Monday, February 21, 2011

Book Reading 22 - Coming of Age in Samoa

Chapter 7 - Formal Sex Relations
Summary

The different aspects of sexual relations were discussed.  It would seem the first lovers of most young women are older men.  Samoans do not value celibacy like some Western cultures do.  Virginity does put more value on a girl’s life, but they see no point in not having sexual relations.  Also, cheating on spouses does not necessarily doom the relationship.  This is quite common.  And divorce is a very informal and easy task.  Two people simply separate and the deed is done.

Discussion
While a lot of their views seem to be opposite of those in this country, I think this has changed quite a bit since Mead wrote her book.  The general feeling in this country is that virgins are assumed to be the minority after a certain age.  This changes with region, but this is generally true.  We still stick to monogamy to define relationship devotion, but even this has some leniency in certain groups.  This is a very small minority of course.  But things have changed a lot from Mead’s time.

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