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The Sexual Curriculum (Oct., 2002) [to Volume II Index] [to Main Index Page] [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 7 [previous chapter] [next chapter]Sex Training. The Neglected Fourth
Dimension in Erotagogical Ideologies
"Does a young crab have to be
taught how to dig earth?"[1] Boy: O, sister-in-law, do
please put my hand on your breasts (on the chest) O, sister-in-law (please) raise
my hand.
(What will happen then?) Boy: It is not paddy, tied in
a cloth, Or paddy stored in baskets, O dear; What will be the sign to know
things from?[2] Summary:
The concept and practice of sexual training, as it is virtually unknown in
Western erotic discourse, is discussed. Observations are reviewed on various
instances of explicit and direct transmission of sexual techniques: coitus
demonstrations, institutional intructrices, semi-formal age-stratified coital
introductions, less flagrantly age-dismatched patterns, age-nonsegregated
dormitory systems, active shaping of heterosexual identity/role, and enforced
coitarche. Compromising previous schematisations, these processes advocate a
bidirectional classification of sex education discourses, allowing for positive
operationalisations. Contents [up]
7.1 Conceptualising Sexual Regulation 7.1.3 Sex "Education" Discourses 7.2 Training Sex: A Round-Up of Practices 7.2.1 Anatomical Preparations: The
Manufactured Sexual Apparatus 7.2.2 Physiological Preparations: The
Manufactured Sexual Habitus 7.2.3 Behavioural Encouragements 7.2.4 Genital Stimulation: Prosexual
and Anticipating Dimensions 7.2.5 The Instructrix/-Tor: African
Case 7.2.6 Age-Stratified Coital
Initiation / Instruction of Boys 7.2.7 Age-Stratified Coital
Initiation / Instruction of Girls 7.2.8 Other "Initiations" and
Recruitments: Age Stratified Pair-Bonding and Prostitution 7.2.9 Adolescent-Preadolescent and
Peer "Initiations" 7.2.10 The Dormitory: Initiatory
Environments 7.2.11 Cultivating Sexual Identity:
Genetics of Sexual/Gendered Persona 7.2.12 Enforced Experiences: The
"Fifth" Mode of Socialisation 7.4 Impressions for a Poststructuralist Perspective 7.0
Introduction [up] [Contents]
This chapter challenges unilateral culturalist ramifications of efforts to transmit technical sexological knowledge. By no means pretending to offer a thorough cross-cultural or cross-historical challenge, it will be observed that sexual "education" is subject to a most variable degree of pedagogisation. Pedagogisation of sexual initiation (Foucault) is here interpreted to be operationalised along a negativist-positivist scale, and along a second activist-abstinence scale. Whereas European pedagogical discourses have evolved from broadly negativist to positivist orientations over the past three centuries, there is still a distinctly non-pragmatic or even covertly anti-interventionalist discourse in sexological teaching. The cover-up is provided by the decentralisation of "clarifying" sex matters, from coitus to negative or anti-negative contextualisation of coitarche. This circumlocution renders the early sexual/erotic realm ambiguous[3] and problematic. This chapter aims at (1) the identification of ethnocentrically biased terminology and categorisation efforts in understanding sexological processes (§7.1); (2) demonstrate how ethnographic material argues for a modification of these classifications (§7.2) thus redefining the space between sexual cultures, and challenging traditional ethnosexologist comparison. 7.1 Conceptualising Sexual
Regulation [up] [Contents]
7.1.1 Previous Efforts [up] [Contents]
Ford and Beach's classical trichotomisation of cultural attitudes regarding sexual behaviour socialisation does not accommodate the occurrence of "positive" approaches to the "problem". Mere "permissiveness" does not adequately cover elements of "encouragement", "stimulation", "pressure", "force", "obligation", etc. A "fourth" mode was listed by Currier (1981)[4] as "supportive" alongside "repressive", "restrictive", and "permissive" curricula. The Human Relations Area File (1937) traditionally lists category 864 under the name Sex Training. Its fairly neutral description[5] does not specifically address or identify positive elements. For the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample, phase-specific "sexual restraint" was conceptualised as "a measure of taboo or restrictions [etc.]" in a 1976 article[6]. Further, it takes a specific set of mind to, as was done in a later article (1984)[7] (1) define "nonrestraint" as "restraint" subtracted from its hypothetical maximum, and then (2) continue to define "freedom" as indulgence added to "nonrestraint". Older material focuses on "premarital freedom" which likewise restricts realities to the absence or presence of prohibitions. 7.1.2 Discussion [up] [Contents]
This negative definition of "training" as implied by most if not all major categorisation efforts is opposed by the frequent description of practices that are truly sexologically preparatory, regarding either the sexual apparatus (chapters 12 and 13), or sexual technology. A workable definition of this "sex training" proper (erotagogy) as opposed to "sexual" restriction, would be, the customary pedagogical, preparatory curriculum
concerning the practice of genital activity and interactions, and /or the
genital physiology, as it pertains to acts considered erotic and/or procreative
in nature. Thus, it includes active, contributive, shaping and stimulatory interactions within any vertical dyad, in which there is a student and mentor role. The expression "training" is used occasionally in industrial literature up to the 1960s[8], but this use is to be considered careless since the curricula described include only inhibitory practices. Equally, in cases where parents "made their [initiated] daughter sleep on a shelf above their own bed to make sure that she would not be molested"[9], "training" would hardly be appropriate language. Some authors seem to have confused concepts of education and "training" altogether[10]. According one author in the 1950s, "[a] nice distinction may be made between two phases of sex education: 1) that of providing sex information, and 2) that of providing sex training. By providing sex information we mean teaching the biological facts concerning sex; by sex training, the development of habits and attitudes conducive to healthy living […]. Sex training should be […] the province of the home; providing sex information the province of the school"[11]. This compartimentalisation is fraud with the fact that education and "training" (in the sense of in- or prohibition) are intimately interconnected, unlike "instruction". Sex education more often than not counteroperationalises specific activities thereby enforcing curricular control; a large part is not "sexual" but medically, politically, ideologically, if not theologically significant. Becker[12] distinguishes societies approximating some configuration of sex-promoting and sex-inhibiting definitions. In a 2x2 matrix this produces "sex-negative" (e.g., Manus), "sex-positive" (Mangaians), "sex-neutral" (Ik, East Africa), and "sex-ambivalent" (Americans) societies. A testing of Becker's hypothesis seems compromised by the fact that sexual attitudes are measured via an (inverted) negative definition only: there is no (SCCS) measure accommodating antithetical positions toward sexual behaviour. There was no attempt at statistical verification. Post-industrial concepts of erotogenetics
generally embrace the idea that sexual activity needs not be trained, not even
practised[13]. Its
agogical control is organised around the concepts of limitation (border
setting) and delay. The concept of initiation,
however, is frequently entertained when occurring between consenting, though nevertheless statutorily asymmetric, adolescents. The term apparently appeals
to a substantial difference in experience, that is, either to the curricular
precocity of the seductor/-trix, or the inexpertise (curricular retardation?)
of the novice. Instruction, as may
be, also embodies a selling pornographic idiom, in which the centrality of age
stratification is thinly, or not at all, disguised. The technique employed here
clearly is the caricatured asymmetry of knowledge, and not erotic potency of
the initiand, while the central erotogenetic intent seems to include a
voyeuristic interest for a sexual practicum
which at first is unilateral but would end up mutual. Sometimes the initiand
attracts the instructor, or the agogic script, by means of a courtship style
inspired by the elements of ignorance and dyspraxia, sometimes a complete
apraxia. As such, paedomimic courtship
is an established attribute of female stereotyped pose and intonation. It has
been observed that in some ethnographic cases of age-stratified marriage
husbands organise matters to co-raise their wives when young, ensuring their
control of her sexual upbringing[14]. It has been argued that the lack of initiation rites is central to the understanding of the cultural "adolescent problem", but the reverse ideology has also been entertained. Commenting on initiations among "savage" people, Richmond (1935:p335)[15] argues: "In our own society also the
boy frequently undergoes a sort of initiation, at the hands of the gang or older
men and boys, who pass on to him their ideas of sex, often false and perverted,
the product of their own "gutter education" [[16]].
