Etoro

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The Etoro are a tribe in Papua New Guinea. Their territory comprises the southern slopes of Mt. Sisa, along the southern edge of the central mountain range of New Guinea, near the Papuan Plateau. They have gained notoriety among anthropologists because of the ritual homosexuality practiced between young boys and men of the tribe. The Etoro believe that young boys must ingest the semen of their elders to achieve adult male status and to properly mature and grow strong. All Etoro believe themselves to contain a certain amount of life force, the highest concentrations of which is supposedly contained in semen. This life force is believed to pass between members of the group through sexual relations. As mentioned, when young, males have it passed to them through sex. Women are seen to waste the life force if they do not get pregnant through sex. As people get older and their bodies weaken this is attributed to a depletion of their life force. Homosexual behavior, particularly oral sex, is encouraged throughout youth for males, with different sexual roles fulfilled by adolescents of different ages. Heterosexuality is permitted only during a distinct time period of the year (about 100 days) and only in certain places (neither in sleeping quarters nor in the fields, but only in the woods). A woman who enjoys sex too much is seen as a witch trying to steal the life force from a man. Similarly, boys that grow too quickly are assumed to be sapping the life force from other boys. Seen as too sex-hungry, he might be shunned as a witch.

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