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SARAMAKANS, Saramacca (“Bush Negroes”;Suriname)
Early betrothal has already been mentioned. Price
(1993:p12)[1]: “Little children are constantly reminded in
a playful way about their sex, most often by adults of their grandparents’
generation, but also by others. Men tease girls from infancy on by grabbing
at their “breasts” and genitals, and women often pull playfully at a little
boy’s penis, interrogating him about whether he really knows how to use it
and whether he thinks it is big enough to satisfy them. A favorite
way of engaging a two- or three-year-old boy is to ask after his pregnant
wife or, for a girl, to inquire whether her recent labor
pains were severe, and children are expected to provide appropriate answers. When
three- or four-year-old children play at sexual intercourse, adults are
generally amused, expecting them to learn discretion in these games as they
grow older”. Thus, “Sexual banter is enjoyed by Saramakas
of all ages. Toddlers are frequently teased about sex and encouraged to
develop their verbal wit in this direction […]”
(p39). Summing up: “By the age of ten or
eleven, Saramaka girls have already tasted almost
every ingredient of a woman’s life. […] All have had some kind of sexual
experience, most commonly digital penetration, and about half of them are
formally betrothed to an older man. Unlike the boys of their age, who are
still a decade or so away from social manhood, prepubescent girls are well
aware that the responsibilities of marriage and child rearing will be theirs
within a few short years” (p15). Teenage girls have romantic affiliations
with older women (p17). Herskovits (1934)[2], however, noted a strict taboo on
the part of young men or women to speak of sexual matters with both their
parents, and parents-in-law.
“Emergence from
menstrual seclusion is also marked in marriage customs for a girl who was
betrothed during adolescence. On the day that she leaves the hut after her
first stay there (that is, at the conclusion of her first menstrual period as
a socially recognized adult), a messenger is dispatched to the prospective
husband, who comes that night to consummate the marriage” (Price, p23).
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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