Growing Up Sexually

YANOMAMÖ / Yano[m]ama / Yanomami / Waika (Venezuela, Brazil)

Index → Americas → South America → Venezuela → Yanomamö

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The stated inability to code the Yanomamo for the SCCS was due to Chagnon’s[1] surprising silence on matters of growing up sexually. Becher (1960:p140-1)[2], on a Yanoama tribe:

“It is especially popular to play “mother and child” or “married couple”. In the latter game sexual activity is already often involved. As long as the children have not yet reached puberty [at the age of twelve[3]], the adults laugh about it. It is only the mothers of girls who are a little annoyed when they hear about it. They do not regard it as tragic, however, since they themselves were reprimanded about it by their mothers when they were little girls”.

Eibl-Eibesfeldt (1976:p98, quoted by Schiefenhövel, 1982:p158)[4] observed (and taped) the following among the Yanomamö:

“Zuerst erheiterte es die Mutter, indem sie mit aufgesetzten Lippen auf seinen Bauch blies, worüber der Kleine [Säugling] herzlich lachte. Dann rieb sie ihre Stirn an der seinen, dann hob sie ihn hoch und schüttelte ihn und lutschte danach lange an seinem kleinen Penis. Das [5-year-old] Brüderchen schaute zu, und als die Mutter den Säugling rücklings auf ihren Schoß legte, da lutschte er auch kurz und betapste zärtlich seinen Bruder”[5]. 

Little boys play with their fathers’ penis until erection. Gregor (1995:p29)[6] mentions the game of Kanupai (“taking a wife”, marrying), and Ukitsapai (“being jealous”). The latter game involves the children sneaking off on cross-marital assignations, “only to be surprised by furious spouses”. Lizot (1976 [1982:p49-56])[7] also pictures a busy sexual life for children, including sodomy, bestiality (fish, birds), heterosexual seduction, and genital friction with the earth. Tierney[8], however, alleges that French anthropologist Jacques Lizot sexually exploited Yanomami adolescent boys and girls[9]. (Lizot says any sexual relationships he had in the Amazon were consensual and only involved adults.) Peters (1984:p158) for the Shirishana: “Periodically a boy may be teased about his rigid or stubby penis. By the end of this stage [4-8] both boys and girls are aware of sex, having heard older tribespeople discuss the subject, or seen a fisticuff duel precipitated by an “illicit” sexual encounter. They have laughed at dogs copulating and a few youngsters have seen older Yanomama heterosexual pairs have intercourse. The young males have seen, handled and joked about the genitals of the tapir, peccary and monkey shot in the forest”. Sexual favors are demanded after puberty “and in a few isolated instances before puberty” (p159). Specifically: “Though not common, there have been instances of prepuberty coitus among the Yanomama”. Most men have experienced sex by age 18, particularly during festivals, but he risks the retraction of the betrothed girl by her family. The girl is told “forcefully” to submit to her husband’s sexual wishes. Generally, however, cohabitation takes place between age 23-28 (males), and several months to one year after a girl’s puberty rite (1987:p88).

In a study by Early and Peters (1990)[10] on the Mucajai group, cohabitation, which is prearranged by the girl’s parents, is said to begin sometime within two years following menstruation, taking place at an average age of 12.4 years[11]. Betrothal may take place in infancy.

“The girl may live with her family for up to 2 years after the puberty rite. The families decide when cohabitation should begin. Her family invites the young man to whom she has been betrothed and his family for an extended hunting-gathering trip in the jungle. One day the girl’s mother remains behind while the rest of the group is foraging. She removes the hammock of the young man from its place with his family and ties it above the girl’s hammock among those of her own family. When the young man returns, he feigns surprise and reclines in his relocated hammock. The girl reclines in hers and this symbolizes the onset of cohabitation. As the girl is still young and often afraid, coitus may not occur for 2-6 weeks, until she has been instructed and encouraged by her mother. The young man takes up residence with the girl's family and provides game for them (p41-2)”.

Among the Indians of the Orinoco-Ventuari region of southern Venezuela, “[s]ometimes parents marry off their children before they reach maturity. Some men also take a second wife when she is still underage, but they respect them and have no sexual contact with them until after the first menstrual periods have passed. […] The first menstrual period indicates that a man may have sexual relations with the wife who was promised to him when she was still a child. Sometimes a girl will refuse to marry the man to whom she was promised as a wife, but she is afraid to conceal her first menstrual periods for mythological reasons” (Wilbert, 1963:p87-8)[12].

The preputium is tied with a string around the waist from around age 7 (Zerries, 1985:p760)[13]. Among the central Yanoama of the Upper-Orinoco[14], girls are allied, on a free basis (siohamo) or per raptam (shai), to their husbands before menstruation (age 9, 10), and await marriage at puberty (p766, 769).

Layrisse (1962:p82)[15], on the Waica: “Polygyny is permitted and young girls are frequently married to men even before their first menstruation”.

Wilbert (1963:p87-8)[16], on the Sanema: “The first menstrual period indicates that a man may have sexual relations with the wife who was promised to him when she was still a child. Sometimes a girl will refuse to marry the man to whom she was promised as a wife, but she is afraid to conceal her first menstrual periods for mythological reasons. […] Sometimes parents marry off their children before they reach maturity. Some men also take a second wife when she is still underage, but they respect them and have no sexual contact with them until after the first menstrual periods have passed. We have mentioned that an adult may marry a very young girl, but must not have sexual relations with her until after the first menstrual periods”.

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

Last revised: Jun 2005