The mentality of the different branches of mankind varies a great deal. A good example of this is the fact that there are peoples who do not know the connection between cohabitation and conception. There are other tribes, again, who, as we have reason to assume, did not possess this knowledge previously. In fact, Ferdinand von Reitzenstein thinks that there was a time when the connection between cohabitation and pregnancy was unknown to all mankind, and he adduces examples which show that traces of such a state are to be found in the legends and customs of many peoples. And, says von Reitzenstein, we need hardly be surprised at this ignorance of the generative process when we consider that "it is only since the days of Swammerdam, who died in 1685, that we know that both egg and spermatozoon have to come together for fertilisation, and only since Du Barry (1850) that we know that the spermatozoon must penetrate the egg." The belief in supernatural conception has been preserved, not only in the Christian Churches, but also in the myths of the gods in most religions. Originally man could not conclude from the mere appearance of a pregnant woman that the cohabitation which had occurredmonths ago was the cause of her condition. Primitive people do not bring into causal connection phenomena separated by wide intervals.
Von Reitzenstein writes that primitive people, who generally marry their girls before the advent of puberty, must have been turned aside from seeing the connection between cohabitation and pregnancy because these girls had no children at first in spite of having sexual intercourse. But to this it may be objected that even the lowest races must have noticed that pregnancy only occurs after the advent of the first menstruation. The appearance and abeyance of menstruation must have formed a step towards the understanding of the generative process. It is otherwise with von Reitzenstein's objection that by far the largest number of cohabitations do not lead to pregnancy. Even among comparatively enlightened races this observation led to the assumption that some additional supernatural process is necessary for fertilisation. Among the Australians, the least developed race of man, the necessity of cohabitation for pregnancy is totally unknown. Baldwin Spencer and Frank J. Gillen have shown (1899, pp. 123et seq.; 1904, pp. 145, 606) that among the natives of Northern and Central Australia there exists the general belief that the children penetrate into the woman as minute spirits. These spirits are said to come from persons that have lived once before and are reborn in this manner. The belief in rebirth, together with the ignorance of the generative process,is very widespread in Australia,e.g., among many tribes in Queensland, in Southern Australia, in the Northern Territory and in Western Australia. It is now too late to get reliable information in this matter from those parts of Australia where the natives are in regular contact with whites. Spencer takes it as certain that the belief in asexual propagation was once general in Australia.
Among all those tribes by whom this belief has been preserved up to the present the traditions concerning the tribal ancestors are quite definite. Among the Arunta, for instance, who live in the district of the transcontinental telegraph line between Charlotte Waters and the McDonnel mountains, and among whom ignorance of the process of generation was first discovered, there exists the tradition that in bygone times, calledaltcheringa, the male and female ancestors of the tribe carried spirit children about with them, which they put down in certain places. These spirit children, like the spirits of the tribal ancestors, themselves enter into the women and are borne by them. The Arunta believe that at the death of a person his spirit returns to a special tree or rock, out of which it came, and which is callednandcha. It remains there until it thinks fit once more to enter into a woman, and thus go amongst the living. All these spirits are callediruntarinia. But before the first rebirth of aniruntariniathere arose another spirit from thenandcha, which is the double of theiruntarinia, and is calledarumburinga.Thisarumburinganever becomes embodied, but remains always a spirit, which accompanies its human representative whenever inclined, and, as a rule, remains invisible. Only specially gifted people, particularly witch doctors, can seearumburinga;they can even speak with them. Among other Australian tribes which believe in rebirth, no belief in spirits like thearumburingahas been traced (compare B. Ankermann, "Totenkult und Seelenglauben bei Afrikanischen Völkern,"Zeitschrift für Ethnologie,Jahrgang 50, pp. 89et seq.).
There is, however, general agreement in the belief that the ancestral parents brought into the world the spirit children, who are continually reborn. Among many tribes, as the Dieri and the Warramunga, it is believed that the sex changes at every rebirth, so that the ancestral spirit once takes the form of a male and the next time that of a female. The conditions are such among the Australians that their ignorance of the connection between sexual intercourse and propagation is not at all surprising. Spencer points out that among the Australians there are no "virgins," for as soon as a girl is sexually ripe she is given to a particular man, with whom she has sexual intercourse right through life. In this respect there is no difference among the native women; yet the people see that some women have children and others none, and also that the women with children have them at unequal intervals that have no connection with sexual intercourse.Besides, the women know that they are pregnant only when they feel the quickening, and that is often at a time when they have had nothing to do with a man. Therefore they attempt to explain the origin of children in some other manner, which is in accordance with the very primitive mode of thought of these unprogressive people. In this connection it may be mentioned that the Australian mothers attribute the birth of half-castes to their having eaten too much of the white man's flour. Therefore old Australians accept without question as their own the half-caste children of their wives, and treat them as such. Though the natives of Northern Queensland know that the animals propagate sexually, they dispute this as regards human beings, because man, in contradistinction to the animals, has a living spirit, a soul, which could not be begotten by a material process. A. Lang thinks that with regard to the genesis of mankind the psychology of these primitive people has obscured their knowledge of physiology. According to him, the idea that there is no connection between cohabitation and generation cannot be considered as primary in man.