What he should understand as normal and universal experiences take on sinister meanings
and, instead of the wholesome acceptance of sex as that which is to give
meaning and purpose to the greater part of his after life, he comes to regard
it with a furtive and salacious interest which too often cuts him off from
later appreciation and enjoyment of the aesthetic and emotional values which,
in civilized people, are the normal outgrowth of the sex instinct". Thus, the narrative went, they fall prey to unscrupulous homosexuals, recruiting them "in their impressionable stage". The concept of coital self-training is discussed elsewhere[17]. Here, I would like to provide a quick cross-cultural roundup of practices that aim to "train" sex in an unambiguously preparatory sense, and in a real or role-acted age-stratified setting. 7.1.3 Sex "Education" Discourses [up] [Contents]
The promotion of sexuality contrasts "the dispensing of sexual knowledge as a prophylactic for the unwelcomed consequences of freewheeling sexual behavior" as "the cornerstone of modern sexuality education"[18]. Sex "education" programmes are known to combine "a number of genres of understanding"[19]. Concepts of "educating sex" are themselves the prime signifiers of sexual cultures[20], of political positioning[21], wider political discourses[22], pedagogical performance[23], etc. Western society takes a "tolerance" crusade (§8.1.1), "education" variably being informed by ideas about "healthy"[24], atraumatic, and "unhurried" (§16.1.4) "developments". At this level, sociologists have lobbied for acknowledging performative aspects of "education"[25], shaping rather than informing "sexualities". For instance, adolescent bodies were portrayed as "unfinished", in the process of "becoming sexual bodies"[26], rendering them "unformed, vulnerable, or even dangerous"[27]. As for the thematic sphere, American sex education would stress "the dangers and hydraulics of human sexuality, not questions of pleasure"[28]. This would be necessitated given the alleged "dissolution of sexual restraint" having led to "premature sexuality in children and youth, which poses not only the risks of pregnancy and disease but also serious emotional damage"[29]. In a similar characterisation[30] it was argued that "[s]ex education is about character; in a sex education course issues of right and wrong should occupy center stage. In too many cases, however, sex education in American classrooms is a destructive experience" in terms of pregnancy and maltreatment. Without it, there is also destruction: "The breakdown of the American family may be a contributing factor
in causing premature sexual activity, along with the strong adolescent sex
drive, the fear of loneliness and the media. An immediate consequence of
premature sexual activity is the hurt stemming from a broken relationship.
Following the break-up of a relationship, teenage girls can have problems with
interpersonal commitment. Communication and trust may suffer in a
sexually-based relationship and one's reputation may be harmed. Career and
education plans, as well as health, can be altered when teenagers become
sexually active. Teenagers who avoid sex can explore other avenues of
involvement and can have the satisfaction of being in control"[31]. On this basis, abstinence is "educated". Within European settings, differences are found in the localisation of authority and curriculum[32], but few differences were found in the behaviours defined as "sexual" and on pre-school staff and parental characteristics required to provide "appropriate" "sex" education. This is suggestive of a uniformity in the conceptualising of "educating" the "sexual" in the Western world, a concept which appears to quite at odds with selected African systems, as will be delineated next. 7.2
Training Sex: A Roundup of Practices [up] [Contents]
Stephens (1971:p407) found that "formal sex instruction" would precede puberty initiation in a number of societies. The issue indeed seems to revolve around the concepts of formality and instruction. It is frequently suggested that children "everywhere" derive their sexology from the street[33], a situation, however, nearly always considered inappropriate. Rather than encouraged, activities are shaped into a curriculum that is variably informed by elements such as kinship, age strata, gender, etc. On Ponape, "children are given detailed sex instruction at the age of four or five years". The chronology of verbal education, however, offers only indefinite clues to whether the practice is essentially a symptom of delay (control), or an exponent of role facilitation. In the following subchapters, the focus is placed on such cross-generational institutions not encountered in contemporary Western society, that are unambiguously facilitating or anticipating future sexual activity. 7.2.1 Anatomical Preparations: The Manufactured Sexual
Apparatus[34] [up] [Contents]
Thelopoesis often occurs by parental or tribal initiative (South Africa, Kai, Timbira, Aranda, Tiwi). In other cases parental instigation, direct or indirect, is likely but girls practice it among themselves (Tzeltal, Chipita, Chaga, Batetela, Ashanti, Trobrianders); Burmese and Amboa parents employ antithelopoetic techniques for aesthetic reasons. Cosmetic of functional preparation of the cunnus in some way of another is practiced in a number of societies[35]. This is taught or performed by the mother (Marquesan, Hawai'i, Nkundo, Luba, Hottentot, Zimbabwe [vaRemba], Mangaia, Ra'Ivavae), by men (Ponape), by older comrades (Betchuans, Shona, Baushi) or in puberty schools (Venda). In other cases of peer or self-inflicted preparation, the instigation of elderly is sometimes described. Chinese footbinding was invented to prepare the role of the female foot for its use as a culture-wide male fetish (DeMause)[36]. Female[37] introcision (the enlargement of the vaginal opening by tearing or cutting the perineum) was practised among some of the aboriginal Australians (notably, Pitta-Patta, north-western Queensland) in order to facilitate the first experience of sexual intercourse (Head, 1978; Cook, 1979; Huelsman, 1976)[38]. The custom was said to be exclusive for these people (Gregersen, 1983:p106); however, it was said to be practised in eastern Mexico, Brazil, and in North-Eastern Peru, among a division of the Pano Indians (Conibos)[39], while unconfirmed sources speak of its practice in Somalia. The widespread[40] custom of artificial (noncoital, precoital) defloration, together with some form of vaginal dilatation, is frequently attributed to a need for sparing the male, and perhaps the female, of the horror deflorationis, anatomically or socially speaking. Sometimes the practice would be self-inflicted[41], but much to the same purpose. Old Arab physicians encouraged masturbation for phallopoetic purposes[42], advice also surfacing in medieval Europe (Falloppius, 1600:p336-7, as cited by DeMause, 1999)[43]. New Guinean androtrophic cults generally include phallotrophic intents; this was also noted for the Malukula Big Nambas. Ploß mentions penile elongation in Paraguay (communicated by Mantegazza): "Wenn in Paraguay die Hebamme ein Kind männlichen Geschlechts empfängt, so zieht man mit ihren Händen sehr strak den Penis lang". At circumcision, Ndembu novices are given tortoise (mbachi) meat to eat "to give them a strong penis" (Turner, 1968:p254)[44]. In other cases[45] of self-directed phallopoetic potions and medicines, a direct or indirect parental suggestion cannot be ruled out. Another preparation is that of artificial preputial adhaesiolysis[46]. Mantegazza relates that among the Pintadas Islands young men, "from childhood on", were used to wear a metal or ivory snakehead in a hole in the phallus, a "stimulant" called sagras; Christianity would have ended the practice. 7.2.2 Physiological Preparations: The Manufactured Sexual
Habitus[47] [up] [Contents]
These include the concerns for erectile potency, spermatogenesis, menarche, etc. In this sense it is frequently observed that age stratified coitus is practised with the rationalisation of effectuating or accelerating the occurrence of menarche or other pubertal signifiers[48]. 7.2.3 Behavioural Encouragements [up] [Contents]
Specific encouragement of childhood sex
play is rarely documented[49].
De Flacourt[50] (1658; as cited by Karsch-Haack, 1901[1983:p251]; Karsch-Haack, 1911:p178)[51] on Madagascar: "[…] schon kleine
Knaben und kleine Mädchen trieben Liebespiele im Beisein ihrer Eltern, welche
darüber lachten und selbst dazu Anreiz
gaben […]" (ital.add.). As Margold surveys in 1926, "Bakongo parents encourage their
girls and boys in their sex play long before puberty, "as it shows that they
had proper desires, and later in life they would bear children"[52],
and Ila speaking natives regard their children's very early sexual
practices "as preparation and training for what is man's and woman's chief
business in life"[53].
Somewhat comparable, Tukano "[…] adults stimulate the youths during puberty in
their erotic games and are proud of their precociousness even when this is not
expressed in heterosexual acts"[54].
