Sex education in traditional tribal cultures

Sex education in traditional tribal cultures is examined for clues as to sex education and sex roles as they would have developed early in human history. Longitudinal ethnographic studies also provide information on human sexuality in general and on different ways in which societies are shaped around issues of sex, the transmission of attitudes about sex from one generation to the next, and so on. One problem in examining any traditional society is that researchers may bring biases from their own culture to their work and so may make errors in judgment as to the meaning of certain practices or even about details of tribal behavior. This is a problem in any kind of ethnographic study, but it may be a particular problem with studies of sexual mores because of the importance given sex in Western society as well as the ways in which sexual behavior and sexual thoughts have been repressed at different times in Western society. A consideration of how some of the studies of traditional tribal cultures have erred shows the sort of biases that can creep into this research and the kinds of problems that can arise as a consequence.

The study of gender roles and the socialization process is subject to certain restrictions and certain limitations based on the nature of the process of investigation itself. In Western society, gender has become politicized. Leacock notes that the very concepts of equality and inequality may be an ethnocentric misunderstanding Westerners bring to an

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n that creates one accepted role for boys and another for girls in a given society? Mead found that culture, or nurture, was the key, as Crapo notes with reference to the three tribes of New Guinea: These extremely contrasting examples demonstrate that the personalities of men and women in any one society are not unambiguous manifestations of inherent characteristics that are fixed by nature. Rather, they are manifestations of each society's culturally patterned role expectations (Crapo 198). The process of child training in different societies promotes different sets of values, and even within a given society there can be differences in emphasis in the education given. Onwuejeogwu notes that the basic institution for socialization is the family, and that this is especially true for small-scale societies where the education process in the family unit is more extensive and longer-lasting, as well as often being the only education of note the child receives. The gender roles of the parents are conveyed to the children and also serve to create conflicts and harmonies with children of different sexes, depending on the specific situation. In some societies, the father is the center of authority and affection, and this can lea

Category: History - S