Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Genes

re: Genes
gbaikie — (archived)

I think there is genetic, cultural, and environmental influences.
Some excerpts:

"Sexual polarity is extreme - women hold low positions of status. They control little of the products in the economy, they have no choice in marriage, their bodies are believed by men to be polluted, and they are perceived by men to be capable of depleting men of their strength during sex"
...
Yet another observer says: "Unmarried men live together in the men's house. The origin of the men's house is apparently to be found in certain efforts on the part of the men to emancipate themselves from the tyranny of women. One immediate consequence of these efforts is that the worst orgies of a homosexual kind are celebrated in the men's house. The Papuans seem not to have the slightest modesty in this regard. Not only were obscenities uttered in our presence, but also mutual masturbation was directly marked and homosexual acts were indulged in.
....
1) What concepts are present in Melanesia that are missing for us?

Semen as a scarce commodity: It has material value because in order for boys to become men (and workers, warriors, participants in tribal life) they need to be inseminated. In order for a woman to nurture her children, she needs to be inseminated. Like gold in the west, Semen is a commodity in this culture because there is a social consensus that it is a commodity.
Male sexual roles operate within the framework of a lifecycle - from boy initiates that need to be inseminated to grow, to youth initiators who play a role in making boys become men/fighters/husbands for the tribe, to husband/fathers who rule the society. Women are socially placed in a marginalized context with a fixed sexual status as subservient to men
2) What concepts are present in the west that are missing for Melanesia?

There are no gays, straights or bisexuals in these cultures. The idea of fixed, life long orientations of those kinds are foreign to them. Rather for men there are initiates, initiators and husbands - all part of the sexual life cycle of men. "

http://www.nathanielwandering.net/Wandering%20Melanesia.htm

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