Frazer[55]
details a remarkable Ari (New
Guinea) custom of coitally "initiating" children group-wise in a
semi-institutional setting: "When
a boy is getting near puberty families meet and arrange—another family have a
girl coming on, and they are approached and arrangement made for a combined
feast. The maternal uncles decorate the children and they are given dance
ornaments, and a dance is arranged. The boy is told during the dance to take
the girl and have connection with her; the dance lasts all night, and whilst
the people dance outside the boy "has" the girl in his parents' house. […] this
connection has no effect on future marriage, and has nothing to do with it—it
is merely initiation. The dance may last several days, and advantage is taken
of it to initiate all children who can be. However long the dance lasts the two
children only copulate once. This is called Iarata, and all boys initiated are
called Iarata" (p470-1). De
Coccola and King (1986:p85) described the intergenerational transmission of Eskimo
sexual mores taking place continuous from infancy: "Normally little Eskimo girls are first shown by their parents how to submit sexually to those little boys to whom they have been promised and to whom they will be married at puberty or sooner. If the young females do not yield their bodies to the advances of their affianced, or if they prove unreceptive, the adults will urge them on with words of encouragement and by suggestive movements. Or else they will poke fun at the beginners and tease them, all the while roaring with laughter. Most children were introduced to such sexual games when they were still taking milk from their mothers' breasts. Their parents and neighbors had manipulated their intimate parts as far back as they could remember. It was nothing new to them, and they seemed to enjoy these experiments. Visiting their young friends was another opportune occasion for the children to fondle one another, to excite their sexual desires, and to caricature the physical raptures of their parents with cries of "It's wonderful!" ". Encouragement of females is at times part of a distinct cultural ambivalence. After menache, the Tunisian girl was not allowed outside the house "for anything but the most legitimate social reasons"; paradoxically, they are encouraged to dress up and "look attractive". This corresponds to behaviour of the father towards his three-year-old girl, who "encourages a sort of demanding flirtatious feminine behavior forbidden his wife" (Gram). The same paradox was observed among the Chagga (Raum). 7.2.4 Genital Stimulation: Prosexual and Anticipating
Dimensions[56] [up] [Contents]
Infants' genitalia are stimulated in a multitude of societies (N>70), though specific encouragement of self-masturbation would be on the agenda among the Katschtka, Japanese, Basuto (variable), and Cubeo only (all highly doubtful cases). Japanese mothers would teach their sons how to masturbate, helping them to achieve first ejaculation in much the same manner as they earlier helped them with toilet training (Kitahara); Sioux fathers, too, would learn their sons to masturbate and encourage them to do so on a regular basis (Sarlin). In Puerto Rico (and Latin America in general) and among the Spanish Gitano the practice seems firmly entrenched in the active cultivation of machismo, and this element may be central in other places (Suriname, Saramaka). In other cases, erectile functions need to be checked, and if aberrant, fixed. The elements of potency (e.g., Senegal, Zaire [Bakwa-Luntu, Bakongo], Tanzania, Martinique) and virility (e.g., Puerto Rico, Turkey; Aritama) seem to be genuine anticipating concerns. In some cases manipulations of the mother have been motivated by preparatory intents[57]. 7.2.5
The Instructrix/-Tor: African Case [up] [Contents]
Industrial societies are reckoned for their (quasi-)institutionalised sex talks at pubescence, dogmatically parental, and homosocial. Variations on this theme (uncles, godfathers, chaplains, rabbis) are noted frequently, but today's role for the scholastic institution, and for library booklets, may seem unrivalled. Whether depersonalised sexological transfers have come to replace classical European Talks is open for study. Today's ethics centralise the longitudinal curricular approach, in which parents come to the essence in gradual (above all, "appropriate") steps before and during puberty, if at all. If anything, parental efforts lie in the range of delay and restriction, as their essential priority is, and no obscurity here is in place, to censor possibly instructional ("operationalising") sources (cf. chapter 10). The detail of African sex education is unparalleled in other continents[58]. The technique of coitus is covered in detail in the sexual education curricula of a number of societies[59]. Sometimes, coitus is graphically demonstrated, using models or animals[60]. It includes such techniques as cunnilingus, orgasm timing, culturally prescribed coital positions, etc. African girlhood sex instruction may be provided by mothers[61], older sisters[62], an instructress [63] or "some older woman"[64], grandmothers[65], or aunts[66]. In Matomba, 12-year-olds of both sexes were locked up in a hut to be "erotically indoctrinated" by priests. An alike custom is encountered in Polynesia (cited by Danielsson, [1965:p89]), that is, "courses in sexual refinements" given by priestesses and Kariois. Sexual "instruction" may also be a part of quasi-formal pubescenta-prepubescenta alliances as seen in Lesotho, Ghana and Nigeria and among the Venda/Bemba. African woman-pubescenta initiation
systems, known for their "practical and theoretical instruction in sexual life"
(Róheim, 1929:p189[67]),
are often characterised by secrecy, resulting in the ethnologists' apology of
his/her ignorance on the practice. Outside of Africa, this pattern is less
stereotypical. However, Krämer and Nevermann (1938)[68]
remark on the Marshallese: "Auf der Ratak-Gruppe nimmt eine alte Frau die
mannbaren Mädchen mit sich in den Busch, um sie hier sechs Monate lang in einer
Art Schule (bogge) in allen Künsten
der Liebe zu unterweisen. Nach der Rückkehr empfangen die Mädchen zu Hause drei
Monate lang Männer und verheiraten sich dann" (p194). That most traditional African instruction has been technically explicit needs no reserve. In many cases, details of coital techniques are part of the agenda[69]. Although perhaps unnecessary, Northern Zambia Bemba matrilineal instructions on how to please a future husband were said to be given "in such detail that many men who intend to marry a lady from another tribe set great store in her being taught by the Bemba grannies in the rural areas". As Richards notes, running counter Christian teachings, the Bemba socialise sex and prepare the young of both sexes for the satisfaction of the sex impulse "as soon as possible" and "to an extend unknown in modern society". A female journalist was quoted by Hinfelaar as complaining: "The rise in promiscuity which the nation is experiencing can be squarely attributed to the initiation ceremonies on which women spend much of their time teaching small girls how to become professional love-makers. Is this what initiation is all about, a tradition that turns daughters of the soil into prostitutes who later bring unnecessary problems like unplanned babies and diseases?[70]" This type of education is largely abandoned today[71]. 7.2.6
Age-Stratified Coital Initiation / Instruction of Boys [up] [Contents]
In a
limited number of societies the first sexual experiences are adult-initiated,
or take place in an adult context. A most extreme case of laxity in sexual
behaviour curricularisation is noted by Jules Henry (1941 [1964:p17-9])[72] for the Brazilian Kaingángs,
a tendency also said to be characteristic of the Brazilian Xokleng,
Brazilian Tupinamba, Colombian Kagaba, Venezuela Warao,
and Bolivian Siriono. In the case of the Kaingángs, children would be so
saturated by the sexual attentions of adults that they would not feel the urge
to play amongst themselves. In a selected number of cases boys are
coitally initiated by elder women, commonly widowed (Batak, Tswana, Mangaia, Kogi, Cagaba, Ica, Ibo, Korea, Santal,
Ambrim), pregnant (Nigeria: Rukuba, Irigwe), "barren" (Kikuyu), divorced
(Kanuri, Zuni, Santal) and prostituting women (Asaba Ibo, Lugbara,
Burma, Iran, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Nicaragua, Ecuador, India, Peru,
Thailand, Morocco, Italy[73]),
or some related or unrelated "older" women (ancient Japan, Ra'Ivavae,
Cashinahua, Tupinamba, Xokleng, Basongye, Tiv, Siriono, Kaingángs, Canela,
G/wi, Lepcha, western Tonga, Marquesans [?], Tongareva Island [Polynesia], Hawai'i).
Wylie (1965:p296-7)[74]
speculated on its occurrence in France, while Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg (1992:p25)[75]
hints at its traditional occurrence in Germany. Prostitute contacts are frequently arranged or take place with paternal, parental or at least peer group blessing, providing for a "veritable initiation rite toward male maturity"[76]. Stavans (1995:p52)[77] relates: "The Hispanic family encourages a familiar double standard. Few societies prize female virginity with the conviction that we do. But while virginity is a prerequisite for a woman's safe arrival at the wedding canopy, men are encouraged to fool around, to test the waters, to partake of the pleasures of the flesh. […] Like most of my friends, I lost my virginity to a prostitute at the age of 13. An older acquaintance was responsible for arranging the "date", when a small group of us would meet an experienced harlot at a whore house. It goes without saying that none of the girls in my class were similarly "tutored" […]. Losing virginity was a dual mission: to ejaculate inside the hooker, and then, more importantly, to tell of the entire adventure afterwards". The same
was found by Espín[78] and others. The experience, evidently outlawed in the US[79], may turn out awkward. Among the Nigerian Rukuba, one type of marriage consists of ritual marriage of males before initiation, sometimes before puberty. The boy spends a night with a married, pregnant woman, who instructs him in sexual behaviour, and whom he is to avoid sexually in the future (Muller, 1972:p293-4)[80]: "The ritual marriage teaches a boy what he can and
cannot do although being so small at the time of the initiation, many Rukuba
men later recall with laughter the one night spent with the pregnant woman. They
insist on their bewilderment and inability to cope with the situation, the
initiative resting with the woman who, apparently, means business however small
the initiand might be". In contrast to the Latin American variant, Condy et al. (1987)[81] argued that heterosexual activity among Western boys with "older women" (≥5 years), at least in the histories of prison inmates, was not the rarity that some sexologists had previously proposed; in general, this type of contact would appear to be "an extension of the lower end of the age distribution for adult male-female sexual relationships". Contrary to "dominant discourses" (cf. Leahy), a far greater number of male respondents regarded the experience as "positive" rather than "negative". Rather than arranged initiations, such boy-woman interactions would have a "complicated gender structure"[82], to say the least. 7.2.7
Age-Stratified Coital Initiation / Instruction of Girls [up] [Contents]
Classical age patterned coital
initiation as observed for boys on several continents is only marginally
paralleled for girls, as might be expected. Girls are initiated by an "older
experienced man" in a few cases, where it may also be true for boys (Sierra
Nevada: Cágaba, Ica, Kogi; Polynesia: Tongareva Island, Easter Island). More
than incidental generation-stratified patterns outside of wedlock are said to
occur prepubertally for the Maya, traditional Haitians, Mombasa Swahili,
Baraguyu, Ingalik, Masai, Nandi (debated) and Trukese (fellatio). Basongye girls of 13-15 are said to
seek badumiyanami [heterosexual
friendships] among boys of their own age, and adults accept the notion that one
of the purposes of these friendships is sexual acquaintance (Merriam). When the
older partner is an older married adult, the thing is understood in terms of
"instruction"[83]. 7.2.8 Other "Initiations" and
Recruitments: Age Stratified Pair-Bonding and Prostitution [up] [Contents]
Among the numerous cases of early betrothal
and marriage, matters are arranged to take place over a considerable age gap,
including arrangements between children and adolescents[84] or children
and adults[85].
In these cases, consummation generally awaits puberty, but regardless of its
timing, the experience will be a matter of unilateral introduction. The issue of misuse becomes apparent
in the fact that most cases where consummation would not await puberty such
timing is much debated[86]. In more or less distant past,
children are known to have been "trained" for prostitution purposes (e.g.,
Indian Devadasis, Chinese Sian-Kôn, Indonesian Sedattis, central Asian Bačas).