A proof of this ignorance of the fertilisation process among the Australians is the splitting of the penis practised by them. Otherwise these tribes, which have a scarcity of women and children, and which desire progeny, would not perform an operation by which the semen fails to fulfil its function in the majority of cases of cohabitation. It is becomingmore and more certain that this splitting of the penis serves exclusively the purpose of lust, and is least of all intended as a deliberate birth preventative (von Reitzenstein).
Evidences of the ignorance of generation are also to be found elsewhere in cases where the above-mentioned objection of Lang does not apply. In Melanesia the connection between cohabitation and conception seems to have been unknown until lately. R. Thurnwald says that among the tribes on the Bismarck and Solomon Islands visited by him this connection is well known nowadays, but the causal relationship is not so clearly conceived as by our psychologically trained physicians. As a natural phenomenon conception sometimes occurs and sometimes not. Intentional and real forgetting, inexact calculation of time, and the strangeness of men towards women, who are held as inferiors, all make it appear logically probable that conception can take place without cohabitation. To this must be added the weirdness of the whole process, which is therefore given a mysterious interpretation, and also that mode of thought which connects the young product with the place where it is found, with the fruits of a plant, and with the young ones of a bird, etc. Codrington reports the same conditions among the Banks Islanders.
Many tribes of Central Borneo, being mentally and economically far above the Australian natives, assume that pregnancy only lasts four or five months, namely,as long as it is recognised externally in the woman, and that the child enters the body of the woman shortly before the sign of pregnancy. These tribes of Borneo also do not know that the testicles are necessary for propagation (Nieuwenhuis, p. 144).
In Africa it has been established, at least of the Baganda, that they believe in the possibility of conception without cohabitation. Conceptional totemism, the assumption of impregnation by the animals venerated as totems, which exists among the Bakalai in the Congo region, points to a similar belief. Conceptional totemism also exists among the Indian tribes of North-western America (Frazer, Vol. II., pp. 506, 507, and 611, 612).
Among the ancient Mexicans there existed, according to von Reitzenstein, the belief that the children come from a supernal habitation, the flower land, to enter into the mother. Various objects were thought to carry the fœtal germs, especially shuttlecocks and green jewels. For this reason these were placed on the mat for the Mexican bridal pair after the marriage ceremony. The rattle club is perhaps also considered as the bearer of fertility. In India various trees play arôlein fertilisation ideas.
Noteworthy is the belief found in various places that only the nourishment of the child is supplied by the mother before birth, while the germ of the new being comes from the father. This is the opinion of certain tribes of South-east Australia described by Howittand the same belief exists among South American tribes who have the well-knowncouvade. Karl von den Steinen writes regarding this: "One might be tempted to explain this curious custom, which is very advantageous to the women, by the hunting life. But even if the custom suits the women, it is not evident why the men should have submitted to it. The father cuts off the navel cord of the new-born child, goes to bed, looks after the child, and fasts strictly until the rest of the navel cord falls off (or even longer). One might consider him as the professional doctor who also fasts like the student medicine-man, as otherwise his cure would be endangered and the child harmed. But not only the Xingu, but many other tribes, say that the father must not eat fish, meat, or fruit, as it would be the same as if the child itself ate them; and there is no reason to doubt that this is the real belief of the natives. The medicine-man of the village is always at disposal, and he is called in in all cases when the mother or child falls ill. The father is the patient in so far as he feels himself one with the child. Nor is it difficult to understand how this comes about. The native cannot very well know anything about the egg cell and the Graafian follicle, and he cannot know that the mother harbours elements corresponding to the bird's egg. For the native the man is the bearer of the egg, which, to put it clearly and concisely, he lays into the mother, and which she hatches during pregnancy." This idea of thecouvadeis confirmed by linguistic peculiarities: there are the same or similar words for "father," "testicle," "egg," and "child." The child is considered part of the father, and therefore, as long as the child is at its weakest, the father must keep diet, and must avoid anything that the other could not digest. The child is considered the reproduction of the father, and "for the sake of the helpless, unintelligent creature, representing a miniature copy of himself, he must behave as if he were a child to whom no harm must come. Should the child happen to die in the first days, how could the father, with such views as he has, doubt that he is to blame, seeing that he has eaten indigestible things, particularly as all illnesses are due to the fault of others? What we callpars pro totoprevails in all folk belief in connection with witch or healing magic," though it cannot be assumed "that the magic worker has a clear conception of the 'part' with which he works. Thecouvadeproceeds according to the same logic, only that in this case the whole stands for the 'part.' It comes to the same whether the enemy's hair is poisoned, and he is thus brought into a decline, or whether food is eaten which is harmful to the child detached from one's own body, because it could not digest it, at least not during the time when the detachment takes place."
