1999; Davies et al., 2000; etc.)[85], although coitus among six- to eight-year-olds may not have been unlikely for some American subsamples, especially in selected environments[86]. The low frequency of prepubertal intercourse is in tune with the rare explicit issuing of it in older German literature[87].

López et al. found that 8% of Spanish parents observed "imitating coitus" in the past year in their "children" (on 1 to 5 occasions), while 3% claimed such observing of "attempting coitus". When the same question was offered to adolescents and university students, 14% claimed to have "imitated" before age 11, and 10% recalled "attempts" (around 5% claimed a frequencies of 6-20, and 2% claimed frequencies of more than 20 times). These respondents reported "a total of 42 different games [with a sexual content], most of them played out of the sight of adults".

According to an imitation hypothesis of infantile coital or "coitoid" behaviour, its occurrence suggests a visual or, at least, some conceptual notion of human coital positioning or behaviour. In a Dutch study, Brilleslijper-Kater and Baartman (1997)[88] found that none of Dutch 2- to 4-year-olds and about a quarter of 5- and 6-year-olds proved able (or willing) to give a "meagre" description of sexual behaviours confronted with the depiction of cohabitating adults. Volbert (2000:p19)[89], presenting results from a 1996 study, found that none of German 2 to 5-year-olds could give a description of coitus, while 4.3% of 6-year-olds could. 5% of Gebhard[90]'s sample remembered having known about coitus before age 7. It turns out that, were coituslike behaviour to occur in Western European infants, it would proceed from a considerably amorphous concept of "adult" copulatory technique. It would be safe to say that prehistoric coital development includes juvenile rather than infantile coitus, while in infancy or childhood there may be genital approximation sec. This is suggested by observations by Best (1983)[91] for the U.S. who found the House play primarily occupied with kissing (p110), and "fucking" by genitogenital rubbing (p117, 121-3).

Concluding, coitus "simulation" in European and North American children is rare at all ages, as judged from testimonies by possible observers[92]. To find children "on top" of each other, however, is probably not interpreted as sexually (or coitally) significant by most parents/reporters, although this presumption, as the extent in which the matter cross-ethnically biases coitarche statistics, awaits verification.

6.2.13 Applied Developmental Coitology: The Coital Doll [up] [Contents]

Coital doll symptomatology has become a diagnostic cult in the U.S., judging from a personal review of the literature[93]; the same may be said of the allegedly "sexualised" drawing (ibid.). It is clear that the results from these experiments are very different from results obtained using comparable techniques (anatomical correctness) on "nonreferred" Pilagá (Henry and Henry, 1944)[94] and Australian aboriginal children (Róheim, 1974:p76-120)[95], and, probably, in many other non-Western societies (e.g, Fernandez, 1982:p245-5)[96]. It should be noted that in the case of the Pilagá, the children themselves made the dolls genitally explicit, whereas in case of some Australian children, genitals were said to be the "most prominent part" of native dolls (Hernández, 1941:p132)[97]. Tessmann noted coital puppet games in both the Fan and Bafia of Cameroon. Fernandez noted it among the Bwiti. Róheim (1941)[98] further noted polymorphic coital doll play on Normanby Island. Sexual allusions towards dolls were rare, however, in Puerto Rico, according to Landy (1959 [1965:p161])[99].

These examples are to demonstrate that coitus enters life in coitocentric childhoods (established for all above cases except the Bwiti) in more forms than the obvious. In the Pilagá, Normanby Island and Australian cases, it was further observed how children improvise around and expand on stereotypical coital scenarios, creating and rehearsing a "coital realm", a field of possibilities. This is part of reworking, organising, and rehearsing a central social symbol, rather than "adopting" a behaviour principle within a narrowly prototypical space. Again, however, one notes how sparse such observations are in localising "coital development" as a key issue in ethnic sexological discourses.

6.3 Discussion [up] [Contents]

The ethnohistorical record includes data on a large number of societies were children start coital patterning far before puberty, which sensitises any absolutist or conventional biological theory of "coitarche". Rather, coitus seems to be a cultural concept in which coitality (as opposed to pre-, pseudo- and quasi-coital antecedents) represents a variably centralised, politically guarded status symbol. If not actualised fully, the concept of coitocentrism transudates nonphysical areas of child life (dolls) and even anticoital curricula (pseudocoitus). Imitating children, if knowledgeable, operate within core (marriage) or extended (e.g., adultery) anticipating concepts of role divisions, within anticipated biological spaces (juices), and via an "anticipated" grasp of environmentalism and social observance (huts, play villages). If ignorant, genital expression remains amorphous, possibly enacted within nonanticipating ad hoc scenarios, and commonly lacking the typical allosexual, heterosexual[100] and (particularly) "coital" focus seen in fairly liberal, nonsegregating parenting cultures.