Fact is that these kinds of "socialisation", as others in this article, are not
adequately covered by traditional cross-cultural ratings. In some cases of age
stratified marriage the child bride is unambiguously described as being trained
into domestic, including sexual, service[87]. 7.2.9
Adolescent-Preadolescent and Peer "Initiations": Extending and Negotiating Categorialism [up] [Contents]
Western sexology has a long tradition of negotiating roles and narratives involved in the process of adolescent coitarche. Subjects, thus, may be "abused", "seduced", "allow themselves to be introduced", introduce themselves, "participate" in their being seduced, etc. The library of academia addressing Nabokov's 1955 bestseller provides a rich entry into Occidental representations of "seduction". Legally, it appears that such antegrade or retrospective qualifications are primarily informed by the ages and age differences of the identified introductor and introducee. As reviewed elsewhere[88], changing American recognition of Introducers has led to a colonisation of the adolescent realm and, more recently, the childhood edge. "Adolescent"-to-"preadolescent" "initiations" are seen as opportunistic[89], and an area that would have been "neglected" by early abuse phenomenologists and theorists. Authors
utilising an absolute age difference for some interpretation of the concept of
subadult-to-subadult "abuse" vary: from 2 years (Weber et al., 1992[90]; Cavanagh Johnson), and 3 year (for adolescents; Sgroi, Bunk and Wabrek,
1988; Corwin, 1988), to 5 years (Miller et al., 1987[91]; De Jong, 1989[92]; Lamb and Cloakley, 1993; Boelrijk,
1997). The age boundaries to which this factor should pertain are frequently
not communicated. Roughly speaking, age difference is only culturally relevant
in the context of the youngest persons' age/life phase. This suggests that
age/phase difference is an important theme for curricularisation ideologies:
the control of "initiation" via "seduction" ("protection"). The wide literary
use of the concept of seduction, however, is not suggestive of a uniformity
comparable to that of the clinical realm. Some degree of difference in age or sophistication is inevitable, but the "natural range" may be small[93]. Anticipating the cultural (or perhaps more precisely, clinical) developments, Martinson (1973:p19-20, 41-9, 96-101; 1974:p78-82; cf. 1994:ch. 6)[94] provided a wealth of phase-unmatched cases, concluding: "All of the [mentioned] cases involving a young child in a sexual
encounter with a preadolescent or adolescent could be lumped under an
emotionally-laden label--child molestation. But when we take a close look at
the encounters we find that the content of the interaction is infinitely varied
from case to case. To say that a preadolescent or adolescent is molesting a
younger child is far too simple and categorical a way to deal with many of the
experiences involved" (1973:p49). Martinson:
"Receiving "sex education" through direct encounters with those who are older
is a common experience for adolescent girls, and to some extent for adolescent
boys". The Kronhausens[95]
related that boys after learning to masturbate later reject their initiators
(p78-9) accusing them of obscenity and vulgarity. This implies a renegotiation of
concepts such as initiation and seduction. The
ethnographic record offers many examples of more or less regular subadult age
stratification in initiation-like interactions[96].
Anecdotal material[97]
suggests that approximately equal-aged children may assume vertical
role-playing, enacting a veritable initiation scenario; the peers play "teacher-pupil" rather than marriage[98]. The "doctor" game, held to be universal,
also suggests a temporary unequal power relation, few but anecdotal data being
available on the exact narrative (e.g., changing roles). 7.2.10
The Dormitory: Initiatory Environments [up] [Contents]
Bachelors' (single sex) or adolescent heterosexual dormitory systems have been prevalent in parts of Asia, Africa and Oceania. Margold (1926)[99] mentions a variety of means for organising sexual practices and courtship, where the thing may be a ceremonial and group affair, and taking place in some form of bachelor and "play" houses[100] (p652-5). The time of entering these and alike environmental changes to invariably age-mixed settings is almost invariably prepubertal[101]. In 1893, Peal[102]
notes that "In all the races exhibiting this peculiar social custom [morongs,
communal barracks for the young and unmarried] juvenile chastity is not valued,
and we may say with truth that "morals begin with marriage. […] The disregard
of "juvenile chastity", which now-a-days we look upon with absolute horror, was
in them not only allowed, but actually organised, and on a barrack system".
Elwin (1968:p127-8), on the Murian Ghotul, relates that "from a very early age
the young chelik and motiari are trained in sexual technique, both by example
and by actual instruction"; parents "encourage" the practices. Ghotul-like
institutions are reported everywhere in traditional Asia and Africa, and
occasionally elsewhere. The differences may not be great, perhaps apart from
the age at which it was entered. The main difference with the ghotul system of
the Hill Maria (Grigsonm), for instance, appeared to have been that the girls
of the Hill Maria went home to their parents each evening, while the girls of
the Muria slept with the boys in boy/girl dormitories. The O'lag of the Bontoc Igorot (northern Luzon, now called the
Philippines) probably fulfilled the same purpose (Jenks). Thus, "[….] the olag is nightly filled with little girls
whose moral training is had there". The institutional practica in erotic affiliation in the dormitory setting are commonly a social obligation. 7.2.11 Cultivating Sexual
Identity: Genetics of Sexual/Gendered Persona [up] [Contents]
Machismo is often attributed a regional specificity (Latin America, Mexico, Spain). "Macho scripting" takes place from infancy, when so-called "superior, masculine" affects become favoured over "inferior, feminine" ones through socialisation processes[103]. The macho seems to be shaped by means of a distinct direct approach, both to the genital and to the heterosexual persona. A Nambikwara male relates: "When I was maybe six years old, in groups of men, my father would say, "You have to fuck that one there […] that one there is a woman […] you have to fuck women […] fuck cunt […] you have to make her suck […] you have to fuck her ass!" And the others, they would add on […]. They would give lectures. "Take off the bra first." "And when you're sucking her nipple, you take her hand and put it on your cock". "But you've got to have a hard-on, to show her that you're a macho". Socialization
in Puerto Rico (Baumgartner, 1994 [p182-90])[104] is "gendered" from birth. "Two or three year old
toddlers are asked about their "girl-friends" and are made aware of their
sexuality through jokes and observations on the desirability of girls, which
will seem out of context for an outside observer who does not understand the
"macho" personality being enforced. Machismo develops in boys at the
encouragement of their mothers as well as fathers and friends[105]. Gender difference is exemplified by the gender
preference for males, selective stimulation of the male genital in infancy, and
the alike genital joking. Parents would pull a two-year-old's penis, and
inquire for its function. The answer would be, "For the women!". Thus the
parents try to instil a macho
concept, along with the double standard, from early age[106]. Fernández-Marina[107] found that a Puerto Rican father frequently, "wishing
to show off his son as a macho completo (complete he-man), will play with the
infant's penis" (p82). Padilla (1958:p186)[108] states that "[…] adults and older brothers and
sisters are likely to tease and play with his [infant boy's] genitals, kissing
them and remarking on their size, commenting that he is a machito (real little male) or a machote
(real he-man). A baby girl less than a year old may be slapped on the hands if
she touches her genitals, but a boy can play with his until he is four or
five". According to Price (1933:p12)[109], genital teasing in the Saramaka (Suriname) included
the mocking of the child's genital and performatory inadequacy. "Little children are constantly reminded in a playful way about their sex, most often by adults of their grandparents' generation, but also by others. Men tease girls from infancy on by grabbing at their "breasts" and genitals, and women often pull playfully at a little boy's penis, interrogating him about whether he really knows how to use it and whether he thinks it is big enough to satisfy them. A favorite way of engaging a two- or three-year-old boy is to ask after his pregnant wife or, for a girl, to inquire whether her recent labor pains were severe, and children are expected to provide appropriate answers". Also, "[t]oddlers are frequently teased about sex and encouraged to develop their verbal wit in this direction […]". Mexican, and
more generally Latin American, boys prove their masculinity by sexual
initiation with a prostitute. These observations describe a gender informed "double-standard" from early infancy, with an early aggressive emphasis on phallic prowess. Predominantly, there is an early explicit reference to heterosexual genital accomplishment, coupled with the apparent genital stimulation. The male identity is actively enforced including mock elements of teasing, challenging, demands, and rewarding of stereotyped attitudes (see further chapter 9). The machismo telos present in Latin American
infant-rearing contrasts with sexological dimensions in the operationalisation
of gender of European children. The manual and verbally quasi-aggressive modes
of addressing functionality and status are entirely absent, leaving a relative
gender-equal / genderless space, at least a performatively neutral (undefined).
