Growing Up Sexually

PALAUANS (2,2+,2+,3,2,2;8,8;E) (WESTERN CAROLINE ISLANDS; MICRONESIA)

Index→ Pacifics→ Micronesia→ Caroline Islands → Palauans

Featured: Caroline Islands [Palauans, Yapese, Trukese, Ponape, Ulithi, Ifaluk], Gilbert Isl., Marshall Isl.

Barnett ([1962:p121])[1] comments on modesty and anal training. There is no formal age of nubility (p129), at least it did not always coincide with the onset of puberty. Adolescents would be deflowered by their mothers, and taught the arts of prostitution in special schools (Kramer). Milne (1924:p61)[2] stated that a few young unmarried men and women aged 17 to 25 “teach the mysteries of courtship to a certain number of small boys and girls”. The elaborate, highly formalised courtship routines known as Prüh consists of an exchange of rhymes, and signifies the transition from childhood to boy- and girlhood proper. Rhymes are continuously abandoned for longer ones, and repeated until marriage. The process is known as “taming”, or teaching, and commences at ages 9 or 12. Marriageability starts at twelve to seventeen.

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