Current clinical doctrines suggest that preadolescent intercourse far exceeds the boundaries of cultural probability; the child is to be examined for traumatising antecedents, and selected antecedents are to define the phenomenon as "symptomatic" and "prognostic"[101]. This obviously represents a medicalisation of moral curricula. In most of the cases of childhood intercourse collected in the ethnographic atlas the practice is (rightly) assumed to be of the species "imitated sexuality". In fact, intercourse probably always is known before it is actualised, making the latter event imitative and "rehearsive" by definition; the same, but to a lesser extent, may be applied to orgasmic masturbation (cf. §12.4.1). Intergenerational transmission of coital technology in Western society is problematic, and this problematisation seems to be a high priority issue. In fact, it mobilises an entire "industry" of discourses. The inherent delay is organised via the prevention of exposure to operationalising clues, and via the renegotiation of those clues that are considered a pedagogical obligation. The development of heteroerotic coitocentrism (a culturally emphasised status definition) is delayed so that cross-culturally, the internalisation of cultural values synchronises with differing phases of the psychoendocrinological (adrenarchic-gonardarchic) curriculum. The theoretical implications of this timing factor remain to be explored. On the other hand, human coital development is much more represented by an ideological curriculum than a pragmatic one; in Western society, some idea of coitus anticipates its enactment for years, and comes to represent a variably optional concomitant of the in effect autogenital preliminaries to doing "it". Western culture relegates its sexual development, and confines it in a depragmaticised hypotheticising curriculum that nosologises or otherwise counteracts tentative effectuation of anticipated status symbols. This charges coitus as a central yet potentially traumatogenic incident, whereas in a range of traditional sub-Saharan African cultures sentiments, possibilities and problems are at least gradually operationalised under the protecting guise of role-play, and at least temporally and socially structured within a curricularising puberty discourse. The central principle of operationalised anticipation possibly explains intracultural differences in developmental attitudes to coitarche proper as well.

6.x Addendum: Anatomising Coitarche [up] [Contents]

Concluding, a biological analogy can be made between culturally opposing tendencies to approach coitarche. Elias Metschnikoff's[102] hypothesis on the hymen would legitimise a place for prepubertal onset of intromissive coitus. Cited by Bloch[103] on this point, Metschnikoff suggested that the hymen would be accustomed to the prepubertal penis, and would dilate gradually with prepubertal attempts, instead of the bloody and painful defloration normative in modern man. This "gradual defloration" was actually described for Paraguayan, native Tahitian, Muria and Hindu girls (Mantegazza, Jacobus X…, Elwin), but is likely in other cases. The theory clearly opposes Morris'[104] argument that the man-specific hymen acts as a brake on adolescent female promiscuity delaying sex until she is willing to accept the discomfort in a relationship that is therefore more likely to remain stable. But even this at least suggests experimentation, during "adolescence".

[1] See §6.1.3.1

[2] Malinowski, B. (1927) Sex and Repression in Savage Society. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Inc. See also Jokisch, K. (1971) Das Erziehungswesen der Trobriander. Doctoral Dissertation. Bonn: Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhemls Universität, p140-4

[3] Buch, M. (1882) Die Wötjaken, eine Ethnologische Studie. Stuttgart: Helsingfors

[4] Money, J. & Ehrhardt, A. A. (1973/1996) Man & Woman, Boy & Girl. London: Aronson,

[5] Money's coverage on "sexual rehearsal play" stretches over more than hundred relevant articles and monographs. His hypothesis is apparently not new, as it is shared by such celebrated figures as Wilhelm Reich, Wilhelm Stekel, Ernest Borneman, etc. Money's "sexual rehearsal play" theme surfaced in a 1970 article, although human "coital play" was mentioned before in the 1960s. Money's lovemap formation theory recognises two periods, of which only the second is discussed here. It this stage, play sexuality and courtship routines would form the basis of a sexual orientation scenario to be consolidated around or even before age eight. Data in support of this important theorem are never gathered.

[6] Erikson, E. (1950/1963) Childhood and Society. Second, rev. & enl. ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

[7] Some ethnologists have given some consideration to its identity (notably Tessmann), but it seems nowhere to be discussed in its own light. Stephens (1962:p19-24) broadly divided what he considered "obvious sexual expressions" in three spheres: "(1) sex play (genital contact or exhibitionism); (2) other kinds of body contact, resulting in apparent sexual pleasure; (3) "acting out" or play, which- although it is not sex play- seems to give clear signs of sexual preoccupation". The limitations of these formulations are broad. A recent upsurge in typology building has its impetus in the delineation of "abusive" versus "normative" spectra in the US. Many such typologies have been designed, predominantly for clinical usage. For instance, Lamb and Cloakley (1993) proposed the following "normative" (nonabusive) typology for North-American female undergraduates: playing doctor, exposure, experiments in stimulation, kissing games, fantasy sexual play, and, interestingly, "other". One is also reminded of the nine erotic games listed by Adler (1911).

[8] Streicker, J. (1993) Sexuality, Power, and Social Order in Cartagena, Columbia, Ethnology 32,4:359-74

[9] Preparatory overviews.

[10] Huizinga, J. (1964) Homo Ludens. Transl. Boston: The Beacon Press. Analysing terms associated with eroticism, Huizinga notes that "the term 'play' is specially or even exclusively reserved for erotic relationships falling outside the social norms.

[11] Mead, G. H. (1934) Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. According to Mead, the "socialised self" goes through a preparatory, play and game stage, imitation being based on a primary lack of understanding of the other, a concept of a role associated with "significant others", and a concept of a role associated with a "generalised other". This explains why sexual expressions can hardly be labelled as "play" before age 2, or as "games" before age 4 to 5.

