Growing Up Sexually

PURUM (India)

More: Abor, Lingayats, Bengali, Punjabi; Rājpūts, Brahmans, Nagas, Chamars, Todas, Veda, Santals, Garos, Muria Gonds, Baiga, Nimar Bahalis, Telugu, Lepcha, Lodha, Uttar Pradesh, Andamanese, Nicorbarese

Shakespear[1]:

“The Purum have a curious custom, that if a man has a son and a daughter the son must go and sleep in the house of some one who has an unmarried daughter; my informant tells me, “That though they sleep thus they are very careful about their characters”. If they are, they are exceptional, for among most of these tribes, much freedom is accorded to unmarried girls, as success in the courts of Venus is a sure passport to the Lushai heaven” (p375).

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