Besides South America and Australia, thecouvadeis also frequent in Asia and Africa. Previously it existed also in South-western Europe. Hugo Kunike,who gives a survey of the prevalence and literature of thecouvade, thinks that this custom arose from prohibitions which the man was subject to in matriarchal families. The prohibitions condemned the man to inactivity for some time after the birth, so that he took to his hammock. There resulted an external condition which led to an analogy with the lying-in period. There can, according to Kunike, be no question of an imitation of the woman's lying-in, for with the South American Indians and other primitive peoples among whom thecouvadeis found no lying-in of the women occurs.
Mutilations of the sex organs are performed by many primitive peoples for religious reasons. They occur much more rarely for the purpose of sex stimulation, as,e.g., the artificial lengthening of the small labia among the Hottentots and the negro women and the slitting of the penis among the Australians. The most frequent mutilation is the abscission of the foreskin of the penis. Circumcision of boys is widespread in Asia, Africa, and Australia. Among the Mohammedan tribes of Asia and the negroes of Northern and Middle Africa it is mostly performed with a razor. In Indonesia a sharp bamboo splinter serves as the instrument for operation; in other places sharp stone splinters are used. In addition to the familiar circular abscission of the foreskin, numerous primitive peoples practise incision of the foreskin, which is split downwards in its full length. Bleeding is stopped generally by very simple means, either by some kind of tampon or by styptic powders. In girls, as, for instance, on some of the Indonesian Islands, the operation often merely consists in the abscission of a small piece of the preputium clitoridis. Among the East African tribes, however, parts of themons veneris and of the large labia are removed, generally with a dirty razor. After the removal of the labia the two wounds are made to coalesce by letting the girl lie in a suitable position, or sometimes by a suture, which serves the purpose of closing up the vagina. A little tube is inserted to allow for micturition. The united parts are again partly severed for marriage, and completely in case of confinement. After the recovery from confinement partial occlusion is again resorted to (Bartels, p. 271).
Among the natives of Southern Asia living under the influence of Islam circumcision of boys is practised universally, but it is also customary among many peoples that are quite free from Islamitic influence.
Circumcision of girls is practised by various Islamitic peoples of Western Asia and India. The operation is performed by old women. In Baroda and Bombay the clitoris is cut away, ostensibly in order to lessen the sensuality of the girls. In the province of Sindo the circumcision of girls is fairly prevalent, especially among the Pathan and Baluchi tribes. It is performed shortly before marriage by the barber's wife or a female servant, who uses a razor, and it is said to make the confinement easier. Among many tribes in the North-western border province the girls are also circumcised at the age of marriage, and here, besides the clitoris, the small labia are also sometimes cut away. In Baluchistan among some peoples the tip of the clitoris is pinched off; while among others the labia are slashed,so that scars are formed. The operation is performed partly in childhood, partly on the bridal night; in the latter case it assures the requisite flow of blood at the first coition. Among some tribes, in place of circumcision or in addition to it, the hymen is torn on the bridal night (should it still exist), and the vaginal entrance is wounded, so that bleeding is sure to take place at cohabitation. In Sind the castes which prostitute their women are said to practise partial infibulation for contracting the vagina. It is reported from the Punjab that formerly men leaving their home for a time used to close up the sex passage of the wives they left behind.
On the Philippine Islands circumcision is frequently practised by the non-Christian natives, but not everywhere. The Igorots of Luzon incise the foreskin of boys from four to seven years old at the upper side of the glans with a bamboo knife or the edge of a battle axe. They say this is necessary in order to prevent the skin from growing longer and longer. No other reason is now known to them for this operation. Circumcision is practised by the Mohammedans of the Southern Philippine Islands.
Incision of the foreskin is customary on the Indonesian Islands, thus,e.g., on Buru, Ceram, the Watu-Bela Islands, in the Minahassa, partly also in the remaining North and Central Celebes, also on Ambon and Halmaheira. Circumcision is customary on the Aru and Kei Islands, on the Ceram Laut and Goramgroup, in certain parts of Central Celebes, Ambon, etc. It is doubtful whether circumcision here is due to the influence of Islam.
Incision is practised on various islands in the Western Pacific Ocean, according to Friederici (p. 45), for instance, on New Guinea, on the south-east coast, among the Jabim and on the Astrolabe Bay. In wide districts of New Guinea, however, the inhabitants are not circumcised. On the island Umboi, between New Guinea and New Pomerania, incision is customary, also in various places on the north coast of New Pomerania, on the Witu Islands, some islands of the Admiralty group, etc. If incision is performed at a very early age, the result is similar to that of circumcision. Frequently, however, only completely mature young men are circumcised; in such cases the cut foreskin hangs down as an ugly brown flap. It is questionable whether this intensifies the women's excitement. As many people as possible are circumcised, in order to have the opportunity for a great festival. This is the result of the liking for numbers shown by primitive people, which is to be met with everywhere. For the operation, the person is laid on his back and held down by relatives. The boys scream and wince at the moment of cutting; but the adults are ashamed before the women, and take an areca nut, into which they bite. Among the East Barriari on the north coast of New Pomerania, the operator—a wise man, but not the priest—pushes an oblong pieceof wood under the preputium of the patient, and cuts it from the top downward with an obsidian splinter. The custom of incision is widespread in the New Hebrides, New Caledonia (with the exception of the Loyalty Islands), and also in Fiji.