[12] Schwartzman, H. B. (1998) Foreword, to Goldman, L. R., Child's Play: Myth, Mimesis and Make-Believe. Oxford / New York: Berg, pages xi-xiv. Goldman's work does not include unambiguously "sexual" behaviour categories.

[13] Siegel, J. & Shaughnessy, M. F. (1995) There's a First Time for Everything: Understanding Adolescence, Adolescence 30(117):217-21

[14] Thompson, Sh. (1990) Putting a big thing into a little hole: Teenage girls' accounts of sexual initiation, J Sex Res 27,3: 341-61. Cf. Thompson, Sh. (1994) Changing lives, changing genres: Teenage girls' narratives about sex and romance, 1978-1986, in Rossi, A. S. (Ed.) Sexuality across the Life Course. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Mental Health and Development: Studies on Successful Midlife Development. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p209-32

[15] Lambek, M. (1983) Virgin Marriage and the Autonomy of Women in Mayotte, Signs 9,2:264-81

[16] Examples include the Boloki, Azmiba, Lake Nyasa, Bakongo, Fan, Ababoua

[17] Meyer-Bahlburg, H. F. (1977) Puberty, in Money, J. & Musaph, H. (Eds.) Handbook of Sexology. Amsterdam [etc.]: Excerpta Medica

[18] Zabin, L. S., Hirsch, M. B., Smith, E. A. & Hardy, J. B. (1986) Ages of physical maturation and first intercourse in black teenage males and females, Demography 23,4:595-605

[19] Goozen, S. H. M. van, Cohen-Kettenis, P. T., Matthys, W. & Engeland, H. van (2002) Preference for aggressive and sexual stimuli in children with disruptive behavior disorder and normal controls, Arch Sex Behav 31,3:247-53, at p248

[20] "The girl in jumping rope acts out the to and fro movement of the man during sex intercourse. Her own body takes the part of the active man, while the swinging rope imitates her own body adjusting to the movement of the man's. In this game, the girl acts both the role of the man and of the woman". Sonnenberg, M. (1955) Girls jumping rope, Psychoanalysis 3,3:57-62

[21] Cf. Kelly, K. & Parker, W. (Nov., 2000) Communities of Practice: Contextual Mediators of Youth Response to HIV/AIDS. Sentinel Site Monitoring and Evaluation Project. Stage Two Report, Commissioned by Beyond Awareness Campaign, HIV/AIDS and STD Directorate, Dept of Health

[22] U ndize. Children call out "Ndize?" Can I come? The game was mentioned in Nelson Mandela's 1994 autobiography Long Walk to Freedom. New York: Little, Brown & Co. "Usually the boys played among themselves, but we sometimes allowed our sisters to join us. Boys and girls would play games like ndize (hide and-seek) and icekwa (touch-and-run). But the game I most enjoyed playing with the girls was what we called khetha, or choose-the-one-you-like. This was not so much an organized game, but a spur-of-the-moment sport that took place when we accosted a group of girls our own age and demanded that each select the boy she loved. Our rules dictated that the girl's choice be respected and once she had chosen her favorite, she was free to continue on her journey escorted by the lucky boy she loved. But the girls were nimble-witted--far cleverer than we doltish lads--and would often confer among themselves and choose one boy, usually the plainest fellow, and then tease him all the way home".

[23] See also Stadler, J. (1998) Sex as Play and as Procreation: Adolescent Constructions of Sexuality in the Northern Province of South Africa. 4th Reproductive Health Priorities Conference, Aug 18 - 21. Johannesburg, South Africa

[24] Wood, K., Maforah, F. & Jewkes, R. (1996) Sex, Violence and Constructions of Love Among Xhosa Adolescents: Putting Violence on the Sexuality Education Agenda. MRC Technical report, Medical Research Council, Cape Town, p3

[25] Wood, K., Maepa, J. & Jewkes, R. (1997) Adolescent Sex and Contraceptive Experiences: Perspectives of Teenagers and Clinic Nurses in the Northern Province. MRC Technical Report, Pretoria, p11, 35

[26] Wood, K. & Jewkes, R. (1998) 'Love is a Dangerous Thing': Micro-Dynamics of Violence in Sexual Relationships of Young People in Umtata. Medical Research Council Technical Report: Pretoria, p10, 24

[27] E.g., Collins, T. & Stadler, J. (2001) Love, Passion and Play: Sexual Meaning among Youth in the Northern Province of South Africa. Paper presented at International Conference, AIDS in Context, April 4-7, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

[28] Lichtenstein, B. (2000) Virginity Discourse in the AIDS Era: A Case Analysis of Sexual Initiation Aftershock, NWSA J 12,2:52-69

