Hooly crap, holy crap, holy crap.
I can't NOT write about this.
I just came back from my Myth, Ritual, and Mysticism class. We watched a video today on a certain tribal culture in New Guinea. It was called, "The Guardians of the Flutes."
Now. I know tribal cultures can have some pretty interesting and weird customs. But this.. shit, it sounded more like some pervert's absolute fantasy and fucked up life. And I'm not trying to judge because, really, all our taboos are just a figment of our imaginations. But it's just.. I can't deny it left me slightly disturbed.
First of all, there's a HUGE taboo between men and women crossing paths. And I mean that LITERALLY, too. The men and women each have their own pathways in the village. There's also a huge taboo with women in general, especially their menstrual cycle. They live separately, the men and women in different houses, and the married couples even have drawn out boundaries of separation in the house. The men fear that the women will hurt or pollute them.
When boys reach 7-10 years of age, they go through an initiation process to become men and warriors. They are separated from their mothers to live with the men who go through a series of elaborate rituals, paint and dancing around and the like, frightening and even hitting the boys with sticks. The beatings cleanse their pollution from their mothers. So this goes on for a bit.. until the men playing the flutes come out. They were secret to this point. The mean reveal the secret of the flute, that it represents the penis. And the boys are to suck on the penis like they would the flute.
Seriously.
So the men tell the boys they have to drink the semen of the older warriors, because it will make them strong. The whole thing about semen is that they say it will build strength and make them warriors. So the boys train to become warriors by day and suck on the warriors' penises by night. This goes on until the boys reach puberty and become warriors. Then, they have their own semen to give to the new boys going through their initiation.
When it is time to marry, matches are arranged with women from other villages and they are treated like property. Married couples live in the same hut now and don't go back to the men's hut. The newlyweds are not to engage in intercourse at first, however. First, the woman is forced to drink his semen, so that her body will be strong for childbirth. And even when they do engage in intercourse, it is so shameful that they have to go way out in the forest, and the man comes right away so that it is over and done with. Once the woman has a child, they can not have sex for two years. Thank goodness for poligamy, right?
It was hilarious, though. The member of the tribe talking about it, in reference to the two years, "What am I supposed to do, put my penis in a hole in the ground?"
It is interesting to note, however, that they don't go back to having little boys suck them off. Because semen, for boys, is strength to become a warrior.
Of course, though.. European influences [missionary groups and whatnot] have taught them to feel shameful about their practices and it is wrong. So their culture is changing.
Another funny part.. the member of the tribe was talking about his initiation and how he did NOT want to suck penis. He was stubborn and resisted, and them men were like, "You will never become a warrior if you don't." And he answered them, "SO WHAT." He said, if that's what he has to do, then doesn't care to ever be a warrior.
The person interviewing him asked him, "So you never drank semen?"
And he said adamently, "NO." Shaking his head, as he did.
And the interviewer asked, "Not even once?"
And the tribal man caved and said.. "well maybe a few times.."
So it's very interesting this guilt that the Europeans are instilling in them..
Something very evident, also, is that these people probably do not have anything like our concept of love, and it being affiliated with sex. These men only know sexual desire, and that it must be satisfied. [Yeah.. kinda like a lot of men these days, but.. at least they sometimes put a little heart into it. sometimes..]
So now these Europeans are teaching them that it's okay to mix men with women, boys with girls. It's okay to sleep with your woman, and it's okay to have sex with her. And it's also not okay to have oral sex with little boys.
But how do you teach love..?
And so, understandably, the tribal man tells of a situation that occured in one of their little schools that day. A boy grew sexually aroused and grabbed the nearest thing, a six-year-old girl, and raped her. Something that NEVER would have happened in their old ways. Boys and girls grew up totally separate, and even more, they were taught to fear the vagina.
It's so delicate mixing with these cultures..
That's really all I can say.
LJ