While with the Empress Augusta River expedition in New Guinea, A. Roesike found the foreskin cut among a number of men. It was not a circumcision, nor an incision of the foreskin, but a deep cut into the glans about 1 to 1½ centimetres long, sometimes a single one, sometimes a double one crosswise.
Among some tribes of Indonesia a mutilation is customary, which is most likely intended to intensify the lust of the women. It consists in a perforation of the glans or the body of the male organ, into which a little stick is inserted. These little sticks are calledpalang,ampallang,utangorkampion, and are replaced on journeys or at work by feather quills. Among some tribes several little sticks are stuck through the penis. Nieuwenhuis describes this operation as follows: "At first the glans is made bloodless by pressing it between the two arms of a bent strip of bamboo. At each of these arms there are openings at the required position opposite each other, through which a sharp pointed copper pin is pressed after the glans has become less sensitive. Formerly a pointed bamboo chip was used for this purpose. The bamboo clamp is removed, and the pin, fastened by a cord, is kept in the opening untilthe canal has healed up. Later on the copper pin (utang) is replaced by another one, generally of tin, which is worn constantly. Only during hard work or at exhausting enterprises is the metal pin replaced by a wooden one." Exceptionally brave men have the privilege, together with the chief, of boring a second canal, crossing the first, into the glans. Distinguished men may, in addition, wear a ring round the penis, which is cut from the scales of thepangolin, and studded with blunt points. It may hence be concluded that the perforation of the penis is not intended as an endurance test for the young men, but that the pin is introduced for the heightening of sexual excitement. Many natives assert that the insertion of a pin in the perforated penis has the purpose of preventing pederasty, which is very frequent among the Malays (compare Nieuwenhuis, Vol. I., p. 78; Kleiweg de Zwaan, p. 301; Meyer, p. 878; Hose and McDougall, Vol. II., p. 170; Buschan, 1912, p. 240).
Among the Australians the slitting of the male urethra is frequently practised. Formerly it was believed that this custom was intended to prevent conception. But as the Australians who are not under European influence are ignorant of the process of generation, this cannot be its meaning. The operation is generally performed in boyhood or early youth, but even adult men undergo it. Where this operation on the urethra is customary, the hymen of the girls is cut, the cut often going through the perineum. Manytribes practise simple circumcision. Among the Australian tribe Worgait, for instance, certain relatives decide about the circumcision of the boys. After a previous elaborate ceremonial the boy who is to be circumcised is laid on the backs of three men lying on the ground; another man sits on his chest, one holds his legs apart, and the sixth performs the operation by drawing the foreskin forward and cutting it off with a sharp splinter of stone. The group is hidden from the view of the women by a screen made of pieces of bark. Afterwards the youth is instructed by old men how he must behave as a man, and he is informed about the matters kept secret from women. He remains for another two months under the supervision of two sons of his maternal uncle, and has further to go through a number of ceremonies. Other tribes of the Australian North Territory have similar customs.
