Sexual Traditions of Pagan Societies
David Werner
People have invented many techniques to communicate their interest in sexual matters, and to maximize their sexual enjoyment. Finding a willing sex partner is usually the first step. Trukese men from Micronesia begin their courting with love songs, and love letters that flatter their amour. Among the Tucano of Amazonia a ceremony often serves as a prelude to sex. Among the Iban of Borneo it is considered fine for a man, while joking, to grab a women around the waist and squeeze her breasts. Among the Azande of Zaire men simply wink or pout their lips and stick out their tongues to get women to have sex with them. Among the Hataco of Argentina a young man who ants a sweetheart paints a distinct pattern on his face which lets everyone know he is seeking a girl. The next day an interested young woman paints a design on her face to indicate that she would accept the boy's offer. Some Marquesan boys in French Polynesia are in an almost constant state of sexual excitation, maintaining partial erections for hours, and leaving no doubt to others about their sexual interests.
Sometimes it is the women who initiate the courting process. Among the Argentinean Toba tradition dictates that at dances the woman pick the man who will be her lover for the night. At these dances the women beat the men and jerk them around violently by the hair. Aranda women from Australia like to tease the men by lying down on their backs and exposing their vaginas. Among the Tarahumara of Mexico, women throw pebbles at a man to attract his attention, and then walk off to a secluded place, hoping he will follow.
Sexual stimulation may also take a more verbal form. The Himalayan Lepchas are reported to talk constantly about sex in the presence of both men and women. On the Andaman Islands off the coast of India the exchange of obscenities is a sign of friendship and a sure source of amusement. The Trobriand Islanders off the coast of New Guinea also delight in telling sexual stories and jokes. Similarly, among the Bambara of Mali stories of fornication and adultery are a favorite topic in the men's discussions, even when children are around to hear. On Tikopia in the Solomon Islands talk about women is one of the most common causes of masturbation.
In many societies erotic songs are considered an effective way to arouse sexual interest. Goajiro men from Colombia sing tunes praising their masculinity and the charms of their beloved in order to interest them in sex. Among the Trobrianders a good singer is highly praised and can easily seduce women into sex. Often the line between sexual excitement and humor is difficult to distinguish. When a Luo boy and girl engage in sexual relations in the bachelor's hut, the others sing obscene songs outside.
Dances are an even more effective way to arouse erotic feelings. Among the Aymara of Bolivia alcohol and dancing put people in the proper frame of mind for erotic dalliances which the performers and the audience indulge in as soon as the presentation is over. The Lau Fijians put perfume and oil on the male and female dancers to enhance their erotic appeal. Dances among the Bush Negroes of Guyana often include simulated coital movements. Among the Santal of India it is the males who engage in wild dances with much leaping in the air, and with some of the men stripped of their clothing. Among the Andaman Islanders off the coast of India it is the women who perform obscene dances to please the crowd. The same is true of the Wolof of Senegal. Here the men sometimes comically imitate the women's sexually suggestive dance steps. In at least two societies, the Ngonde of Tanzania and the Thonga of Mozambique, funerals are a time for erotic display. Thonga widows must travel from door to door to perform lascivious dances.
In almost all the important temples of the Toradja of the Celebes, there were carvings on the posts of women's breasts and of male and female sex organs, sometimes in the act of coitus. The Toradjans reported that these did not mean anything but were there simply "to delight the eye." Among the Bush Negroes of Guyana, men, women and animals in the act of copulation were the dominant art motif, especially in the carvings men made for their women. Fang men from the Cameroons liked to carve wooden penises and wrap them in leaves to show the women. Hopi men sometimes drew figures on rocks to represent the sexual organs as a way of bragging about their exploits. Among the Central Thai young boys sculpted "coital statues" normally used in rain-making rituals. The boys delighted in placing the statues along paths and waiting to see the reactions of the girls as they passed by. Tucano boys from Amazonia also liked to play sexual jokes, this time with barkcloth penises that they made. For similar reasons, on the Truk Islands of Micronesia the men made pornographic designs on tree trunks. Among the Aranda of Australia, people performed libidinous dances around the image of a man lying on his back with a huge wooden penis, and a woman with an enormous exposed vagina. One unusual form of pornography comes from the Trobriand Islands off the coast of New Guinea. Here people played a string game (cat's cradle) in which they chanted about the designs of sexual organs that they were making.
