Seclusion of girls at puberty

The seclusion of girls at puberty has been practiced in many societies around the world, especially prior to the early 20th century. In these cultures, the daughter's puberty, because of menstruation and the widespread ideas of uncleanness[1] was more special than that of a son. These societies practised various rites of passage, many of which, as modern trends such as industrialization swept across their value systems, completely disappeared or lost their original forms.[2] However, these disappearing practices bear their own anthropological significance, as they are indicative of the way of life of the people who lived in those societies. Some anthropological studies have covered a wide spectrum of such puberty rites which demanded the seclusion of the pubescent girls for a certain period.

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Puberty rites related to first menstruation

A major work of study in this area was done by Sir James George Frazer. In his voluminous work The Golden Bough he described girls' puberty rites from many lands across the globe. He noted that two rules, not to touch the ground and not to see the sun, played a role in the seclusion of girls at puberty. According to Frazer, these were also the rules which regulated the lives of divine kings or priests. These divine kings were carried on shoulders by their underlings or given to walking upon tapestry or carpet. The heir to the throne in some cultures had to live in seclusion for a time during which they were not supposed to see the sun. It is also speculated that the Paleolithic Venus figurines[3] can be seen from the point of view of puberty rites such as not seeing the sun (the lack of facial features), not touching the ground (tapering legs without feet) and adiposity (obese body shape) caused by seclusion.

Among puberty rites Frazer described there are many practices adhering to the above rules. Once a girl from Zulu tribes in South Africa showed the first signs of puberty she had to cover her head with her blanket, then go and hide among the reeds by the river until the sunset. Thereafter, she had to stay in a hut for some time before coming back to the society. In New Ireland and in Kabadi District of New Guinea, pubescent girls were kept indoors in seclusion for several years. In many societies, including Brahmins of Bengal, the girls at puberty were not allowed to see even their male relatives. Indians of California did not allow girls on their first menstruation to even ‘look about’. Among the Tiyans of Malabar, such girls were not allowed to catch the sight of a cow or touch ‘any other person, tree or plant'. Frazer stated that “a superstition so widely diffused as this might be expected to leave traces in legends and folk-tales”[4] He supposed that the Greek story of Danae who was kept by her father in seclusion but was impregnated by Zeus could be treated as such a folklore.

Reasons for the seclusion

The existence of such rites are linked to its educational content of socializing girls for womanhood and their roles as wives and mothers. During their seclusion, in many cultures practising such rites, girls would be taught about their future roles. In The Golden Bough, this practice was also looked at from a magical perspective. The ‘deeply engrained dread’ about the ‘menstruous blood’ is deemed by Frazer as the reason for this practice prevalent in many societies in the times around or before the time of his writings. The first appearance of menstrual blood had caused more fear than the monthly menstruation could have done. A deeper analysis of Frazer‘s accounts show that these fears are more related to the superstitious beliefs associated with young women than the fear of spread of diseases or other hygienic concerns. Confirming this, Benedict[5] noted that among Apache Indians,"the adolescent girls are not segregated as sources of danger, but court is paid to them as to direct sources of supernatural blessing". A girl at her first menstruation, among the Indians of California, was considered to be possessed of ‘a degree of supernatural power’ which was not entirely malevolent but still arousing the feeling of the ‘power of evil. The Bushmen in South Africa thought that ‘by a glance of a girl’s eye at the time when she ought to be kept in strict retirement, men become fixed in whatever position they happen to occupy..' It is noteworthy to mention that ‘in ...the Natural History of Pliny- the list of dangers apprehended from the menstruation is longer than any furnished by mere barbarians’[6]

Arachige discussing these superstitions in a recent book,[7] looks at them as related to the supernatural phenomenon. According to this explanation, the societies simply followed the customs handed down to them by the generation after generation of forebears. The original fears which were rooted in these customs were caused by their belief in the supernatural. In the primitive societies, some pubescent girls might have shown some unusual abilities such as the ones attributed to the poltergeist activity. Arachige mentions that according to medical literature, the pubescent girls are more prone to depressive mental conditions than the boys of similar age are. The adolescents also have higher tendency to suffer from conditions like Schizotypy which could arise due to child abuse. The historical records show that the girls might have been subjects of incestuous relationships that could trigger such abusive conditions. Those pressures might have led to the special behaviours some girls might have shown. Arachige seems to imply that such conditions thus caused the fear surrounding pubescent girls and perhaps, because of the abnormal behaviours shown by some girls at puberty, the primitive people created the spirit world and religion.

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