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Featured: Caroline Islands [Palauans, Yapese, Trukese, Ponape, Ulithi, Ifaluk], Gilbert Isl., Marshall Isl.
Lessa (1966[1]:p78, 80, 82, 84-5, 87-8, 91, 98-9; 1977:p199, 201-2, 212-3)[2] provides a detailed coverage of Ulithian childhood sexual socialisation.
In the context of pi supuhui village
“holiday”, “Small children pair off [as do all age sets] but they are usually
made to keep at a distance from their elders. The play of these children is noncoital and considered to be innocuous, as it usually
is, but it may go so far as to imitate the amorous words, caressing and
embracing of men and women. Youngsters may even explore one another’s
genitals”. Still, “[h]eterosexual explorations
begin early in the preadolescent years among companions of approximately the
same age. […]Genital exhibition is [given the rule of nudity] rendered
meaningless, and the children proceed directly to the inspection of one
another’s sexual parts. Manipulation is usually confined at first to mere
touching and does not ordinarily develop into truly mastabatory
[sic] contacts. [...] Mouth-genital contacts appear to be rare, but
genital apposition is not uncommon. Having in many instances witnessed
copulation by their parents, the children may make clumsy efforts at penetration,
but vaginal entries are rare and limited for the most part to finger
insertion. Much of the sex play of young children comes when they are in
mixed groups and have occasions to pair off, as when playing a game of
hide-and-seek. There may be some hugging and tickling, and by the time of
adolescence this may become a light petting” (1966:p88; 1977:p201-2).
Nevertheless, “a boy may be warned that “if he plays with a girls genital she
will bleed, sicken, and die; a girl is warned that if she handles the phallus
of a boy he may be injured and perhaps die” (p212-3).
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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