"Erotic gender", thus, becomes a identity construct based on positioning within
a hypothetical behavioural space, contrasting the Puerto Rican boy's identity
being shaped by anticipated and actualised performances. 7.2.12
Enforced Experiences: The
"Fifth" Mode of Socialisation [up] [Contents]
The possible consequences of early arranged or forced marriages are well discussed[110]. The ethical reflection which it attracts tends to politicise the fact that these regulations are part of a positively definable system of curriculum assignment. No cross-cultural examination of sexual attitudes addresses the issue of sexual activity as a social obligation. Levine (1965)[111] marks for the Ethiopian Amhara: "The experience of the wedding night cannot be very pleasant for the bride. For the first time in her life she is far from the familiar setting of her parental home. She has had little or no sexual instruction, other than the knowledge that sexual matters are "rude" and that she is supposed to resist her husband's advances as fiercely as possible. The groom, on the other hand, has been taught to regard the nuptial night as a battle in which the bride must be forcibly overcome. If somewhat anxious himself, he at least has the moral, and sometimes the physical, support of his two or three mize. If he is unable to accomplish the defloration, he may call in the first mize—usually a married relative or friend with some experience—who will perform the task. When at last the bride has been conquered, the mize take the bloodstained cloth as proof of the girl's virginity. Their triumphant chant—ber ambar sabara-lewo, "he has broken the silver bracelet for you" (for the bride's parents)—is the signal for further rejoicing and revelry among the wedding guests. On the morrow groom and friends discuss the conquest with masculine glee, and the bride remains embarrassed and cowed". For the Hausa it was said that, "[a]lthough it is said that full cohabitation between the husband and the minor should not take place until the girl has reached puberty, it does not happen in practice and quite often children under thirteen years of age and scarcely developed are subjected to intercourse with their husbands long before they attain maturity" (Uzedike, 1990:p88)[112]. This intercourse may be forced, and aided with a so-called gishiri cut. Callaway (1987:p35)[113] speaks of "forced sexual cohabitation at puberty regardless of mental and emotional development". Formerly, a Tiv boy had his first experiences with a women who would have secretly "initiated him into the secrets and techniques of sexual relations" after circumcision at puberty; the occasion would be a secret between the boy and his mother, who pressures to boy into it. For the !Kung, Shostak notes: "Although sexual knowledge is each !Kung woman's legacy from the sexual
play in childhood, most young girls see a world of difference between playing
with boys their own age and having sex with their husbands- grown men. A girl's
first experience of adult sex is, therefore, often traumatic. Sexual relations
may be postponed for years, but once a girl show clear signs of sexual
development she is generally pressured to accept her husband's sexual advances"
(p147-8). Introcision (the enlargement of the vaginal opening by tearing or cutting the perineum) was practised among some of the aboriginal Australians (Aranda) in order to facilitate the first experience of sexual intercourse, which may have been immediate, forceful and with multiple partners (Favazza, 1987:p159)[114]. "Though not common, there have been instances of prepuberty coitus among the Yanomama", and girls are told "forcefully" to submit to her husband's sexual wishes. Many initiations, too, include prescribed sexual activity. Among Buenos Aires 18-24 year males sexual activities were "initiated at increasingly
earlier ages. Most of the interviewed youth defined their first experiences as
disappointing. Asked why, they always responded that it was so because of a lack
of romance. Most boys had been initiated in whorehouses, under the pressure of
the fathers who would arrange the visit, and this happened without a previous
intimate talk that could soothe the anxiety of the teenager by discussing what
he may expect to happen and how to protect himself from diseases, mainly AIDS,
about which the teenager had already heard at school. Such experiences, they
said, left bitter memories, which for some disappeared when they fell in love
and discovered the ingredient they were longing for: romance. The boys all
agreed that the experience at the whorehouse was felt as an obligation to
fulfil in order to affirm their virility". Thus, it seems to require a disregarding of facts to
discuss the range of sexual curricula terms of restriction or the absence of
restriction only. 7.3
Conclusions [up] [Contents]
Cultural organisation of sexological continuity includes the shaping of trajectories on the basis of curricular ideologies, that is, the evaluation of individual pathways by comparison with an imagined ideal one. Some cases better taken cum grano salo, aforementioned examples will suffice to conclude that, in contrast to and in conflict with the contemporary Euro-American experience, there is indeed a mode of sexual behaviour socialisation (curricular shaping) based on unambiguously promoting principles. The agenda includes anticipation or active shaping of sexual-erotic identity, sexual apparatus and functions, adequate partnership (coital submission and claim), sexual orientation and factual pairbonding. The operationalisation of these "training" modes more often than not requires the direct employment of age-structured interactions competing with near universal kinship and life phase (unigenerational) barriers. Furthermore, arguments can be made that few first (or even subsequent) interactions truly depart from a symmetric basis, and that all technology and morality included in man's sexological curriculum derives from authorities, unlevelled colleagues. The transmission of these elements, however, commonly follows schemas that are indirect communications intended to delay the acquisition of, or that re-operationalise knowledge. These issues jeopardise complete, well-timed, status-associated and pragmatic anticipation of preferred future sexual trajectories, and allows such trajectories both chronological and thematic divergence. Along with a cultural erosion of sexual divergence, this may translate into a high probability of identification and complementation variability, as many theorists have suggested. This is a kind of "freedom" or "permissiveness", yes, but only within culturally defined definitions and limits. 7.4 Impressions for a Poststructuralist
Perspective [up] [Contents]
Societies differ in their valuation and localisation of both (ictal) events and (key) agents or personae in 'developing' sexual behaviour trajectories. Contemporary Western erotic and sexual behaviour development represents a problematic pedagogical concept since it commonly lacks a moral discourse unambiguously governing it to "be developed" through interactions and by the hands of educators. Rather, the discursive position of pedagogues is identified by concepts of controlling and shaping the collateral preconditions for imaginary and conceptual initiations. These interactions are motivated by an apparent need for preventing physical initiations to be factually (conceptually and morally) initiating, such factual initiations being interpreted as traumatic to developing or established identities. These practices are to ensure the transferral of acquainting the individual with sexual interaction (potential trauma) from the hazardous physical sphere to the supposedly self-regulating (self-satisfying, self-inhibiting) and self-educating "auto-erotic" sphere. This self-sexual background is to provide the positive operationalisation of factual interactions within a depragmatised discourse of sex. Such depragmatisation may partly be associated with the involution of needs for offspring, and the outgrowth of a need for (indeed actively) shaping of (unambiguously pragmatic) academic identities. "Sexual" behaviour is not operationalised by its capacity to shape or contribute to sexual identities (or in fact represent identity), but rather by its utility to confirm or prove the existence of such identities. By contrast, where such need is manifest, sexuality is placed within a highly pragmatic discourse, and occasions for unambiguous (physical) initiations are monitored, arranged, or even enforced, girls' sexual/reproductive roles being stressed, at the expense of hypothetical alternative roles. [1] A Diwan quoted by Elwin (1968:p128) [2] Santal song, as translated by Mukherjea
(1962:p387-8). [3] A psychoanalytic formulation of this situation was
provided in Davies, J. M. (2001) Erotic overstimulation and the co-construction
of sexual meanings in transference-countertransference experience, Psychoanal Quart 70,4:757-88 [4] Currier, R. L. (1981) Juvenile sexuality in a global
perspective, in Constantine, L. L. & Martinson, F. M. (Eds.) Children and Sex: New Findings, New
Perspectives. Boston: Little, Brown, p9-19. Reprinted in McDermott, L. J. (Ed., 1996) Culture and Sexuality. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, ch. 1 [5] Outline of
Cultural Materials, 4th revised, 1961; eHRAF (1997). "adult beliefs,
standards, and aims concerning sex behavior in children and methods of sex
training; incidence of specifically sexual behavior in infants and children
[...]; rules for the control of such behavior [...]; training in sexual
modesty; imparting of knowledge and beliefs about sex and reproduction;
reactions to curiosity of children about sex; normal age for each aspect of sex
training; reactions of children to sex training; etc.". [6] Barry, H. III, Josephson, E. et al. (1976) Traits
inculcated in childhood: cross-cultural codes 5, Ethnology 15:83-114 [7] Barry, H. III & Schlegel, A. (1984) Measurements
of adolescent sexual behavior in the standard sample of societies, Ethnology 23,4:315-29 [8] Leslie, G. R. & Johnsen, K. P. (1963) Changed
Perceptions of the Maternal Role, Am
Sociol Rev 28,6:919-28; McCandless, B. R. (1967) Children: Behavior and Development. 2nd ed. London: Holt, Rinehart
& Winston, p134-8 [9] Oberg, K. (1937) The
Social Economy of the Tlingit Indians. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Chicago,
p28. Cf. De Laguna, L. (1972) Under Mount
Saint Elias: The History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit. Washington,
D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, p515B [10] E.g., Thurow, M. B. (1934) A Study of Selected
Factors in Family Life as Described in Life History Material, Social Forces 12,4:562-9. Thus, " "Sex
training", although not commonly found in these families, appeared to be
related to "succesful family relationships". As the amount of "sex training"
increased, there was a marked increase in "confidence in parents" and
"satisfaction in family pattern" on the part of the student" " (p564). [11] Frumkin, R. M. (1953) Who should provide sex
education? Ohio Parent Teacher
32:15-7 [12] Becker, G. (1984) The Social Regulation of Sexuality:
A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Curr
Perpect Soc Theory 5:45-69 [13] Aldis, O. (1975) Play
Fighting. New York: Academic Press, p147-55, 246-7; Lancy, D. F. (1980) Play in Species Adaptation, Ann Rev Anthropol 9:471-95, at p485.