Circumcision among the Hamites of East Africa is particularly elaborate. As an example we may take the pastoral tribe of the Nandi. These people used to circumcise boys every seven and a half years, and celebrated the occasion with great festivals. Since 1905 circumcision takes place at shorter intervals. The usual age for circumcision is from the fifteenth to the nineteenth year. Younger boys are only circumcised if they are rich orphans, or if their fathers are old men. The ceremony begins at the time of the first quarter of the moon. Three days before the operation the boys are given over by their fathers or guardiansinto the charge of old men, calledmoterenic, as many as ten boys going to two of these men. Themoterenicand their boys betake themselves to a neighbouring wood, where they build a hut, in which they spend the six months after the circumcision. The boys have their heads shaved and are given a strong aperient of Arsidia sp. Warriors visit the hut, and take away all the boys' clothes and ornaments. Then young girls visit the boys and give them a part of their clothing and ornaments. After the boys have put these on they inform their relations of the forthcoming circumcision. There is dancing on the next day, after which the warriors draw the boys aside to discover from their expressions whether they will behave cowardly or bravely at the circumcision. After this examination the boys receive necklaces from their girl friends, with which they decorate themselves. After sunset they must listen to the sharpening of the operating knife. Warriors are present, and tease the boys. Later on all undress, and a procession is formed with amoterenicat the head and rear of it. Four times they have to crawl through a small cage, where warriors are stationed at the entrance and exit with nettles and hornets. With the former they beat the boys in the face and on the sex organs; the hornets they set on their backs. A fire is kept burning in the middle of the room, around which old men are seated. Each boy has to step before them and beg for permission to be circumcised. He is questioned about his early life; and if the old men think that he has toldan untruth or is hiding something, he is put among nettles. If the old men are satisfied with his words, the price of the circumcision has to be arranged, whereupon the boys are led back to their huts. There the warriors and elders assemble the next morning, and at dawn the circumcision begins. The boy to be circumcised is supported by the seniormoterenic, the others sitting close by and looking on. The operator kneels before the boy, and with a quick cut performs the first part of the operation; the foreskin is drawn forward and cut off at the tip of the glans penis. The surrounding men watch the boy's face in order to see whether he winces or shows any sign of pain. If this is the case, he is called a coward, and receives the dishonourable nickname ofkilpit; he is not allowed to be present at later circumcisions nor at the children's dances. The brave boys receive bundles of ficus from the women, who welcome them with cries of joy when they return the necklaces which they have previously received from their girl friends. The foreskins are collected and placed in an ox horn. Friends and relatives make merry together, while the second part of the operation begins. At this only sterile girls may be present, and also women who have lost several brothers and sisters at short intervals. Many boys become unconscious during this part of the operation. The wounds are only washed with cold water, and the boys are led back to their huts, where they spend some weeks quietly. During the first four days they are not allowedto touch food with their hands; they must eat either out of a half-calabash or with the help of some leaves. They get what they like, also milk and meat. But, apart from theirmoterenic, nobody may come near them for four days. Afterwards the hand-washing ceremony is performed; the foreskins are taken out of the ox horn, sacrificed to their god, and then buried in cowdung at the foot of a croton tree. Now the boys may eat with their hands again, but still no one may see them except the young children who bring them food. Three months later, when the boys are quite well again, they have to go through a new ceremony, during which they have to dive repeatedly into the river. If one of them should meet with an accident, his father has to kill a goat. Only now may the boys move about freely, but they still have to wear women's clothes (as hitherto) and a special head-dress that hides their faces. They must not enter a cattle kraal nor come near the cattle, nor are they allowed to be outdoors when the hyena howls. This period of semi-seclusion lasts about eight weeks. Its conclusion is celebrated by a feast. Still more ceremonies follow, and again a feast, after which the boys finally enter the status of manhood.
Girls are circumcised when some of them in the settlement have reached marriage age. They are shaved, given aperients, have to put on men's clothes, which they receive from their lovers, and take their clubs, loin bells, etc. After three days' ceremonial thecircumcision is performed in the morning, at which the mothers and some old women are present; men are only admitted when they have lost several brothers and sisters in succession. The mothers run about crying and shouting during the operation. Only the clitoris is cut out. If a girl behaves bravely, she may return the clothes and other things of her lover, otherwise they are thrown away. The girls, too, must not touch food with their hands for four days; afterwards they are put into long dresses with a kind of head mask, and have to go through a period of seclusion. After the completion of various other formalities they are fit for marriage (Hollis, 1909, pp. 52et seq.).
No satisfactory explanation has so far been forthcoming of the purpose of these elaborate circumcision customs. Similar customs are observed by other Hamites of Eastern Africa.
Among the Masai there exists the belief that circumcision was introduced by the command of God (Merker, p. 60). After the circumcision boys and girls are considered grown up. The former have to be circumcised as soon as they are strong enough to take part in a war expedition. The circumcision of sons whose parents have no property and of poor orphans takes place last of all. For the meat banquet which the newly circumcised hold every one present has to supply an ox. Poor boys must first acquire it by working for it. The circumcision is a public affair, and is arranged by the witch doctor in certain years.The old men consult in all the districts, and fix a day for the circumcision of the first batch of boys. All the boys circumcised during a certain number of years form an age class with a particular name (as among the Nandi). Several weeks before the circumcision the boys, adorned with many ornaments, dance and sing in their own and neighbouring kraals, in order to express their joy at their approaching admission into the warrior class. On the day before the circumcision the boys' heads are shaved. On the appointed day itself the boys and the warriors who are present at the operation assemble before dawn at the place chosen by the operators. The boys pour cold water over each other, so as to become less sensitive. After the operation the wounded member is washed with milk; no remedy for stopping the bleeding is applied. Later on all the men of the neighbourhood assemble in the kraal, where they are regaled with meat and honey beer by the parents of the newly circumcised boys. The girls are circumcised as soon as signs of puberty become evident, sometimes even earlier. The operation consists in a complete abscission of the clitoris. The wound, as with the boys, is washed in milk. The girl remains in her mother's hut until the wound is healed. As soon as the man to whom the girl is promised as bride hears of her recovery he pays her father the remaining part of the bride-price, and nothing more stands in the way of the marriage.
