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)
Mrs. French-Sheldon has described the marriage-rites she observed
at Taveta in East Africa. "During this time the young people
dance and carouse and make themselves generally merry and
promiscuously drunk, carrying the excess of their dissipation to
such an extent that they dance until they fall down in a species
of epileptic fit." It is the privilege of the bridegroom's four
groomsmen to enjoy the bride first, and she is then handed over
to her legitimate husband. This people, both men and women, are
"great dancers and merry-makers; the young fellows will collect
in groups and dance as though in competition one with the other;
one lad will dash out from the circle of his companions, rush
into the middle of a circumscribed space, and scream out 'Wow,
wow!' Another follows him and screams; then a third does the
same. These men will dance with their knees almost rigid, jumping
into the air until their excitement becomes very great and their
energy almost spasmodic, leaving the ground frequently three feet
as they spring into the air. At some of their festivals their
dancing is carried to such an extent that I have seen a young
fellow's muscles quiver from head to foot and his jaws tremble
without any apparent ability on his part to control them, until,
foaming at the mouth and with his eyes rolling, he falls in a
paroxysm upon the ground, to be carried off by his companions."
The writer adds significantly that this dancing "would seem to
emanate from a species of voluptuousness." (Mrs. French-Sheldon,
"Customs among the Natives of East Africa," _Journal of the
Anthropological Institute_, vol. xxi, May, 1892, pp. 366-67.) It
may be added that among the Suaheli dances are intimately
associated with weddings; the Suaheli dances have been minutely
described by Velten (_Sitten und Gebraüche der Suaheli_, pp.
144-175). Among the Akamba of British East Africa, also,
according to H.R. Tate (_Journal of the Anthropological
Institute_, Jan.-June, 1904, p. 137), the dances are followed by
connection between the young men and girls, approved of by the
parents.
The dances of the Faroe Islanders have been described by Raymond
Pilet ("Rapport sur une Mission en Islande et aux lies Féroë,"
_Nouvelles Archives des Missions Scientifiques_, tome vii, 1897,
p. 285). These dances, which are entirely decorous, include
poetry, music, and much mimicry, especially of battle. They
sometimes last for two consecutive days and nights. "The dance is
simply a permitted and discreet method by which the young men may
court the young girls. The islander enters the circle and places
himself beside the girl to whom he desires to show his affection;
if he meets with her approval she stays and continues to dance at
his side; if not, she leaves the circle and appears later at
another spot."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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