[29] Carpenter, L. M. (2002) Gender and the meaning and experience of virginity loss in the contemporary United States, Gender & Society 16,3:345-65; Carpenter, L. M. (2001) The first time/das erstes mal: Approaches to virginity loss in U. S. and German teen magazines Youth & Society 33,1:31-61; Carpenter, L. M. (2001) The ambiguity of "having sex": The subjective experience of virginity loss in the United States, J Sex Res 38,2:127-39; Carpenter, L. M. (2000) Virgin territories: the social construction of virginity loss in the contemporary United States, DAI-A 60,7, Jan,2692-A. See also Blobel, R. & Silaschi, S. (1994) Das erste Mal (I); die ersten sexuellen Erfahrungen der Frau, Sexualmedizin 16,10:284-6; Lowry, T. P. (1982) First coitus, Med Asp Hum Sex 3,5:91-7; Lowry, T. P. (1982) First coitus, Br J Sex Med 9(91):31-3; Amuchastegui Herrera, A. (1999) Dialogue and the negotiation of meaning: Constructions of virginity in Mexico, Culture, Health & Sexuality 1,1:79-93. Also Amuchástegui Herrera, A. (1994) El Significado de la Virginidad y la Iniciación Sexual para Jóvenes Mexicanos. Reporte de investigación. The Population Council/UAM-Xochimilco, México; Amuchástegui Herrera, A. (1996) El significado de la virginidad y la iniciación sexual: Un relato de investigación, in Szasz, I. & Susana, L. (Eds.) Para Comprender la Subjetividad: Investigación Cualitativa en Salud Reproductiva y Sexualidad. México: El Colegio de México, p137-72; Amuchástegui Herrera, A. (1998) La dimensión moral de la sexualidad y de la virginidad en las culturas híbridas Mexicanas, Relaciones 19(74):101-34; Amuchástegui Herrera, A. (2001) Virginidad e Iniciación Sexual: Experiencias y Significados. EDAMEX, S.A. de C.V. y Population Council; Ntlabati, Kelly, K. & Mankayi, A. (April, 2001) The First Time: An Oral History of Sexual Debut in a Deep Rural Area. Conference presentation, AIDS in Context Conference, University of the Witwatersrand

[30] E.g., Remez, L. (2000) Oral Sex Among Adolescents: Is It Sex or Is It Abstinence? Fam Plann Perspect 32,6:298-304

[31] Udry, J. R. & Campbell, B. C. (1994) Getting started on sexual behavior, in Rossi, A. S. (Ed.) Sexuality Across the Life Course. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, p187-207

[32] Cf. Weiss, I. (1960) Premarital Sexual Standards in America. New York: Macmillan. Indeed, the category "premarital" sex has never been understood as applying to anything but coitus, and adolescence.

[33] Chapter 8.

[34] Pitts, M. & Rahman, Q. (2001) Which Behaviors Constitute "Having Sex" Among University Students in the UK?, Arch Sex Behav 30,2:169-76

[35] Early childhood intercourse is commonly received as "funny", "amusing", or at least smile-provoking in the adult or parental generation (Tuareg, Azande, Ijo, Bantu tribes, Baushi, Semai, Australian aborigines, Santal, Lepcha, Baiga, Dusun, New Guinea (Gimi, Eipo [boys], Trobrianders, Bimin-Kuskusmin, Batanabura), Qipi, Copper Inuit, New Britain, Marquesans, Tahitians, Pukapukans). The reaction is both phase- and culture-specific.

[36] Freund, K., Scher, H. & Hucker, S. (1983) The courtship disorders, Arch Sex Behav 12:369–79

[37] "Sideline" instruction would have been the case among the Australian natives, where onlookers "make lewd and suggestive comments".

[38] Anderson, E. (1989) Sex codes and family life among inner-city youths, Annals Am Acad Political & Social Studies 501:59-78 / Wilson, W. J. (Ed.) The Ghetto Underclass.

[39] Examples are found for the Kanuri, Baifa, Pangwe / Fan, Santal, Pedi, Xhosa, Ila, Baushi, Batetela, Alur, northern Basukuma, Shona, Thonga, Venda, Bemba, and in Tanzania; also Sharanahua

[40] Mantlewane (Seligman), or mandwane (Krige and Krige) or mantlantlwane (Pitje), or mantloana, or housie-housie (Gevisser and Cameron), and masanje (Stannus) or mansansa (Kokonge and Erny), masansa (Maxwell) or perhaps mahundwani ("miniature village") (Stayt).

[41] Another reason for uncertainty was offered by Meekers, D. (1995) Immaculate conceptions in sub-saharan Africa: exploratory analysis of inconsistencies in the timing of first sexual intercourse and first birth, Soc Biol 42,3-4:151-61

[42] From koite meaning "bed", "marriage bed". In a less formal way, the use of the term koite may stretch to playing the active role in copulation. Often there is no argument for this term, since its character lacks the subjective quality of imitation.

[43] Money once published a photographic representation of this form. It is only infrequently regarded as "sexual" by surveyors. The Child Sexual Behavior Inventory (Friedrich et al.) never included it.

[44] Of course, the imitation of child-rearing behaviour is near universal, as is morphological teleiomimicry (mammae=thelomimicry, pubes, barba, etc.). In some pre-industrial organisations children will stage-act initiation rites before their time, which may include mock circumcision and actual preputial conditioning to hasten sexual privileges with initiated women. Women, on the other hand, are widely reported to practice paedomimic techniques in the attempt of attracting a spouse.