Among the Somals in North-east Africa the boysare circumcised when six years old, and the girls are infibulated at three or four years of age. The infibulation is preceded by the shortening of the clitoris and the clipping of the external labia. The operation is performed by experienced women, who also sew up the inner labia (except for a small aperture) with horse-hair, bast, or cotton thread. The girls have to rest for several days with their legs tied together. Before marriage the above-mentioned women or the girls themselves undo the stitching, which, however, is in most cases only severed completely before the confinement (Paulitschke, p. 24).
In Western Africa most peoples practise the circumcision of boys. The age at which this takes place varies greatly. The Duala in Cameron have the boys circumcised when four or five years old, the Bakwiri as late as the twelfth to fourteenth year, and the Dahomey even postpone the circumcision to the twentieth year. But it always takes place before marriage, as women would refuse to have relationship with uncircumcised men (Buschan, "Sitten," III., p. 40).
A peculiar disfigurement of the sex organs is customary among the Hottentots, Bushmen, and many Bantu tribes of Middle and South Africa. This consists in the artificial elongation of the small labia. It was first observed among the Hottentot women, and therefore the elongated labia were called the "Hottentot apron." Among the Jao, Makonde, and other East African Bantu tribes, the girls at the agesof seven, eight, or nine years are instructed by old women about sex intercourse and their behaviour towards grown-up people. At the same time they are encouraged to systematically alter the natural shape of the genital organs by continually pulling at the labia minora and thus unnaturally lengthening them. Karl Weule has seen such disfigured organs from 7 to 8 centimetres long. According to the assertion of numerous male natives, the elongated labia assume such dimensions that they hang half-way down to the knee. The main purpose of this disfiguration seems to be erotic; it is said to excite the men. The assumption that the labia minora are naturally exceptionally large among the Hottentots is certainly wrong. Karl Weule is right when he definitely maintains that his proof of the artificial elongation of the labia among the East Africans establishes it as an indubitable fact that the famous Hottentot apron is also an artificial product. Le Vaillant established this independently almost 100 years before Weule; but the error dragged on from decade to decade, chiefly because nobody troubled or had the good fortune to study the puberty rites as Weule did. It is time at last to give up this erroneous idea.
Among the Jaos the operation of the boys consists in a combination of incision with circumcision so that only a tiny piece of the under-part of the preputium remains. The boy must show courage at the operation. Screams, if they occur, are drowned by thelaughter of the bystanders. Bleeding is stilled by bark powder. The boys have to lie down for about twenty days or more, until healing has taken place. As usual, circumcision is combined with instruction about sex behaviour.
In former times the Jaos are said to have imposed castration as a punishment on men for misbehaviour with the chief's wife (Weule, pp. 29, 35). Castration still takes place for this reason among other negro races, especially the Mohammedan Sudanese.
In North America the few Indians still living in a state of nature do not practise mutilation of the sex organs. In South America circumcision exists among the linguistically isolated tribes and the neighbouring Aruake and Karaib tribes of the north-west, also among the tribes on the Ucayali and the tributaries of the Apure (W. Schmidt, p. 1048). The Kayapo Indians on the Araguay river cut the frenulum of the penis with a taquara splinter, and the penis cuff is fastened on to the rolled-up foreskin (W. Kissenberth, p. 55).
The purpose of circumcision is probably to prolong the sex act, for the bare glans is less sensitive than the covered one. Friederici says (p. 89) that the black boys congregating on the stations and plantations frequently discuss these matters amongst themselves; they know that the glans of the circumcised is much less sensitive than that of the uncircumcised. Many authors are of the opinion that the abscission orincision of the foreskin in boys has the purpose of making cohabitation easier in later years, as this is often made difficult by phimosis (tightness of the foreskin). Külz (p. 40) found that among the youthful plantation workers in New Mecklenburg nearly a quarter were afflicted with phimosis, and often to such a degree that normal sex functioning was quite impossible. But such a condition does not seem to prevail among most of the primitive peoples practising circumcision. And, further, of what use would mutilations be that had nothing to do with tightness of the foreskin?
The prolonged festivals and elaborate ceremonials which are so often connected with the circumcision of boys and of girls, or with their admission to the state of manhood and womanhood (without accompanying circumcision), are intended to preserve the event in the memory. The long ceremony is deeply impressed upon the mind, and forms a firm nucleus round which other memories cluster which otherwise would be lost in the humdrum of ordinary life. How could the time of entry into manhood remain without ceremonious festival? This seems all the more necessary because the growth into manhood is gradual and almost unnoticeable, and if there were no ceremony, it would pass without making any impression. It is therefore the intention not only to give expression to the beginning virility, but above all to the admission into the league of youth (Schurtz, pp. 95, 96).
