Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in Women — John Shaqi
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in WomenEllis, Havelock
Science
Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 3: Analysis of the Sexual Impulse; Love and Pain; The Sexual Impulse in Women
Ellis, Havelock
Sex; Sex (Psychology)
Of the people of Torres Straits Haddon states (_Reports
Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits_, vol. v, p. 222):
"It was during the secular dance, or _Kap_, that the girls
usually lost their hearts to the young men. A young man who was a
good dancer would find favor in the sight of the girls. This can
be readily understood by anyone who has seen the active, skilful,
and fatiguing dances of these people. A young man who could
acquit himself well in these dances must be possessed of no mean
strength and agility, qualities which everywhere appeal to the
opposite sex. Further, he was decorated, according to local
custom, with all that would render him more imposing in the eyes
of the spectators. As the former chief of Mabuiag put it, 'In
England if a man has plenty of money, women want to marry him; so
here, if a man dances well they too want him.' In olden days the
war-dance, which was performed after a successful foray, would be
the most powerful excitement to a marriageable girl, especially
if a young man had distinguished himself sufficiently to bring
home the head of someone he had killed."
Among the tribes inhabiting the mouth of the Wanigela River, New
Guinea, "when a boy admires a girl, he will not look at her,
speak to her, or go near her. He, however, shows his love by
athletic bounds, posing, and pursuit, and by the spearing of
imaginary enemies, etc., before her, to attract her attention. If
the girl reciprocates his love she will employ a small girl to
give to him an _ugauga gauna_, or love invitation, consisting of
an areca-nut whose skin has been marked with different designs,
significant of her wish to _ugauga_. After dark he is apprised of
the place where the girl awaits him; repairing thither, he seats
himself beside her as close as possible, and they mutually share
in the consumption of the betel-nut." This constitutes betrothal;
henceforth he is free to visit the girl's house and sleep there.
Marriages usually take place at the most important festival of
the year, the _kapa_, preparations for which are made during the
three previous months, so that there may be a bountiful and
unfailing supply of bananas. Much dancing takes place among the
unmarried girls, who, also, are tattooed at this time over the
whole of the front of the body, special attention being paid to
the lower parts, as a girl who is not properly tattooed there
possesses no attraction in the eyes of young men. Married women
and widows and divorced women are not forbidden to take part in
these dances, but it would be considered ridiculous for them to
do so. (R.E. Guise, "On the Tribes of the Wanigela River,"
_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, new series, vol. i,
1899, pp. 209, 214 et seq.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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