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SKIDI PAWNEE(North-American Natives)
More: Arapaho, Assiniboine, Athabascans, Blood/ Blackfoot, Cherokee, Chipewyans, Apache Chiricahua, Comanches, Crow, Dakota, Flathead, Gros Ventre, Hopi, Huron, Ingalik, Copper Inuit, Iñupiat, Iroquois, Kaska, Kiowa-Apache, Klamath, Kwakiutl, Lakota, Mohave, Mantagnais / Naskapi, Navajo, Nootka, Ojibwa, Omaha, Paiute, Point Barrow, Pomo, Powhatans, Qipi, Quineault, San Ildefonso, Seminole, Shoshone, Shuswap, Sioux, Tinglit, Ute, Walapai,Yokuts, Yurok, Zuñi See also: North-America Non-Natives
The Central North American Skidi Pawnee children played house, according to Dorsey and Murie (1940:p96-7)[1][84]:
“Great freedom was allowed children, and it was their custom as they neared puberty to play the game of man and wife. They built small grass lodges which they furnished as were the lodges of their parents. Should the parents, however, suspect that an improper relationship might ensue, the girls were more carefully watched or might be kept at home. Thereafter the only opportunity for the boy to see the girl would be at the spring or creek when the girl went for water, or he might see her by stealth in the evening near her lodge. Often this early intimacy would ultimately end in a marriage according to the rites of the tribe, but the girl was not allowed to exercise much choice in the selection of a husband”.
There is no formal ceremony to mark boy’s puberty. From the time he is taken in charge by his mother’s brother’s wife, until marriage, “he maintained sexual relations with her, and entered a different stage immediately after having had intercourse with this woman”, as her real husband was off hunting or on the warpath. No such custom existed for girls, “as they were supposed to remain virgin until marriage”.
Janssen,
D. F., Growing Up Sexually. Last revised: Sept 2004 |
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[1][84] Dorsey, G. A. & Murie,
J. R. (1940) Notes on Skidi
Pawnee Society. Prepared for publication by
Alexander Spoehr.