Among all human races the signs of maturity appear later and less distinctly in the male than in the female. In Europeans the period of puberty coincides with the second period of increased bodily growth, which ceases in the male between the sixteenth and the eighteenth year, and in the female between the fourteenth and the sixteenth year. The end of the puberty period may, however, in individual cases, be postponed for some years. The exact time of the advent of sex maturity, which, on account of their menstruation, can be fixed much more readily in girls than in boys, varies not only individually, but racially. The same applies to the difference in time between the advent of maturity and the cessation of bodily growth. Sexual maturity, as well as the cessation of bodily growth, takes place much earlier in Europeans than in some of the primitive peoples. Among other primitive peoples, however, maturity occurs comparatively late, and bodily growth ceases shortly after. To the latter belong certainly some of the peoples living in the tropics.
The opinion still prevails that climate has a considerable influence on the advent of maturity. Rudolf Martin (1915) remarks: "Races living in the tropicsgrow more quickly and mature earlier than the races living in temperate zones. This is undoubtedly due to the earlier advent of puberty."
As regards the Japanese, E. Baelz had already in 1891 disputed the statement that they mature early. He found, however, that the growth of both sexes ceases in Japan earlier than in Europe; still sex maturity in the female does not occur earlier. According to the concordant statements of female teachers of various girls' schools, the Japanese girls, in fact, reach maturity later than European girls, and half-caste girls take a medium position.
Since then reliable data about the advent of maturity among non-European races have seldom been given, but those to hand show that most probably even among coloured primitive people puberty generally occurs late.
Very important material has been collected by O. Reche in Matupi (New Pomerania, Melanesia), with the assistance of the Catholic mission of the place. He found that the rhythm of growth of the Melanesians corresponds on the whole to that of the Europeans, except that the growth ceases altogether a few years earlier. Development in height is finished on the whole in girls at the beginning of the seventeenth year, and in boys in the eighteenth year. But, as regards the advent of puberty, Reche's researches led to the surprising result that all Matupi girls, with the exception of those seventeen years old, had not yetmenstruated. Reche remarks that this strikingly late appearance of menstruation is also known to the missionaries, because in order to prevent early marriages they only consent to the marriage of a girl after the first menstruation has taken place. Reche's experience is in strong contradiction to the belief formerly taken for granted, for puberty occurs among these inhabitants of the tropics not only not earlier, but, on the contrary, later than with the Europeans living in temperate climates. Of importance is the fact that in the Matupi natives puberty coincides with the highest point of the curve of growth, namely, with the end of the development in height. Puberty commences when growth ceases. It almost seems as if the advent of maturity absorbs all the strength and hinders further growth. It is quite different with Europeans in this respect: the beginning of puberty falls with them in the second period of growth (in boys the twelfth to the sixteenth, in girls the eleventh to the fourteenth year), and therefore long before growth ceases altogether.
It would seem that the conditions existing among Europeans are the primitive state, as with the majority of animals also puberty begins before the cessation of growth.
Reche reports further that, corresponding to the late puberty, the secondary sexual characteristics also appear exceptionally late in Matupi children. This is the chief reason why the boys and girls, especially as they are small, appear remarkably young evenshortly before maturity, and why their age seems much less than it actually is. The first beginning of the change from the areola mamma to the budding breast shows itself among the Matupi girls not before the sixteenth year; the development of the breast seems to coincide with the first menstruation. Axillary hair did not appear in sixteen-year-old Matupi girls, with one exception; and it was scanty in those seventeen years old, though it is generally copious in adults. There was also no trace of a beard in seventeen-year-old boys, though it is well developed in the older men. It must be added that the late differentiation of secondary sexual characteristics is also noticeable among other coloured races, as,e.g., among the Philippines and other Indonesian races.
Among the Papuans of New Guinea also sex maturity occurs late. As Richard Neuhaus wrote, according to information given by missionaries who have lived for a long time among the natives on Tami and among the Jabim, the first menstruation generally appears in the fifteenth to sixteenth year. Young males look very undeveloped up to the sixteenth year. Neuhaus thought this late maturity was the result of bad feeding, though it does not appear from his other descriptions that the economic conditions of the Papuans are especially unfavourable.
A. E. Jenks reports of the Igorots on Luzon that boys as well as girls attain puberty at a late age, generally between fourteen and sixteen years. Thecivilised Ilkano people settled among the Igorots definitely declare that the girls do not menstruate before they have reached the sixteenth or seventeenth year. A considerable error as regards their age seems to be excluded with these people, who have lived a long time under European influence.
Of the Andamanese, a pigmy race, Portman and Molesworth write that puberty appears in boys and girls round about the fifteenth year. Bodily growth is finished at eighteen years, and is in any case after maturity very trivial.
Eugen Fischer makes the following statements about the Bastards in German South-west Africa: "In one family five out of six daughters menstruated for the first time at the age of fifteen, one at the age of sixteen. One Bastard woman had first menstruated at the age of seventeen, three of her daughters at thirteen, the fourth, who was anæmic, at seventeen. Another Bastard woman, who herself had her first menstruation at fifteen, had two daughters from a white man who had reached puberty at sixteen and seventeen years of age. A girl with distinct anæmia stated that she had had her first period at sixteen years, her sister even as late as eighteen," Fischer knows of three girls that became mature at sixteen, fourteen, and thirteen years. L. Schultze reports that with the Hottentots the first menstruation appears, as a rule, between the ages of thirteen and fifteen.