Elsewhere people are much freer about where sex can take place. The Mbuti pygmies think sex is fine in the forest or in a hut. If surprised in the forest, a copulating couple simply says hello and the intruder continues on his way. The Goajiro of Colombia feel that sex acts do not need to be hidden, and people often copulate quite openly in public. The Siriono of Bolivia also feel that husbands and wives can publicly indulge in sexual intimacy, if not copulation, without problems. Among the Marquesans of French Polynesia at the close of certain feasts women took pride in the number of men they could sexually satisfy in public before tiring. Picnics that took place after dances among the Hopi Indians were to a large extent public sexual events. Once a time and place have been arranged a couple can begin sexual relationships.
For the Trukese, intercourse between a man and a woman often lasts hours, the man trying to restrain his climax, while giving the woman multiple orgasms. Some of their sexual activities would make many an American sailor blush. The most popular position is for the man to sit with his legs stretched out, while the woman faces him, seated on the ground or lying back. Rather than place his penis in the woman's vagina, the man simply manipulates it up and down, rubbing it against the woman's clitoris. He mouths her face, breast, neck and ears, and sometimes engages in heavy kissing or cunnilingus or is fellated by the woman.
In some societies rape is reported to be virtually unknown. The Yapese of Micronesia have no concept of rape. People find the whole idea amusing because they simply cannot imagine why a man would ever need to use force since women want sex so much anyway. The Mbuti pygmies of Zaire are also reported to have no rape, although their ethnographer does report that boys sometimes try to force girls "to their will." The Shilluk of the Sudan and the Cagaba of Colombia also abhor rape and report that it is rare or almost completely unknown in their cultures.
A few researchers have looked at the cross-cultural variation in rape. Their studies show that rape is least likely where men have more extramarital sex. It is not uncommon for a society to have several different arrangements to permit adults multiple sex partners.
For the Brazilian Tupinamba, husbands were actually encouraged by their wives to engage in extramarital affairs. In fact, a good wife would sometimes bribe a young girl to go to her husband's hammock to make him happy. Similarly, among the Bambara of Mali, a woman often encouraged her husband's extramarital affairs on the theory that this would attach him more to herself. In other places extramarital affairs are easier for both husbands and wives. The Dogon of Mali consider adultery perfectly fine up until the time the first child is born. Although their husbands may have some misgivings, a woman's casual adultery among the Toba of Argentina is rarely cause for separation or other sanctions. Among the Kikuyu of Kenya, a wife had the right to invite a lover to her hut, so long as the man was a member of her husband's age set, and so long as she told her husband about the affair.
Among the Lovedu sex is considered a relatively unimportant part of marriage, and spouses can freely engage in extramarital affairs. Similarly, among the Bush Negroes of Guyana sex is not particularly associated with marriage, which is thought to be more an economic institution. The bonds of marriage are loose and adultery is "customary." The Hopi Indians of the American Southwest have formal moments when people mention the names of their lovers. Any expression of jealousy at these moments is considered in poor taste.
The loaning of a spouse for sexual purposes is customary in some places. On the Truk Islands, men sometimes loan their wives to their brothers for their initiation into sexual life. The Fang of the Cameroons also sometimes loan their wives to guests. A similar custom occurs among the Marquesan Islanders.
