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MURIA GONDS OF BASTAR(India)
Index→ India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh → India → Muria Gonds of
Bastar
More: Abor, Lingayats, Bengali, Punjabi; Rājpūts, Brahmans, Nagas, Chamars, Todas, Purum, Santals, Garos, Baiga, Nimar Bahalis, Telugu, Lepcha, Lodha, Uttar Pradesh, Andamanese,
Nicorbarese, Muthuvar
See also: Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
Frequently entering ethnosensitive
discussions on erotic coming-of-age[1], the Ghotul institution
of the Muria was studied by Elwin[2], and later by Gell
(1992)[3]. The alleged positive
aspects of the institution were never established[4]. Elwin (1968:p127-8):
“From
their earliest days in the ghotul the little chlik and motiari play together
until gradually, imperceptibly the vaginal entrance is enlarged and the hymen
disappears without a tear. “We used to behave’, said an elderly man, “exactly
like little bulls and cows, sporting together till the bull could penetrate”.
“When you sleep with a girl night after night”, said a chelik, “however small
you may be, as long as flesh becomes wood, you try to beat her with it. […]”.
“The adults supervise and encourage all
the sexual activities that take place in the dormitories. Although at times
children as little as two years of age are taken to sleep in the dormitories,
they are usually not required to be part of the sex activities until 5 or 6,
since if they are made to have sex at 3 or 4 they often “wet their beds [and]
wake up crying” (Elwin, 1947:p358).
Elwin (1947:p419-58) gives a detailed
analysis of the sexual mores of the ghotul. Quoting some of the Murian
attitudes to prepubescent coitus: “Real happiness only comes when you are
both mature. Of course the kids do it, but without the falling of water
there’s little pleasure. It is like eating a raw fruit. There is no sweetness
in it. It is like rice without salt” […]. To try to have a girl before she is
mature is as hard as for a pig to dig up roots. Sometimes he manages it; it
gets the root up and enjoys it. But it prefers its ordinary foods”.
The Muria dormitories are called a “happy,
exciting world” in contrast, says Elwin (1964:p167)[5], to other Indian villages where
there was more child rape than in dormitory villages.
An initiation ceremony includes penile
insertion in a lubricated split twig.
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Additional
refs.: Burling (1963)[6]
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Janssen,
D. F., Growing Up Sexually. Volume I.
World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed.
2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for
Sexology, Berlin
Last
revised: Sept 2004
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