Growing Up Sexually

TINGLIT (North-American Natives)

Index→ Americas → North America → North American Natives → Tinglit

More: Arapaho, Assiniboine, Athabascans, Blood/ Blackfoot, Cajuns, Cherokee, Chipewyans, Apache Chiricahua, Comanches, Crow, Dakota, Flathead, Gros Ventre, Hopi, Huron, Ingalik, Copper Inuit, Iñupiat, Kaska, Kiowa-Apache, Klamath, Kwakiutl, Lakota, Mohave, Navajo, Nootka, Ojibwa, Omaha, Point Barrow, Pomo, Qipi, Quinault, San Ildefonso, Shoshone, Shuswap, Sioux, Walapai, Yokuts, Zuñi

See also: North-America Non-Natives

Among the Tlingit Indians, “[g]irls and boys before puberty were permitted the greatest familiarity with one another. There was no effort on the part of the elders to prevent the natural sex relations that developed in the growing children. But after puberty all this was changed. The initiated girl was not permitted to have any sexual relations, for her chastity was highly regarded by everyone. Parents made their daughter sleep on a shelf above their own bed to make sure that she would not be molested” (Oberg, 1937:p28^[1][155]; see also De Laguna, 1972^[2][156]). Therefore, the duration of pubertal seclusion was a measure of rank, a custom noted back in 1805 (Von Langdorff, 1814, II:p133)^[3][157].

Janssen, D. F., Growing Up Sexually. VolumeI. World Reference Atlas. 0.2 ed. 2004. Berlin: Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology

Last revised: Sept 2004