Yamane (1999) refuted the "sexual-play for practice hypothesis" in rats on the
basis of the argument that copulation would not require practice in older and
dominant males. [14] E.g., Lalia-Ngolu, Mbaise Igbo, Senoi-Semang, Yakut,
Wari' [15] Richmond, W. V. (1935) Sex Problems of Adolescence, J
Educ Sociol 8,6:333-41 [16] The street "child" (adolescent), whose sex education
is by definition "gutter-wise", has been found to be in danger sexually
everywhere: Bucharest, Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanzania, South Africa, Brazil,
Guatemala, Venezuela, and Mexico. [18] Diorio, J. A. & Munro, J. A. (2000) Doing Harm in
the Name of Protection: Menstruation as a Topic for Sex Education, Gender & Educ 12,3:347-65 [19]
Bhattacharyya, G. (2002) Sexuality and Society: An Introduction. New
York: Routledge. See esp. Chapter 6 [20] E.g., Amuchastegui-Herrera, A. (2001) The hybrid
construction of sexuality in Mexico and its impact on sex education, Sex Educ 1,3:259-77; Ajzenstadt, M.
& Cavaglion, G. (2002) The sexual body of the young Jew as an arena of
ideological struggle, 1821-1948, Symbolic
Interaction 25,1:93-116; Couchard, F. (1987) La parole des mčres, parole
structurante pour les filles dans la culture musulmane, Perspect Psychia [France] 26,8, Pt 3:198-206 [21] Irvine, J. M. (2000) Doing It with Words: Discourse and
the Sex Education Culture Wars, Critical
Inq 27,1: 58-76. Cf. Johnson, R. (1996) Sexual Dissonances: Or the
'Impossibility' of Sexuality Education, Curriculum
Stud 4,2:163-89 [22] Rivkin-Fish, M. (1999) Sexuality education in Russia:
defining pleasure and danger for a fledgling democratic society, Soc Sci Med 49,6:801-14; Bullough, Vern
L. & Ruan, F. (1990) Sex Education in Mainland China, Health Educ 21,2:16-9 [23] Walsh, A., Parker, El. & Cushing, A. (1999) "How
am I gonna answer this one?": A discourse analysis of fathers' accounts of
providing sexuality education for young sons, Canad J Hum Sex 8,2: 103-14 [24] Yates, A. (1987) Sex
without Shame: Encouraging Your Child's Healthy Erotic Development. New
York: Morrow; De Freitas, Ch. et al. (1998) Keys
to Your Child's Healthy Sexuality. Barron's Parenting Keys; Finan, S.
(1997) Promoting Healthy Sexuality: Guidelines for infancy through preschool, Nurse Practitioner 22,10:79-80,83-6,88,
passim; Smith (1993) Pediatric sexuality: promoting healthy sexual development
in children, Nurse Practitioner
18,8:37-8; 41-4; Wright (1997) Anticipatory guidance: developing a healthy
sexuality, Pediatr Ann
26,2(Suppl.):S142-5; Fishel, E. (1992) Raising sexually healthy children, Parents 67, Sept.:110-6; Jamar (1991)
Toward healthy childhood sexual development, SIECUS Report 19,6:1-23; Johnson, T. C. (1996) Understanding Your Child's Sexual Behavior: What's Natural and Healthy.
Oakland, CA: New Harbinger; Levin (1969) Healthy sexual behavior, Ped Clin N Am 16,2:329-32; MacFarlane,
K. & Cunningham, C. (1988) Steps to
Healthy Touching: A Treatment Workbook for Kids 5-12 Who Have Problems with
Sexually Inappropriate Behavior. Mount Dora, FL: Kidsrights; Rew (1989)
Promoting healthy sexuality, in Foster, R. Hunsberger, M. & Anderson, J.
(Eds.) Family-Centered Nursing Care of
Children. Philadelphia: WB Saunders Co., p687-99; Finkelhor, D. (1994)
[Sexual abuse and sexual health in children: New dilemmas for the
pediatrician], Schweiz Med Woch 124
(51-52):2320-30 [25] Harrison, L. & Hillier, L. (1999) What Should Be
the "Subject" of Sex Education? Discourse
20,2:279-88. Analysing the content of school-based sexuality education and the
role of sex-ed teachers, the paper arges that "an overemphasis on penetrative
heterosexuality marginalises other experiences of sexuality". It was posited
that "sex education is employed as a means to contain adolescent sexuality by
reinforcing hierarchical gender relations and normative heterosexuality by
ignoring other lifestyles. Furthermore, safe sex campaigns that focus on
cognitive and rational decision making neglect the complicated processes of
choices regarding sexual behavior. There is also a particular neglect of female
sexual pleasure". [26] Lupton, D. & Tulloch, J. (1998) The Adolescent
"Unfinished Body", Reflexivity and HIV/AIDS Risk, Body & Society 4,2:19-34 [27] Wagener, J. R. (1998) The Construction of the Body
through Sex Education Discourse Practices, in Popkewitz, Th. S., & Brennan,
M. (Eds.) Foucault's Challenge:
Discourse, Knowledge, and Power in Education. New York: Teachers Coll
Press, p144-69 [28] Sears, J. T. (1998) The impact of culture and
ideology on the construction of gender and sexual identities: Developing a
critically based sexuality curriculum, in Shapiro, H. S. & Purpel, D. E.
(Eds.) Critical Social Issues in American
Education: Transformation in a Postmodern World. 2nd ed. Mahwah, New
Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, p213-29 [29]
Lickona, Th. (1998) Sex Education for the Neglected Heart, Reclaiming
Children & Youth 7,1:9-17; Lickona, Th. (1994) The Neglected Heart: The
Emotional Dangers of Premature Sexual Involvement, Am Educator
18,2:34-39 [30]
Bennett, W. J. (1987) Sex and the Education of Our Children. Washington,
DC.: Family Research Council of America, Inc. [31]
Kennedy, B. C. (1991) Teenage Sexuality: What Are the Emotional Effects?
Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the American Association for
Counseling and Development, Reno, NV, April 21-24 [32] Menmuir, J. & Kakavoulis, A. (1999) Sexual
development and education in early years: A study of attitudes of pre-school
staff in Greece and Scotland, Early Child
Developm & Care 149:27-45 [33] Fortes (1970:p223) writes that the African Tallensi
"are not surprised at the comprehensive and accurate sexual knowledge of a
six-year-old, though direct instruction in these matters is never given". [35] Pacifics: Marquesas, Trukese, South Carolines,
Marquesans, Hawai'ians, Ponapeans; Africa:
Nyakyusa, Mangaia, Ra'Ivavae, Nama Hottentot, Betchuans, Luba, Nkundo,
Ngoni, Zimba, Baganda, Bagishu, Suaheli, Shona, Burundi, Zande, VaRemba, Bahemba, Venda, Lenda,
Bapende, Bemba, Kgatla, Thonga, Tetela, Lamba, Beti, "Bamouns", Tikars,
Mangbetu, Fan (Dahomey), Ila, "Grand Lacs" tribes, Chewa, Chaga, Makonde, Lozi,
Baushi [36] Emotional Life
of Nations, Ch. 6. DeMause refers to Levy, H. S. (1966) Chinese Footbinding: The History of a
Curious Erotic Custom. London: Neville Spearman. See also Levy, H. S.
(1992) The Lotus Lovers: The Complete
History of the Curious Erotic Custom of Footbinding in China. Buffalo, NY:
Prometheus Books [37] Male "introcision" (mika, subincision) is never practiced before puberty. [38] Cook, R. (1979) Damage to Physical Health from
Circumcision (Infibulation) of Females. A Review of the Medical Literature.
World Health Organization, Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranian,
Egypt; Huelsman, B. R. (1976) An anthropological view of clitoral and other
female genital mutilations, in Lowry, T. P. & Lowry, T. S. (Eds.) The Clitoris. St. Louis, Mo.: Warren
H. Green, p111-61 [39] Fact Sheet No.23, Harmful
Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children. United
Nations Centre for Human Rights at Geneva, Switzerland [40] Sweden, Mexico, Brazil, Paraguay, Hindu India, ;
Yanoama (Surára and Pakidái), Tucano, Totonác, Arawak, Tupi, Bororó, Cubeo,
Chíwaro, Shipibo, Nubia, Makonde, Cewa, Akamba, Lozi, Hehe (discussed),
Madagascar, Fingo, Wakka [41] Lalia-Ngolu, Bantu tribes [42] Edwardes, A. & Masters, R. E. L. (1961) The Cradle of Erotica. N.Y.: The Julian
Press, p239-40 [43] Falloppius, G. (1600) De decoraturie trachtaties,
cap. 9, Opera Omnia, Frankfurt, 1600,
p336-7; Soranus' Gynecology (1956). Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins, p107 [44] Turner, V. (1968) The
Drums of Affliction. Oxford: Clarendon Press [45] Riffian, Morocco, Ambo, Ndembu, Akan, Baushi,
Batetela, Mongo, Baluba, Lamba, Warramunga [46] Hawai'i [neonatal "blower"], Tongavera [performed by
an older women at puberty, before ritual coitarche with her], Turkomans, Kurds,
Uzbeks, Kazak-Kirghiz [maternal, infancy], but not Jews. Self-inflicted cases
of preputial preparation are described for the Semi-Hamites, Crow, Luo, Zulu
[autofrenulotomy], Samburu [autosubincision], Meru [female autocircumcision],
Masai, and Tahitians. [48] These include meno- , pubo- and thelopoetic concepts
of coitarche, as well as the coital prerequisite for menstrual cyclus
continuity. The menarche linkage is noted for the Trukese, Kaska, Australian
Aborigines (Walbiri, Murgnin, Anbarra, Tiwi), Lepcha, Chewa, Tahitians,
Adjehers, Sandwich Islanders, Azande, Bororó, Apinayé, Ramkokamerkra, Eastern
and Western Timbira, Pau d'Arco, Onge Andamanese, New Guineans, Kisangani
Wagenia, Tepoztecans, Nyamwezi, and found in medieval to 19th century Europe.
