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 natives of New South Wales, Turnbull remarked at the
beginning of the nineteenth century that "their mode of courtship
is not without its singularity. When a young man sees a female to
his fancy he informs her she must accompany him home; the lady
refuses; he not only enforces compliance with threats but blows;
thus the gallant, according to the custom, never fails to gain
the victory, and bears off the willing, though struggling
pugilist. The colonists for some time entertained the idea that
the women were compelled and forced away against their
inclinations; but the young ladies informed them that this mode
of gallantry was the custom, and perfectly to their taste," (J.
Turnbull, _A Voyage Round the World_, 1813, p. 98; cf. Brough
Smyth, _Aborigines of Victoria_, 1878, vol. i, p. 81.)
As regards capture of women among Central Australian tribes,
Spencer and Gillen remark: "We have never in any of these central
tribes met with any such thing, and the clubbing part of the
story may be dismissed, so far as the central area of the
continent is concerned. To the casual observer what looks like a
capture (we are, of course, only speaking of these tribes) is in
reality an elopement, in which the woman is an aiding and
abetting party." (_Northern Tribes of Central Australia_. p. 32.)
"The New Zealand method of courtship and matrimony is a most
extraordinary one. A man sees a woman whom he fancies he should
like for a wife; he asks the consent of her father, or, if an
orphan, of her nearest relative, which, if he obtain, he carries
his intended off by force, she resisting with all her strength,
and, as the New Zealand girls are generally fairly robust,
sometimes a dreadful struggle takes place; both are soon stripped
to the skin and it is sometimes the work of hours to remove the
fair prize a hundred yards. It sometimes happens that she secures
her retreat into her father's house, and the lover loses all
chance of ever obtaining her." (A. Earle, _Narratives of
Residence in New Zealand_, 1832, p. 244.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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