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NDYUKA (Suriname, French Guiana)
As excerpted from Hurault (1961)[1]:
“Boys go to sleep at
the home of a brother, an uncle, a comrade; the same for girls who have not
yet reached puberty; but it is not the same for girls who have reached
puberty; they are subjected to strict supervision. […] Whereas little girls
before puberty are left free to come and go, older girls are the object of
constant surveillance. They are always under the surveillance of one of their
near relatives specifically designated. If they have permission to go dancing
in another village, they must present themselves upon arrival to an uncle, an
aunt, an older brother who will watch over them all evening. Sometimes they
build for a girl a little house where she sleeps alone... but she is
double-locked into it for the night. […] It often used to happen that a girl
might be promised by her mother to a man from her first years (they still
say, although that is no longer practiced, poti mofu na umã, “to put his
mouth on a girl," meaning by that to have received a promise of
marriage). This plan always used to remain subject to the girl’s assent when
she grew up and did not constitute a contract, strictly speaking; it did not
involve any payment or compensation whatever. A girl could not be obligated
to a marriage which was absolutely displeasing to her, but the mother's
authority was great enough to make these marriages come about in most cases.
[…] If the girl is deflowered too young, her mother does not give her the [.]
and continues to forbid her to have sexual relations, for she fears that she
may become pregnant. Now for a girl, becoming pregnant without having
concluded a contract of maintenance with a man is an extreme shame, for that
means she is not worth anything. […] The general opinion is that girls can no
longer be held down, that they escape more and more from the authority of
their mothers; many of them begin to run wild at about 14 or 15, and people
are obliged to marry them off precipitately at 15 or 16.” (p217,
218, 219)
W. Van Lier (1940:p263)[2]:
“Kinderen mogen [...] alle gesprekken bijwonen, ook die wat betreft sexueele
dingen en ze mogen vragen stellen en worden wel eens geëxamineerd. Zooals
reeds gezegd, mogen bij een bevalling meisjes, hoe jong ook, tegenwoordig
zijn”[3]. Prepubertal
arrangements are not always followed through (p270).
Janssen,
D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin:
Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology
Last
revised: Sept 2004
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