Coitus is believed to be a primarily thelopoetic agent among the Tanzania
Parakuyo, Masai, Trukese, Tiwi, and Bororó; the Karugu assume coitus to be
secondarily thelopoetic. Generally promoting qualities for male puberty are
attributed in Yemen. Magical coitogenic menarche is found in the mythology in
Thailand, India, and Mexico, among the Matako, Cubeo, Tukano and Kaliai (New
Britain). In the Tukano, Ramkokamerkra, New Britain, and (provisionally)
Timbira cases, the belief was observed to persist beyond contemporary
applicability. A male parallel is reported for the Mangaia were nocturnal
emissions are blamed on the visit of avaricous "ghost women" (Marshall). [49] Tahitian girls of eleven springs at times engaged in
sex relations publicly, "receiving instructions in matters of technique from
older women coaching on the sidelines". "Sideline" instruction would have been
the case among the Australian natives, where onlookers "make lewd and
suggestive comments" when confronted with children's coital experiments. Also,
"children [...] are invited by a mother, older brother or sister, or some other
person, to indulge in sexual intercourse with an adult or a child of the same
age [...]" (Berndt & Berndt), while children [...] are encouraged to play
with their mothers' breasts, and [...] are obviously stimulated sexually [...]"
(Hippler). According to Gregersen, Cewa parents "specifically encourage
childhood copulation when children are playing house". According to Harris,
Dakarkaki (Nigera) betrothed girls and boys (for boys between ages 10-16),
youth are "definitely encouraged" to practice an equivalent of the Hausa tsaranchi,
" "cuddling", or sexual freedom stopping just short of penetration". The same
is said of the Swasi. Among the Lushai and other
tribes of east Pakistan, Christianity would have ended "[…] the institution of
bachelor houses, whereby sexual experimentation by adolescents was encouraged"
(Sopher). Among the Meru, "Premarital sexual relations start quite early in
life and apparently the society encourages them by reprimanding those who
insist on being virgins. Such girls are mocked and penalized a goat at
circumcision for being "too cowardly to have their hymens broken" (Njeru).
Among the Bantu of Tanzania, doll play and playing marriage were encouraged as
"fecundity-generating" activities. In Polynesia, and among the Marquesans,
adult attitude toward childhood sex play was characterised as amusement, "if
not one of active encouragement" (Linton, cf. Danielsson). As Suggs notes,
"[a]t the age of a few weeks a course of medication is begun with a view to
making them more satisfactory sexual partners later in life. Astringents,
concocted from a number of herbs and bushes, are employed for this purpose,
with daily dosages continuing to the age of about twelve". In New Mexico
Hammond saw coital play encouraged by adults of both sexes. Among the Aritama,
unination games are laughed at by the adults, "and rather encouraged" until age
four. In Jamaica, some parents "will deliberately encourage their children in
premature sexual activities, even with each other". Among the Yanomamo, "[a]s
the girl is still young [premenarchal] and often afraid, [age-stratified]
coitus may not occur for 2-6 weeks, until she has been instructed and
encouraged by her mother". [50] De Flacourt, E. (1658) Histoire de la Grand Isle Madagascar. Paris : L'Amy [51] Karsch-Haack, F. (1911) Das Gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Völker. München: E. Reinhardt.
Also by Bloch, I. ([1933]) Anthropological
Studies in the Strange Sexual Practises of All Races and All Ages. New
York: Anthropological Press, p45-6 [52] Weeks, J. H. (1914) Among the Primitive Bakongo. London: Secley [etc.], p172. Weeks
stated: "The unbetrothed girls from an early age up to puberty had free ingress
to these houses [adolescent bachlor's clubs] at night, and their parents
encouraged them to go, as it "showed they had proper desires, and later in life
they would bear children" ". [53] Smith & Dale, II, p38 [54] Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. ([1971]) Amazonian Cosmos. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p245 [55] Frazer, J. G. / Liston-Blyth, A. (compil.) (1953)
Notes on Native Customs in the Baniara District (N.E.D.), Papua, J Royal Anthropol Instit Great Britain &
Ireland 53:467-71, at p468 [57] Including thelopoesis (South African natives,
Timbira), phallopoesis (Paraguay, Bimin-Kuskusmin), or antiphallopoesis
(Menomini), preputial conditioning (Hawai'i, Turkomans, Kurds, Uzbeks,
Kazak-Kirghiz, Baushi), cunnus preparation (Marquesan, Ra'Ivavae, Mangaia,
Hawai'i, Zimbabwe [vaRemba], Luba, Nkundo, Hottentot), and artificial defloration
(e.g., Wakka, Yanoama). However, preparatory and nonpreparatory intents may be
both present. [58] Though traditional Japanese sex education emphasized
training in the practical method of sexual intercourse, modern education makes
little reference to the concrete sexual act but, rather, emphasises the
"values" and "ideals" attached to "sexuality". Takahashi, I. (1993) [Youth and
Sex Education], Kyoiku-shakaigaku Kenkyu
[J Educ Sociol; Japan] 53:31-46 [59] E.g., Bemba, Chewa, Yao, Nambyans, Basoko, Tetela, Sukuma, Bantu (Tanzania), Karugu, Makonde,
Tswana [60] Bantu (clay or wood model), Makonde (clay figurines),
Valenge (dolls), Luguru (chickens), Thai (statues), Bena (sticks and stones),
New Guinea (hypercorrect dolls) [61] Luba, Nkundo, Kamba, Dogon, Ewe, Amhara, Valenge,
Mbuti, Schwalbe Fulani, Ivory Coast, Sukuma, Tetela [62] Xhosa [63] Mbuti, Makonde, Ndembu, Nkoya, Zulu, Pedi, Tanzania [64] Kuranko, Mambwe, Maka, Nambyans, Zulu, Mbuti, Yoruba,
Chewa, Ovimbundu, Tiv [65] Kamba, Bemba, Shona, Makonde, Hambukushu, Hehe, Nambyans, Gusii, Meru, Luguru and Zaramo. African boys may be
instructed by grandfathers (Nambyans, Shona,
Kaguru, Mongo, Baluba, Bahungana). In the nonmaternal cases the
generational gap (e.g., Xhosa, Hehe, Gusii, Zulu, Luguru, Bena, Gogo;
provisionally for Mongo, Baluba and Bahungana; also Majuro [Marshall Islands])
is a moral obligation. [66] Zimbabwe, Shona, Keffi Yegomawa Fulani, Alur,
Baganda, Karanga. Also Bengali (acc. Fruzzetti) [67] Róheim lists the following works: Smith, E. W. &
Dale, A. M. (1920) The Ila-Speaking
Peoples of Nothern Rhodesia. Vol. II, p25; Kidd, D. (1904) The Essential Kaffir., p200; Roscoe
(1911) The Baganda, p80; Werner, A.
(1906) Natives of Central Africa,
p126; Weiss, M. (1910) Die Völkerstamme
im Norden Deutsch Ost-Afrikas, p299, 300 [68] Krämer, Au. & Nevermann, H. (1938) Ralik-Ratak (Marshall-Inseln). Hamburg;
Friedrichsen, De Gruyter & Co. [69] E.g., Yao, Nambyans, Basoko, Tetela, Sukuma, etc. [70] Ms Lilian Wamulume, "Some traditions corrupt" in Search News Magazine, Vol. 2(1), Jan.
1992 [71] E.g., Stewart, K.
A. (2001) Toward a Historical Perspective on Sexuality in Uganda: The
Reproductive Lifeline Technique for Grandmothers and their Daughters Africa Today 47,3/4:124-48, at p136 [72] Henry, J. (1941 [1964]) Jungle People: A Kaingang Tribe of the Highlands of Brazil. New
York: J. J. Augustin. See also Róheim, G. (1956) The individual, the group, and
mankind, Psychoanal Quart 25:1-10,
p6-7; Stephens (1963:p376-7) [73] Parca ([1967:p37]) found that the 54% found in
41-50-year-olds was declining. 6% of
male coitarches was with married women. [74] Wylie, L. (1965) Youth in France and the United
States, in Erikson, E. H. (Ed.) The
Challenge of Youth. New York: Doubleday Anchor, p291-311. "A traditional
means has evolved in France for the indoctrination of young people in the
expression of their sexual feelings. The adolescent boy receives his experience
and training from an older woman and then in turn initiates the girl- ideally,
of course, his virgin wife- in the art he has learned. French literature and
movies offer examples of this, but whether this literary expression mirrors
actual behavior is a question which cannot be answered. Still, from what
evidence we have, it does seem that the situation so frequently portrayed in
the novels of Colette, for instance, bears some relation to actual practice". [75] Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg, G. (1992) Interview, Paidika 2,4(8):21-6. Cf. Op een Oude Fiets Moet je Het Leren,
p46-54, at p54. The author writes that this heterosexual "introduction to love"
was "[…] granted in earlier times mostly to the sons of the rich. In their
capacities as scions of the bourgeoisie, fathers and uncles took care that
growing boys were well informed about and even introduced to heterosexual sex.