Exchange of spouses was common in many places. In Brazil Timbira men were expected to exchange wives after hunting anteaters, armadillos, peccaries and other special animals. Among the Rundi, blood brothers and friends sometimes traded their wives for a night. Hottentot men from southern Africa could sometimes simply enter a woman's hut and spend the night with her, forcing her husband to sleep elsewhere. On the following night the situation would be reversed. Among the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico people would trade spouses for a night or two at special church festivals. Dorobo couples from Kenya sometimes exchanged spouses for a period of time lasting from half year to a full year. These exchanges did not result in eventual remarriages, and a woman who felt herself pregnant would return to her husband.
One of the best known examples of wife exchange comes from the Copper Eskimo of northern Canada. Here, spouse exchange was most likely when groups of people joined together again after a long absence. At this point a woman might decide she would like to accompany another man for a while so that she could visit relatives in a distant region. The couples would then agree to exchange spouses until their next meeting. To some extent the mate sharing appeared to be dictated more by social than by sexual desires. Still, the sexual element was present. Sometimes groups of men and women would all get naked together in a sleeping bag.
Eskimo wife exchange led to a kind of group marriage since people were regarded as wed to those they had lived with. A man might be married to women in half a dozen different bands, some of whom he would see only once in his entire lifetime. Still, this marriage tie enabled the man to hunt for caribou and seals in the territory of any of his wives. Curiously, even though people must usually have known who the real fathers were, the children of any of a man's "wives" were also considered his own children.
The Chukchee of Siberia, had customs very similar to those of the Copper Eskimo. Wife exchange led to lasting bonds of marriage among groups of people. Sometimes Chukchee group marriages included up to ten married couples. All of the men who belonged to such a group marriage were called "companions-in-wives" and had the right of sexual access to all of the group's wives. But sexuality was not quite so promiscuous as it might appear, simply because most group marriages involved people living far away from each other so that sexual encounters were not that easy.
Although they did not refer to their relationships as "group marriage," the Masai of Tanzania had customs similar to those of the Chukchee and Copper Eskimo. Masai men who belonged to the same age set had the right of sexual access to the wives of all the men in their age set. When in a different village, a male visitor would go to the hut of a man in his age set and sleep with his wife, while the husband was forced to spend the night elsewhere.
Group marriage among the Xokleng of Brazil had a more haphazard character. Marriage and divorce were fairly easy for the Xokleng. A man might marry a woman, and then take a second wife. The second wife might subsequently marry another man, while continuing her marriage to the first man. A third man might then enter the relationship as a second husband to the first wife, and so forth. Spouses would come and go and people simply decided to join a band or leave it.
Although group marriages are extremely rare in the cross-cultural record, polyandry (the marriage of one woman to more than one man) is somewhat more common, and polygyny (one man married to more than one woman) is very common — occurring in 70 % of the world's societies according to one cross-cultural study. As might be expected, jealousy is often a problem between co-wives or co-husbands. Among the Goajiro Indians of Colombia a polygynously married man slept apart from his wives (who all slept together). He received in his hammock whichever wife came to him, and rigorously avoided expressing a preference for one wife over another.
Although anthropologists speak of the rarity of polyandry, it is in fact found in a fair number of societies. The Toda of southern India, the Tibetans, and the Pacific Island Marquesans are the classic examples, but there are many others as well, such as the Lesu and the Trukese of Oceania, and the Yanoama Indians of Venezuela and Brazil. Among the Sinhalese of Sri Lanka if two men both put grain in the same granary, they both had access to the same wife, with exactly the same rights and obligations. Although their children spoke of having two fathers, they usually knew which one was their own. Among the Tlingit Indians of southern Alaska a woman was permitted extramarital relations with a man belonging to her husband's clan, but if she had an affair with an outsider she had to endure the social stigma attached to the relationship unless she formally took on her lover as a second husband.
Most, if not all, of the societies with polyandry also have polygyny. The Ila of Zambia have several different arrangements. First, they allow men to engage in direct agreements to exchange wives. Second, they typically loan their wives to visitors for a night, and third, they practice a kind of polyandry which consists of a public ceremony to formally recognize a woman's paramours.
From "Human sexuality around the world" (Florianopolis, Brazil, 1986)