Sex can be a bonding or loving experience, a formality, fun and exciting, or
even immoral or illegal. Whatever you want to call it, there’s no doubt that
sex makes the world go ’round. Every culture is different, with different
morals and lifestyles, and that is a great word to describe these ten
particular practices: Different.
Westerners might consider themselves somewhat sexually liberated, or at
least headed in that direction, and while that may be the case, there are some
societies out there that make us look like painfully repressed prudes. Some of
these cultures no longer exist, but there will always be people to take their
place.
With so many tribes and small groups out there, it is impossible to list all
of the strange sexual customs and adulthood rites that each group might
practice. Many societies likely keep their ways of life close to the proverbial
chest, away from the judgmental eyes of outsiders. Here is a list of some bizarre and shocking sexual lifestyles that we came across.
Warning: Graphic content.
AUSTRALIA
For the faint of heart, turn away now. The Mardudjara Aborigines of
Australia have one of the most shocking boyhood-to-manhood transformations out
there. At the age of 10 or 12, a boy has his front tooth knocked out and his
septum pierced. He is considered symbolically dead at this point, and then he
is taken into the wilderness by other men, circumcised, and then expected to
ingest his foreskin without chewing. He is mute throughout the entire process.
Then his penis is cut lengthwise on the underside, the blood is dripped over a
fire to purify it, and from then on the male urinates from the underside of his
penis. Then all of the men go hunting, return to camp with food and covered in
blood, and the boy is considered reborn as an adult male.
NIGER
The “people of the taboo,” or Wodaabe, are a tribe in Niger known for their
beauty and rich cultural ceremonies. Traditionally, a person’s first marriage
is arranged by their parents while they’re infants, and they must be married to
cousins of the same lineage. At the annual Gerewol festival, Wodaabe men dress
in elaborate costumes and makeup and then stand in a line in front of women to
show off their beautiful teeth, faces, and features. Women pick new husbands
from the men they are most impressed by, and if the new couple leaves without
their current husband knowing, they become socially recognized. As opposed to
the formal first marriage, this form of union is called a “love marriage.”
HIMALAYAS
In the populated Himalayas, there is not much land available for farming and
grazing, so families with more than one son would have to divide their land
when each son starts his own family, providing even less agriculture per
family. The solution to this is in finding a single wife for all of the sons of
a family so that they can keep the plot and land intact. In some Nepalese
communities, many brothers might share a single wife. Anthropologists call this
form of polyandrous societal practice “fraternal polyandry”, where a group of
brothers share one wife. Apparently, the wife must be adept at scheduling time
with each brother to keep jealous flares from rising.
HAITI
Saut-d’Eau
is a municipality in Haiti, and its waterfalls are an annual site of religious
importance. Every summer in July, voodoo practitioners and religious
enthusiasts make a pilgrimage to the holy site to take part in a Eucharistic
rite, worshiping the goddess of love. The penultimate devotional activity
involves everyone bathing naked under the waterfalls, asking for heavenly
favors. Then, some extreme participants take part in a sexual dance, still
naked, writhing around in a mixture of mud and the blood of sacrificed animals.
INDIA
The
Deer Horn Muria are a forest-dwelling tribe who live deep in Central India’s
Chhattisgarh region. They practice something called Ghotul, which is a festive
mingling of teenage men and women to teach them songs, lore, tribal dance… and
sex. At night, they engage in ceremonial orgies and sexual romps. Girls drink a
natural liquor as an herbal contraceptive to avoid pregnancy and then choose
different sexual partners every night (talk about every juvenile boy’s dream).
If the herbal drink doesn’t work and the girl becomes pregnant, the entire
village will adopt the baby since no one knows for sure who the father is. And
here we thought the West was sexually liberated.
ANCIENT GREECE
Ancient Greece was one of the most sexually prolific and accepting societies
in history. Homosexuality was a regular social convention, publicly embraced,
but Ancient Greece’s tolerance alone isn’t what makes their sexual culture
bizarre. Sexual desire was not distinguished by the gender of two people, but
rather by an active/passive role that each participant played. The “active”
person was the penetrator, mirroring their role in society with high status,
adulthood, and masculinity. The “passive” person was the penetrated, mirroring
their submissive role as someone with lower standing, and a more youthful
countenance associated with femininity.
INDONESIA
In
Indonesia, there is a celebration called Pon. The event is held seven times a
year, during which participants travel to a sacred mountain on the island of
Java to perform a ceremony of good luck and fortune through sex. Participants
have to spend the night and have intercourse with someone other than their wife
or husband. It is said that their wishes of good luck will only come true if
they have sex with the same person at all seven celebrations throughout the
year.
ANCIENT EGYPT
Ancient
Egypt was a very sexualized culture, with very few social stigmas for most free
men and women. The ebb and flow of the Nile was even thought to be caused by
their god of creation’s ejaculation. This idea caused the pharaohs – with their
god-given potency – to ritually masturbate into the Nile to ensure a wealth of
water for crops. During the Egyptian festival of the god Min, who represented
the pharaoh’s sexual power, men regularly masturbated in public.
PAPAU NEW GUINEA
Papau New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse countries on the
planet with 848 different languages and as many traditional societies. The
Trobriand tribe practices magic spells and passes them down through
generations, often directing their spells to induce erotic feelings in their
lover or to make a person beautiful. The beauty spells are chanted into coconut
oil and then rubbed onto a person’s skin. Also, the tribe is known for becoming
sexually active at a young age. Girls often start having sex by the age of 6 to
8, while boys start at 10 to 12, with no social stigma. Another interesting
tidbit, while pre-marital sex is fine, pre-marital meal-sharing is not. Couples
are not supposed to go out for dinner together until they are married.