There is, unfortunately, no information to be hadabout the negroes with regard to this subject. The puberty rites practised by them give no clue to the real age at the advent of puberty.
Aleš Hrdlička (pp. 125-129) tried to determine the age of puberty among Indian girls of the south-west of the United States by their height, as definite statements of age are not to be had. This method is not without objection, for it is certain that individuals who have attained puberty are decidedly taller than persons of the same age who have not reached maturity. Hrdlička found that of those examined in the twelfth or thirteenth year one-third of the Apache girls and as many as three-quarters of the Pima girls had already menstruated. In the age class of thirteen to fourteen years four-fifths of the Apache and nine-tenths of the Pima girls had already menstruated, while of forty-six older girls only one had not yet attained puberty. The first signs of breast development were noticed by Hrdlička in clothed Indian maidens whose ages he estimated to be from eleven to twelve years. But it was only between fifteen and seventeen that the girls acquired the typical womanly form; until then they have, as Hrdlička says, "a somewhat male appearance." In youths the beard begins to grow at the fifteenth or sixteenth year. The climate is moderate in the country of the Apache and Pima Indians; the days are decidedly hot in the low-lying regions, but the nights are generally cold in these regions, even in summer.
In comparison it may be noted that, according toH. P. Bowditch's investigations in Boston, nearly four-fifths of the white girls born in America mature between the thirteenth and seventeenth year. Puberty is reached relatively most often between the ages of fourteen and fifteen, though over 40 per cent. of 575 girls examined had not yet menstruated at the completed fifteenth year.
Within one and the same race the conditions of life seem to have a great influence on the age of puberty and bodily development. Unfavourable conditions produce a retardation of puberty; favourable conditions accelerate it. This may be the chief cause why the beginning of puberty varies individually by several years.
There exists so far no definite explanation of the racial differences in the age of puberty. Reche says, "It is conceivable that the characteristically late maturity of a tropical race (like that of the Melanesians) may gradually have been acquired by the unfavourable influence of too hot a climate or of continual underfeeding acting on many generations."
It is remarkable that, in contradistinction to the Melanesians, the Indians become mature very early, and the same applies most likely to the Australians. In India, as in Australia, sexual intercourse is begun at a very youthful age, among the girls often long before the first menstruation. It is possible that on account of this the age of puberty is lowered, so that girls who mature late are more easily injured and perish in greater number than the girls maturingearlier, who are less injured by the premature sexual intercourse. The male sex may have been influenced in the same direction through heredity.
Just as physical maturity, so is the cessation of generative power and bodily decline more marked in women than in men. In Middle and Northern Europe, procreation generally ceases with women of an age between forty-five and fifty years. Numerous birth statistics from all countries of this continent show that birth in women over fifty years old is very rare. It is not quite clear how the case stands in this respect among the coloured races. Hrdlička reports of the North American Indian women that with them the climacterium occurs apparently at about the same age as with European women. It must be taken into consideration that accurate statements of age are wanting, and that the age of Indian women can easily be greatly overrated. Otherwise it has generally been reported of coloured women that they age rapidly, and that their reproductive period is comparatively short. In North-west Brazil the Indian girls marry as soon as in their tenth to twelfth year, on account of their rapid development. Early maturity and marriage may be one of the chief causes of their rapid decline. The Indian women are generally beyond their prime at the age of twenty. Their straight figure is frequently covered with a disgusting accumulation of fat, and the elasticity of movement gives way to indolence. Other women become very thin after several confinements,their features become sharp and bony, and among old women one often comes across real hag-like creatures with half-blind, running eyes (Koch-Grünberg, II., p. 149).
In India the women of the Dravidian as well as of the Mongolian races age rapidly. Their generative power rarely lasts longer than the beginning of the forties. Among the pigmies the time of procreation is said to be equally short (Portman and Molesworth). Spencer and Gillen say that with the Australian women a rapid bodily decline takes place as early as the twenty-fifth and at the latest in the thirtieth year, which cannot be attributed to exceptional privations or harsh treatment. The Australian women apparently reach the age of fifty years or more only exceptionally.
Jochelson (pp. 413et seq.) writes that the Koryak women age very rapidly. They cease to bear children at about the age of forty. Other travellers have made statements about the great age that the Koryaks are said to attain. Jochelson's thorough-going investigations showed that of 284 persons only thirteen could possibly have been over sixty-five years old, and among them there was only one really old man.
Schultze (p. 297) mentions two Hottentot women who had given birth at the age of forty-seven, and another who still had her period at fifty-five. Among the negresses late births also occur. Unfortunately, ethnographical literature only rarely gives facts with regard to this subject.
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