SCCS:
(2+, 2+,
3-,3-,2,3;6,4;B1)
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SANTALS (India)
Index→ India, Pakistan, Bangladesh → India →
Santals
More: Abor,
Lingayats, Bengali, Punjabi; Rājpūts, Brahmans, Nagas,
Chamars, Todas, Purum, Garos,
Muria Gonds,
Baiga, Nimar Bahalis,
Telugu, Lepcha,
Lodha, Uttar Pradesh, Andamanese, Nicorbarese
See also: Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
For the Santal
living mostly in Bihar and Orissa, reasonably good descriptions of
premarital sex were recorded in the 1930s and 1940s, which report of a
permissive attitude towards premarital sex (Biswas,
1956[1]; Mukherjea, 1962)[2]. Mukherjea
(1962:p392-401) states that Santal children, in consequence of a marriage game “play
at coitus”. “One Santal narrated to us, “I have
seen that during the children’s game called Uku Uku, they play at hide and seek and
hunt out others from the bushes. During all these, children throw themselves
on one another. They embrace in a childish attempt to get out and this
physical contact results in sex-encounters with consequent childish coitus. […]
Old sandals told us that attempts at coitus indulged in by mere children are
very common”. The author cites further examples of games resulting in open
displays of “childish coitus”[3]. “We gathered that sex-encounters
of children are very common in field were they tend cows or buffaloes, and
the minimum age for such children was given as four to five”. Nevertheless,
“As regards the age in which boys and girls receive their first sexual experience,
the opinion of the Santals questioned on the point
varied. Some put it at 14-15 years with boys who attain puberty, while for
girls they gave the age at 12-13 “when the breasts ripen”, as they put it. Others
put it at 16-17 with males and 13-14 with females. Two educated Santals questioned at different places stated that boys
and girls receive their first experience at 10-12 and 9-10 years
respectively” (p400). This is supported by communications to Archer, which
indicated that boys “start when they are ten or twelve, girls when they are
eight or nine” (1974:p55).
Archer (1974:p56)[4] also observed Santal children in their intimacies:
“The scene of a first [sexual] encounter is often the forest. While
they are grazing the cattle, boys and girls play “Houses”. They appoint
village officials. “You are the manjhi. She is manjhi budhi”. They make little
hearths and pretend to cook rice. “It is then that they are yoked. Later,
after dark, the boy and girl come together”. “Sometimes a boy and girl play
together. The boy goes on all fours. The girl rides on him. Suddenly he turns
on his back and holds her. A girl pulls her away. He seizes her legs. If the
girl likes it, the boy does it”.
“A
common game which is sometimes a prelude to encounters is played in the
evening. This is oko oko
or “Hide and Seek”. A boy covers his eyes with his hands. All the boys and
girls run away. A girl is waiting for him. He rushes to her and while the
others are hiding they hurry down the village street. These encounters do not
necessarily end in passionate friendships. They are petty, childish
introductions to the act of sex and it is not in fact until the ménarche that Santal girls
begin to long at all avidly for “the play of boys”. “It is when the flower
has blossomed that desire seizes her”[5].
Archer (1974:p78; 1984:p515)[6] adds the following:
“Among the Pardhans, Shamrao
Hivale states, “Before marriage both boys and girls
live lives of almost complete freedom. Even little children of four or five
years indulge in erotic play together and most boys and girls have had their
first experiences long before puberty. Elder people are amused and tolerant
of the sexual adventures of their children. They appear to object to any
attempt to correct them. They take the line that such adventures did them
little harm and that in any case youth is a time for freedom and experiment. […]”.
“There is, however, no conscious organisation of their sexual life. Unlike
Uraons, Hos and Mundas who from an early age segregate their boys and
girls and bed them down at night in separate houses, Santals
keep their children in their families. Until they are six or seven years old,
they sleep near their parents. After that, they are put in separate rooms. If
their parents sleep on the walled verandah, their
sons and daughters go inside. If a boy lies on the verandah,
his parents shift to the courtyard or occupy an inner room. It is when the
children are asleep and then in the darkness of the house that their parents
cohabit and it is only by accident that a child surprises them together”
(Archer, p55).
“Flower friendships” between boys or between
girls are “strictly nonsexual” (p86-7). Children acquire sexual knowledge
early by hearing conversations of their elders and observing parent coitus
and coitus of others (Verma, 1970)[7]. They tend to attempt coitus at
an early age and some of their games involve sexual encounter. First actual
cohabitation tends to occur around puberty. Pre-marital sex is well
tolerated.
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
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