2 - Love stories

Summary

The young Yanomami's sexuality is not repressed as long as it remains discreet and limited. In this respect it corresponds to that of the adults. Although they are invested with a unique meaning, the sexual organs are nevertheless organs like any other, and hence subject to playful explorations. Adults speak openly of sexuality and reproductive functions; the role of human copulation and the pleasure it gives are not hidden from children. Everything here is very natural.

Children and adolescents do occasionally indulge in sodomy. They speak of it only cautiously, for like masturbation it is a marginal sexual activity that remains the very private concern of those who practice it; but it does not engender any feeling of guilt, which, like repentance, is rightly banished from Indian morality. Accusations of sodomy are rarely uttered; when they are they elicit only weak protests from the suspects. It isn't worth taking offense, and that is a measure of the slight importance that, ultimately, they ascribe to this activity. One can frequently see boys of all ages simulate it publicly in their games; often brothers-in-law are involved, for these are usually devoted to each other through mutual and lasting affection. Homosexual practices, though more frequent in this kinship category, are not exceptional between brothers or first cousins. If it is scandalous to “eat the vagina” of a sister – that is the Indians' expression for coitus – there is no shame in “eating the anus” of one's brother: Society dictates the exchange of daughters and sisters, but it does not codify sexual practices between persons of the same sex.