Coming of age in Samoa; a psychological study of primitive youth for western civilisation by Mead Margaret 1901-1978

Author:Mead, Margaret, 1901-1978
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Adolescence, Samoan Islands -- Social life and customs, Girls, Women -- Samoan Islands, Children -- Samoan Islands
Publisher: New York : W. Morrow & Company
Published: 1928-12-14T23:00:00+00:00

COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA

took the news that a girl had reached puberty, a woman had had a baby, a boat had come from Ofu, or a pig had been killed by a falling boulder with the same insouciance—all bits of diverting gossip j and any girl could give accurate testimony as to the development of any other girl in her neighbourhood or relationship groups. Nor was puberty the immediate forerunner of sex experience. Perhaps a year, two or even three years would pass before a girPs shyness would relax, or her figure appeal to the roving eye of some older boy. To be a virgin's first lover was considered the high point of pleasure and amorous virtuosity, so that a girPs first lover was usually not a boy of her own age, equally shy and inexperienced. The girls in this group were divided into little girls like Lua, and gawky overgrown Tolo, who said frankly that they did not want to go walking with boys, and girls like Pala, who while still virgins, were a little weary of their status and eager for amorous experience. That they remained in this passive untouched state so long was mainly due to the conventions of love-making, for while a youth liked to woo a virgin, he feared ridicule as a cradle-snatcher, while the girls also feared the dreaded accusation of tautala laititi ("presuming above one's age"). The forays of more seasoned middle-aged marauders among these very young girls were frowned upon, and so the adolescent girls were given a valuable interval in which to get accustomed to new work, greater isolation and an unfamiliar physical development.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.