[45] Cases are reported for the Kanuri, Pukapuka, Luo, and Comanche

[46] Gheerbrant, A. (1954) Journey to the Far Amazon. New York: Simon & Schuster, p314: "[…] the little girls of the tribe [Guaharibo] would often try to imitate their mothers and offer their little nipples to their brothers and cousins".

[47] E.g., Dinslage, S. (1986) Kinder der Lyela. Hohenschäflarn: K. Renner, p249-52; Price, S. (1993) Co-wives and Calabashes. 2nd ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, p13-4

[48] Patai, R. (1960) Family, Love and the Bible. Lonndon: MacGibbon & Kee

[49] Parten, M. B. (1933) Social play among preschool children, J Abnorm & Soc Psychol 28:136-47

[50] "Uitgesproken sexuele handelingen waren hierbij niet te constateren", argues Chabot, H. Th. (1950) Verwantschap, Stand en Sexe in Zuid-Celebes. Groningen/Djakarta: J. B. Wolters, p142. Play at marriage among Dinka children does not involve "any physical relationship", states Deng.

[51] A large number of cases of "imitated coitus" by parental example might be included here. Unambiguous ethnographic examples of the parental scenario with sexual elements, often coital, include: Australian aboriginals, Trobrianders, Western Papuas, Akamba, Kanuri, Ila, Mbuti, Bakatla, Amhara, Nuer, Nkole, Bemba (Bantu tribes in general, including Lobedu, Venda, Pedi), Baganda, India (Santals, Nimar Bahalis, Baiga, Lepchas) Chewa, Sisala, Ga, Tallensi, Gogo, Shona, Thonga, Nandi, Batetela, Muyaka, Baushi ("kitchen", etc.), Nkundo Mongo (also age stratified), Chaga, Sukuma, Bena (?), Azimba, Lake Nyasa, Pangwe / Fan, Mbum (and other Cameroon tribes), Kwakiutl, Blood (also Mother-and-Child), Klamath, Yakutat Tinglit, Hopi, Pawnee, Polynesia, Marquesan, Siuai, native Tahitians, Pukapukans, Mehinaku, Tapirapé, Yanoama, Sharanahua, Jamaica, and many European countries. The game is most probably universal, including some of the ethnographic reports on children's marriage playing without a reference to genital behaviour.

[52] Kanuri (Cohen), Bakatla (Schapera, acc. Seligman), Morocco (Davis and Davis), Baganda (Kinsman et al.).

[53] An illustrative example describes Ethiopian Amhara children: "Their powers of observation, active, free and relatively unstructured prior to later discipline, imitate in their play activities the social relations, including the family and sexual-social relationships of their elders. When about five years old, boys and girls - for the sexes are not yet separated up to that time - play "house" with considerable sophistication. For example, when they play "marriage", the "father" of the "bride" goes to the "elders" to inquire about the character of the "groom", after the groom's father has initiated the negotiations on the groom's request. They build a "marriage hut", and play at heavy drinking of barley-beer and honey-mead. The "bride" demands a gift from her new "husband", and enters into his "residence". After they have been in there a while, the two best-men […], who had been duly sworn to protect her even against her husband, go off to the bride's parents to announce loudly and joyfully that the girl had proven a virgin! Whereupon the mize are feted" (Messing and Bender). [note: The mize are married relatives or friends of the groom who may perform the task of ceremonial defloration when not accomplished by him, and who take the bloodstained cloth as proof of the girl's virginity]

[54] Moll, A. (1908) Das Sexualleben des Kindes. Leipzig: Vogel

[55] Ploß and Bartels (I:p392); Bloch (1902, I:p254)

[56] Martinson, F. M. (1973) Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective. St. Peter, MN: The Book Mark

[57] Ribal, J. E. (1973) Learning Sex Roles: American and Scandinavian Contrasts. San Francisco, Calif.: Canfield

[58] See preparatory literature review by the author.

[59] Case by Martinson: "Near the age of six or seven holding the genitalia would give me a vague feeling of security. I would do this frequently in bed and it seemed almost an unconscious action that was associated with security". The presence of "scripts" does not become apparent.

[60] E.g., Burgest, D. R. 1990) Sexual Games in Black Male/Female Relations, J Black Stud 21,1:103-16;

Anderson, E. (1989) Sex Codes and Family Life among Poor Inner-City Youths, Ann Am Acad Polit & Soc Sci 501, Jan.:59-78

[61] Langfeldt, Th. (1990) Early childhood and juvenile sexuality, development and problems, in Perry, M. E. (Ed.) Handbook of Sexology, Vol. 7. Amsterdam: Elsevier, p179-200

[62] This is explicitly documented for the Melanesians, Santals, Bakatla, Kwakiutl, Dobe Ju, Pawnee, Ingalik, former Blood Indians, Tenetehara, Netsilik Eskimos, Alorese, Barabaig, Akamba, Bemba, Gogo, Kikuyu, Ruandese, northern Basukuma, Pedi, in rural Tanzanians, Sharanahua, Sweden, non-native Americans and occurs in many more, probably including some of the ethnographic reports on children's hut-building without a reference to sexuality.