They were especially instructed in how to protect themselves from veneral
disease. In Germany there were women, called "Lebedamen", well educated
prostitutes, who specialized in such initiations". [76] Kagie, R. (1994) citing H. Lamur, Vrij Nederland [Dutch], Dec. 17, p31 [77] Stavans, I. (1995) The Latin Phallus, Transition 65:48-68 [78] Espín, O.M. (1984) Cultural and historical influences
on sexuality in Hispanic/Latin women: implications for psychotherapy, in Vance,
C. S. (Ed.) Pleasure and Danger.
Boston [etc.]: Routledge & Kegan Paul, p149-64, at p157: "Sexually,
"machismo" is expressed through an emphasis on multiple, uncommitted sexual
contacts which start in adolescence. […] [M]any [Latin American] males
celebrated their adolescence by visiting prostitutes. The money to pay for this
sexual initiation was usually provided by fathers, uncles or older brothers.
Adolescent females, however, were offered coming-out parties, the rituals of
which emphasize their virginal qualities". [79]
Consider "Woman involved in alleged puberty initiation scheme pleads no contest
to child sexual abuse", San Jose Mercury News, Calif. 1998, March 25. A female
adult and her
best friend, a 13-year-old boy's mother were accused of "concocting a twisted
scheme to initiate the boy into puberty. The bizarre sexual arrangement came to
light in June [1997] after the mother allegedly became jealous of her son's involvement
with [that woman] and contacted a social worker, who informed police". [80] Muller, J. C. (1972) Ritual marriage, symbolic
fatherhood and initiation among the Rukuba, Plateau-Benue State, Nigeria, Man 7,2:283-95 [81] Condy, S. R. et al. (1987) Parameters of Sexual
Contact of Boys with Women, Arch Sex
Behav 16,5:379-94 [82] Nelson, A. & Oliver, P. (1998) Gender and the
Construction of Consent in Child-Adult Sexual Contact: Beyond Gender Neutrality
and Male Monopoly, Gender & Society
12, 5:554-77, at p560. Cf. Leahy (1991:p199-206; 1994) [83] "Girls of the same age may also have a badumiyanami who is an older married
man, and one of his primary obligations in this role is to instruct the girl in
matters pertaining to marriage. Such instruction may be in sexual intercourse
as well as in other matters, and sex relations may continue after the girls has
married; in either case, the affair is carried on in secret. Similarly,
teen-aged boy may have an older married woman as his badumiyanami". [84] E.g., Hausa,
G/wi, !Kung, Igala, Gusii, Tetela; New Guineans, Warao [85] E.g., girls: Konkomba, Kokomba, Hausa, Bangwa, Maasai;
Dagor Mongols (rare), Australian Aboriginals; India, Jews, Arabs, Persians,
Huli (pubescents with adults), Klamath, Polar Eskimo (pubescents with adults),
New Britian, Trukese, Bororó, Warao, Yanomamo; boys: Igala, Tanzania; both
sexes: Kazach [86] Tuareg, Luvale, Pokomo, Kunandaburi (Australia),
India: Veda (debated; legally issued in 1846, 1891, and 1925); Adjeh (debated);
Wolof (debated); Hausa (debated) [87] Example: The Yolngu practised
prenatal betrothal (Money and Erhhardt, 1973 / 1996:p142), and, together with
eventual siblings, join the husband at menarche, at age 12 or 13. "Should a
girl be taken prepubertally by her older promise man (in lieu of a bride
price), then sex with her would be confined to his training her vagina in
digital masturbation ("finger-dala"), until after the age of menarche. Only
then would penile intromission begin". [88] Preparatory literature reviews by the author. [89] E.g., Kourany, R. F., Martin, J. E. & Armstrong,
S. H. (1979) Sexual experimentation by adolescents while babysitting, Adolescence 14(54):283-8 [90] Weber, F. T., Gearing, J., Davis, A. & Conlon, M.
(1992) Prepubertal initiation of sexual experiences and older first partner
predict promiscuous sexual behavior of delinquent adolescent
males--unrecognized child abuse? J
Adolesc Health 13,7:600-5 [91] Miller, B. A., Downs, W. R. et al. (1987) The role of
childhood sexual abuse in the development of alcoholism in women, Violence Vict 2,3:157-72 [92] De Jong, A. R. (1989) Sexual interactions among
siblings and cousins: experimentation or exploitation? Child Abuse & Negl 13,2:271-9 [93] The ages of the
female partners of the preadolescent boys who participated in sexual encounters
in the Ramsey (1943) study were in 80 percent of the cases within one year of
the same age as that of the boy; in 11 percent of the cases the girls were two
or more years older; and for the remaining 9 percent the partners were two or
more years younger. Kinsey et al. (1948) found that, although no
specific data were gathered, boys are "mostly" initiated by a slightly older
female or male. Haugaard and Tilly (1988) found a partner's age surplus of 0.69
year (SD=1.7) in girls and 0.29 (SD=1.9) in boys. These data may be
biased by the fact that only experiences are used "rated as most meaningful" by
the subjects. The required age of the subject was 12 and below, the age of the
partner 15 and below. [94] Martinson, F. M. (1973) Infant and Child Sexuality: A Sociological Perspective. St. Peter,
MN: Book Mark.; Martinson, F. M. (1974) The
Quality of Adolescent Sexual Experiences. St. Peter, MN: The Book Mark,
p78-82; Martinson, F. M. (1994) The Sexual Life of Children. Westport,
Conn: Bergin & Garvey [95] Kronhausen, Ph. & Kronhausen, E. (1960) Sex Histories of American College Men.
New York: Ballantine [96] Examples include the Finnish, Bosofo, Maya, Mohave,
Ingalik, Crow, Bood Indians, Nyakyusa, Haiti, Apache, Lesotho, Ghana, Nigeria,
Mombasa, Tanzania, Pangwe, Marinbata, Bakalta, Pedi, Seniang, !Kung, Puerto
Rico, urbanised Xhosa, India, Chinese [97] Martinson (1973:p36): "[…] she was the instructor and I was the pupil"; (ibid., p40): "My friend, a boy age five, was giving me (boy four
years of age) a lesson in human anatomy (that is, sexual anatomy) […]".
Observations on age-stratified contacts (e.g., Leahy, 1991:p28-9) describe
participants as being construed or actively construing themselves as
"initiands". [98] Little is known about the relationship between age
stratification and erotic age
orientation development. One might hypothesise that a roughly equivalent
initial plasticity is typical of low-direction socialisation societies of
age/phase dynamics and gender dynamics, the actualisation of opportunities
depending on the balance between vicarious taboo and internalisation of such
morale. [99] Margold, Ch. W. (1926) The Need of a Sociological
Approach to Problems of Sex Conduct: III. The Invariable Presence of Social
Control in Man's Sexual Conduct, Am J
Sociol 31, 5:634-56 [100] Noted for the Yukaghir, Wedan, Wamira, Gelaria,
Wagawaga, Yakuts, Monbuttu, Bakongo, Trobrainders, Kachins (Burma), Tuhoe Maori [101] Information was collected for the Batak, Kiman,
Marind Anim, Ifugao, Sagada Igorots, Bontoc Igorots, Polynesia, Japan, Muria,
Hill Maria, Maragoli, Luo, Nyamwezi, Sukuma, Iteso, Bakongo, Alur, Swazi,
Mandari, Lugbara, Mbuti, Otoro and Heiben Nuba, Hopi, Lushai and other
tribes of east Pakistan. [102] Peal, S. E. (1893) On the "Morong", as Possibly a
Relic of Pre-Marriage Communism, J Anthropol Instit Great Britain &
Ireland 22:244-261, at p244, 253-4 [103] Mosher, D. L. & Tomkins, S. S. (1988) Scripting
the Macho Man: Hypermasculine Socialization and Enculturation, J Sex Res 25,1:60-84 [104] Baumgartner, J. M. (1994) Challenged Manliness: A Social and Symbolic Perspective on Sexuality
and Divorce in Puerto Rico. Diss., University of Michigan [105] Bejin, A. & Guadilla, N. G. (1984) Sept theses
erronées sur le machisme latino-Americain, Cah
Int Sociol 31, 76:21-8 [106] Cf. Stycos, J. M. (1952) Family and Fertility in
Puerto Rico, Am Sociol Rev 17,5:572-80,
at p574 [107] Fernández-Marina, R. (1961) The Puerto Rican
syndrome: its dynamics and cultural determinants, Psychiatry 24:79-82 [108] Padilla, E. (1958) Up from Puerto Rico. New York: Columbia University Press [109] Price, S. (1933) Co-Wives
and Calabashes. 2nd edition, with a preface by the author, Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press [110] E.g., Ebigbo, P. O. (1979) [Arranged marriages of
under-age girls and their psychic consequences], Zeitschr f Psychosom Med & Psychoanal 25,4:376-81 [111] Levine, D. N. (1965) Wax and Gold: Tradition and Innovation in Ethiopian Culture.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press [112] Uzedike, Eu. (1990) Child abuse and neglect in
Nigeria- sociological aspects, Int J Law
& Fam 4:83-96 [113] Callaway, B. J. (1987) Muslim Hausa Women in Nigeria: Tradition and Change. Syracuse, NY:
Syracuse University Press [114] Favazza, A. R. (1987) Bodies Under Siege: Self-Mutilation in Culture and Psychiatry. Baltimore:
The Johns Hopkins University Press |