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MANGAIA (COOKISLANDS, POLYNESIA)
Index→
Pacifics→ Polynesia → French Polynesia→ Cook Islands→ Mangaia
Featured: Pukapukans, Ra’Ivavae, French Polynesia [Marquesans, Cook Islands [Tahiti, Aitutaki, Mangaia], Samoa, Tonga Isl.]; Santa Cruz Isl., Santa Cruz Isl.
Marshall (1971:p108)[1]
relates that boys and girls are separated by the age of four or five. The
uncircumcised penis is not shamed.
“Young children imitate the work
and activities of their elders as a basis of play. In the course of this,
according to some informants, they are thought to play at copulation. But
this activity is never seen in public”, which would be in tune with Mangaian sense of “public privacy”. “Despite varied
sexual activities that occur continuously within the one-room houses, it is
outside of the home that the child learns more intimate details of sex and
their results- such as “where the babies come from”. The knowledge is
achieved at about age eight or nine. For just as brothers and sisters are not
seen together in public, so they do not discuss sexual matters together […]. Mothers
and daughters or fathers and sons do not discuss sexual matters with one
another- or even with the older persons among whom they work”.
Marshall states that a boy’s penis is
orally and manually stimulated, together with the cunnus
(p109, 110) in an attempt to change its size. Masturbation, not seen in
public, is learned at ages 7-10, and practised about 2-3 times a week, while
“excessive masturbation is thought to expose the glans
of the penis […] prior to superincision. Mangaians believe that boys with few friends tend to
masturbate more than those who spend more time with other children”.
Nocturnal emissions are blamed on the visit of avaricous
“ghost women”. “Although parents may try to stop children from masturbating,
once they know of it, their efforts are not very heavy nor their punishments
severe. The boys experimenting with coitus before superincision “must content themselves with sexually
knowledgeable and promiscuous older women and widows of the village, rather
than copulating with either the younger girls or with what are referred to as
the “good girls”. Most boys wait until age thirteen or fourteen to commence
their sexual adventures […], following the act of superincision”.
The superincisor provides sexual instruction, and
may arrange for women to provide “more practical” instruction (p113). The
information not only includes “[…] detailed information [concerning]
techniques of coitus, but it is also said to include the means of locating a
“good girl” ”. It includes such techniques as cunnilingus, orgasm timing act.
Girls are taught by elderly women. Whereas in former days the age of the
operation ranged 15-26, it was replaced by an earlier timing (age 10) or
infant circumcision.
Sexual matters are not discussed in the home
except for covert references, and are left to the peer group. After
circumcision, the glans must not be shown.
Janssen,
D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin:
Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology, Berlin
Last
revised: Sept 2004
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