[63] Doke, C. M. (1931) The Lambas of Northern Rhodesia. London [etc.]: Harrap

[64] See "Versunken in Mysterischer Betrachtung": Proto-Orgasms and Other Choppers to Chop Off Your Head. Unpublished literature review by the author.

[65] E.g., Edwardes and Masters (1961:p138-9). Hiatt (1965:p105-6) heard from an informant that native Australian boys "used saliva to lubricate the girl's vaginas". Falkenberg and Falkenberg (1981:p77-8) stated that uncircumcised boys from the Marinbata tribe use secretions of a specific orchid (tjalamajin) applied to the penis as a lubricant; a modern substitute is soap. An elder informant for the Botswana !Kung told Shostak (1981:p112) that a boy "[...] takes some saliva, rubs it on her [girl's] genital, gets on top and pokes around with his semi-erection, as tough he were actually having intercourse [...]". Voget (1961:p100) stated that Crow boys of 8 and 9 were invited by pubescent and sometimes older girls to "urinate in lieu of ejaculation".

[66] Cohen, R. (1967) The Kanuri of Bornu. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., p61; Cohen, R. (1971) Dominance and Defiance: A Study of Marital Instability in an Islamic African Society. Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association, p78

[67] Hermann, I. (1922) Geheime Gesellschaften der Kinder und die Sexualität, Archiv f Frauenk [...] 8:175-7

[68] Langfeldt, Th. (1981) Childhood masturbation: individual and social organization, in Constantine, L. & Martinson, F. (Eds.) Children and Sex: New Findings, New Perspectives. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., p63-72, at p67-8; cf. Langfeldt (1990:p188-92), op.cit.

[69] Explicit statements are found for the U.S., Baluba, Baushi, Crow, Mohave, Aritama, Okinawa, Argentina, Poland; Tahiti?. See for instance Cornog, M. (Sept, 2000) The Circle Game: Social Masturbation for Young and Old(er). Paper presented at the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, Midconti Region Annual Conference, May 20-23, Madison, Wisconsin. Cf. Cornog, M. (2001) Group masturbation among young and old(er): a summary with questions, J Sex Educ & Ther 26,4:340-6

[45] Cases are reported for the Kanuri, Pukapuka, Luo, and Comanche

[47] E.g., Dinslage, S. (1986) Kinder der Lyela. Hohenschäflarn: K. Renner, p249-52; Price, S. (1993) Co-wives and Calabashes. 2nd ed. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, p13-4

[48] Patai, R. (1960) Family, Love and the Bible. Lonndon: MacGibbon & Kee

[49] Parten, M. B. (1933) Social play among preschool children, J Abnorm & Soc Psychol 28:136-47

[52] Kanuri (Cohen), Bakatla (Schapera, acc. Seligman), Morocco (Davis and Davis), Baganda (Kinsman et al.).

[54] Moll, A. (1908) Das Sexualleben des Kindes. Leipzig: Vogel

[55] Ploß and Bartels (I:p392); Bloch (1902, I:p254)

[56] Martinson, F. M. (1973) Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective. St. Peter, MN: The Book Mark

[57] Ribal, J. E. (1973) Learning Sex Roles: American and Scandinavian Contrasts. San Francisco, Calif.: Canfield

[58] See preparatory literature review by the author.

[60] E.g., Burgest, D. R. 1990) Sexual Games in Black Male/Female Relations, J Black Stud 21,1:103-16;

Anderson, E. (1989) Sex Codes and Family Life among Poor Inner-City Youths, Ann Am Acad Polit & Soc Sci 501, Jan.:59-78

[61] Langfeldt, Th. (1990) Early childhood and juvenile sexuality, development and problems, in Perry, M. E. (Ed.) Handbook of Sexology, Vol. 7. Amsterdam: Elsevier, p179-200

[63] Doke, C. M. (1931) The Lambas of Northern Rhodesia. London [etc.]: Harrap

[64] See "Versunken in Mysterischer Betrachtung": Proto-Orgasms and Other Choppers to Chop Off Your Head. Unpublished literature review by the author.

[67] Hermann, I. (1922) Geheime Gesellschaften der Kinder und die Sexualität, Archiv f Frauenk [...] 8:175-7

[70] The Henries called this the "spreading" of sexuality

[71] Martinson, F. M. (1974) The Quality of Adolescent Sexual Experiences. St. Peter, MN: The Book Mark, p40-1

[72] Cobb, J. C. (1997) Outercourse as a safe and sensible alternative to contraceptives, Am J Public Health 87,8:1380-1; Genuis, S. J. & Genuis, S. K. (1996) Orgasm without organisms: science or propaganda? Clin Pediatr [Phila] 35,1:10-7

[73] Comfort, A. (1964) The Koka Shastra. New York: Stein and Day.

[74] Cf. Sir Richard F. Burton (Transl., 1885) The Ananga Ranga, ch. VIII, "Treating of External Enjoyments", meaning "[…] the processes which should always precede internal enjoyment or coition. The wise have said that before congress, we must develop the desire of the weaker sex through certain preliminaries, which are many and various; such as the various embraces and kisses; the Nakhadana, or unguiculations; the Dashanas, or morsications; the Keshagrahanas, or manipulating the hair, and other amorous blandishments. These affect the senses and divert the mind from coyness and coldness. After which tricks and toyings, the lover will proceed to take possession of the place". These were not designed to spare the child bride, for the next chapter on "internal enjoyments" deals with a FAQ: "Well, if a woman be only twelve or thirteen years old, and the man is quite grown up, and has lost the first vigour of his youth, what must be done to make them equal?" "In such a case, the legs of the woman must be stretched out to the fullest extent, so as to weaken the powers, and by these means the man will prove himself her equal".

[75] Preconsummatory: Arab Muslims, Omani, Iran, Turkey, Gilbert Islands, Ngoni, Shona, Lemba, South Africa (formerly), Tebu, Nandi, Zulu, Nyakyusa; Sri Lanka. Also Bemba, Ovimbundu (debated)

[76] Kikuyu, Zulu, Mpondo

[77] Paige, K. E. & Paige, J. M. (1981) The Politics of Reproductive Ritual. Berkeley [etc.]: University of California Press

[78] Ericksen, K. P. (1989) Female genital mutilations in Africa, Behav Sci Res 23,1:182-204

[79] 32 are identified: Amhara, Arusi, Ashanti, Bambara, Barabra, Buduma, Diula, Egypt, Fon, Futajalonke, Ganda, Ibo, Kabyle, Kafa, Kanembu, Kikuyu, Luguru, Mao, Mbum, Mbundu, Mossi, Nyakyusa, Riffains, Sandawe, Siwa, Somali, Songhai, Swazi, Teda, Venda, Wolof, Zazzagawa

[80] Africa: Chaga, Kikuyu, Hausa, Dakarkaki, Nyakyusa, Xhosa, Tebu, Swazi, N'Jemp, Amazulu, Kipsigis, Venda, Pedi (debated), Bemba

[81] Hlobonga or ukusoma (Amazulu), ngwiko (Kikuyu) or ombani na ngweko (N'Jemp), tsarance (Hausa), metsha (Xhosa, Tebu) along with unkuncokolisa and uku-phathaphatha, kujuma (Swasi), kuchompa (Ila), lukh (Wa-Sania). Other expressions include "petting of the pubic apron" (Otoro) and "placing of arms" (Lugbara). Formerly, South African boys and girls had to be instructed "not to play inside", and only to have " "panty" or "thigh" sex" (Ntlabati, Kelly and Mankayi, 2001:p9, 11, 18).

[82] Valentine, C. H. & Revson, J. E. (1979) Cultural Traditions, Social Change, and Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa, J Modern Afr Studies 17,3:453-72, at p460

[83] Lewis, W. C. (1965) Coital movements in the first year of life, Int J Psychoanal 46:372-4

[84] Friedrich et al. (1991): 1.1% (overall), 0.8% (male, 2-6), 0.4% (female, 2-6), 2.4% (male, 7-12), 1.1% (female, 7-12), N=880; Friedrich et al. (1998): 0.4% in male and 1.1 in female 2-5-y-olds, N=287; Lindblad et al. (1995): (games simulating adult sexual activity"): 3.2% in preschoolers, 0.4% often/daily; Friedrich et al. (1998) did not include the item (CSBI-3); Schoentjes et al. (1999): 5.0% (all ages), 2.3% (2-5), 8.7% (6-9), 5.9% (10-12), N=917. Davies et al. (2000) reported that of behaviours interpreted as sexual, "the commonest behavior to be mentioned, by 31% of the staff, was a child simulating sexual intercourse with another child", being "one child on top of the other". Penile intromission was observed in "few"children, and led to a 100% reporting behaviour (to parents). For further observations, see Isaacs, S. (1933) Social Development in Young Children. 1945 ed. London : Routledge & Sons, p144, 145, 146

[85] Friedrich, W.N., Grambsch, P., Broughton, D., Kuiper, J., & Beilke, R.L. (1991) Normative sexual behavior in children, Pediatrics 88,3:456-64; Lindblad, F., Gustafsson, R., Larsson, I. & Lundin, B. (1995) Preschoolers' sexual behavior at daycare centers: An epidemiological study, Child Abuse & Negl 19:569_¯77; Phipps-Yonas, S., Yonas, A., Turner, M., & Kauper, M. (1993) Sexuality in Early Childhood: The Observations and Opinions of Family Daycare Providers, CURA Rep 23,2:1-5; López, F., Campo, A. del & Guijo, V. (nd/1997?) Sexualidad Prepuberal. Prepuberal Sexuality. Report, Madrid; Schoentjes, E., Deboutte, D. & Friedrich, W. (1999) Child sexual behavior inventory: a Dutch-speaking normative sample, Pediatrics 104,4:885-93; Davies, S. L., Glaser, D. & Kossoff, R. (2000) Children's sexual play and behavior in pre-school settings: staff's perceptions, reports, and responses, Child Abuse & Negl 24,10:1329-43

[86] E.g., Hammond, B. E. & Ladner, J. A. (1969) Socialization into sexual behavior in a negro slum ghetto, in Broderick, C. B. & Bernard, J. (Eds.) The Individual, Sex, and Society. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, p41-51, at p43-4. Quoted by Rainwater, L. (1970) Behind Ghetto Walls: Black Families in a Federal Slum. London: Allen. Pelican, 1973, p349; Yates, A. (1978) Sex Without Shame. New York: William Morrow, p93-9; Johnson, C. S. (1941) Growing Up in the Black Belt. Washington: American Council on Education; Berger (1977) Child-rearing research in communes: the extension of adult sexual behavior to young children, in Oremland, E. K. & Oremland, J. D. (Eds.) The Sexual and Gender Development of Young Children: The Role of the Educator. Cambridge, Mass : Ballinger, p159-63, at p159

[87] Committee of Lutheran Pastors, Die Geschlechtliche-Sittliche Verhältnisse im Deutschen Reiche. Bd I., p277 [cited by Ellis]; Stekel, W. (1895) Über Coitus im Kindesalter; eine hygienische Studie, Wien Med Blätt 18,16 (April 18th):247-9; Moll (1908 [1912:p82, cf. 199, 223]), op.cit.; Bloch (1909:p699-700); Schönfeld, W. (1924) Über Geschlechtsverkehr unter Kindern und durch diesen übertragene Geschlechtskrankheiten, ein Beitrag zur Zunahme erworbener Geschlechts-krankheiten bei Kindern; Dtsch Med Wochenschr 25, June 20:841-2; Bodek, G. (1924) Über Koitierversuche von Kindern, Dtsch Med Wochenschr 48, Nov.28:1651-2. Moll ([1912:p54]) describes the facultas [potentia] coeudi, that is, the Beischlaf- or Begattungsfähigkeit, of children in terms of prespermarchic secretions, whereas the concept usually refers to potentia erigendi.

[88] Brilleslijper-Kater, S. N. & Baartman, H. E. M. (1997) Over bloemetjes en bijtjes: wat weten kinderen van 2 tot en met 6 jaar over seksualiteit, Tijdschr Seksuol [Dutch] 21:65-73

[89] Volbert. R. (2000) Sexual knowledge of preschool children, J Psychol & Hum Sex 12,1/2:5-26. Cf. Volbert, R. & Zanden, R. van der (1996) Sexual knowledge and behavior of children up to 12 years: What is age-appropriate? in Davies, G., Lloyd-Bostock, S., McMurren, M. & Wilson, C. (Eds.) Psychology, Law, and Criminal Justice. International Developments in Research and Practice. Berlin: De Gruyter, p198-215; Volbert, R. & Homburg, A. (1996) Was wissen 2-bis 6jährige Kinder über Sexualität? Zeitschr f Entwicklungspsychol & Pädagog Psychol 28:210-27

[90] Gebhard, P. H. (1977) The acquisition of basic sex information, J Sex Res 13:148-69

[91] Best, R. (1983) We've All Got Scars. Bloomington: Indiana University Press

[92] Note that the CSBI recording is a retrospective measure, and that comparisons with prospective techniques are lacking.

[93] Preparatory material.

[94] Henry, J. & Henry, Z. (1944) Doll Play of the Pilagá Indian Children. New York: American Orthopsychiatric Association, Research Monographs No. 4. Reprinted in 1974, Random House

[95] Róheim G. (1974) Children of the Desert. New York: Basic Books. Vol. I

[96] Fernandez, J. W. (1982) Bwiti, An Ethnography of the Religious Imagination in Africa. Princeton: Princeton University Press

[97] Hernández, Th. (1941) Children among the Drysdale river tribes, Oceania 12,2:122-33

[98] Róheim, G. (1941) Play Analysis with Normanby Island Children, Am J Orthopsychia 11:524-9. Reprinted in Muensterberger, W. (Ed., 1969) Man and His Culture: Psychoanalytic Anthropology After "Totem and Taboo". London: Rapp & Whiting, p177-85. Cf. Schwartzman, H. B. (1978) Transformations: The Anthropology of Children's Play. New York & London: Plenum, p154-5

[99] Landy, D. (1959) Tropical Childhood. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1965 ed.

[100] I will here postpone a discussion of "developmental homosexualities" covered in §s 8.2.1 and 8.3.2

[101] Lamb and Cloakley (1993) proposed the following "normative" (nonabusive) typology for nonnative North American female undergraduates: playing doctor, exposure, experiments in stimulation, kissing games, fantasy sexual play, and "other". Any "dry hump" would have to be categorised as type three or five play. See Lamb, S. & Cloakley, M. (1993) "Normal" childhood sexual play and games: differentiating play from abuse, Child Abuse & Negl 17:515-26

[102] Metschnikof, E. ([1910]) Studien über die Natur des Menschen. 2nd ed. Leipzig: Von Veit & Co., p113

[103] Bloch, I. ([1928]) The Sexual Life of Our Time. New York: Allied Book Co., p12

[104] Morris, D. (1967) The Naked Ape. 1986 ill. Dutch ed. Utrecht/Aartselaar: Bruna & Zn., p81. Morris elsewhere argued that "no real", "no functional" sexual activity can be seen before puberty, "apart from a large number of so-called sexual games". Morris later acknowledged "symbolic love play", only in the broadest "instead of the limited sexual sense".