I was just wondering if gay people use to exist in PNG before the whitemen came or was it something that had just emerged in this new modern era in PNG? If it was something that happened in this new age then should it be allowed to continue and be accepted in our traditions and societies?
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It has been around since ages. Ask the Sepiks and Tolai's. Ask any women and they will tell you how it feels.
Depending on which side one is on, people say that gay is practiced by people with mental disorder or people who really do not have much choice due to lack of male hormons in thier body system. In many traditional PNGean society, isolating young boys from family and putting them in haus boy was a way to make them grow up as a man.
I have had good friends who are gay and dont see any problem with this people. Respect them and they will respect you.
This message has been edited by 7milebeach on May 8, 2006 10:34 PM
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Ating gay was not known in png in da past.
Tasol...honestly.., wanpla taim mi lukim wanpla man dog ee pamim narapla man dok....dat was when i was a kid and i knew that when such dog act progresses, we use to say that the tails get stuck when the act ends, tasol it was not the case then, so may be it was amongst the png dogs only. I stil don't know cos most our cultures ain't have any written .....records, ating yupla bai gat save!
Ta!
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An Expedition to Homosexual Cannibals of Papua New Guinea: the Onabasulu of the Southern Highlands
Wednesday Colloquium
By Prof. Dr. Benno Meyer-Rochow
When 25 Feb 2004
From 5:30 AM to 7:00 PM
Where Conrad Naber Lecture Hall
International University Bremen
Campus Ring 1
28759Bremen
Abstract Although Meyer-Rochow’s expedition to the Onabasulu Cannibals of the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea took place many years ago, a report of the expedition, accompanied by slides, can still be considered timely: Firstly, due to a notorious case of cannibalism, which occupied a German court recently, cannibalism has featured prominently in the news media and secondly, because recently published evidence suggests that cannibalism was once widely practiced by our ancestors. In his talk Meyer-Rochow will concentrate on the Onabasulu, show their dwellings, and the rainforest environment they call home and he will explain some rituals and selected aspects of the Onabasulu way of life. The Onabasulu society knows institutionalized homosexuality and exo-cannibalism. Contacts with neighbouring tribes like the Kalului, Etoro, and Huli often turned into bloody conflicts and were, thus, avoided. Numerous food taboos exist and will be mentioned. The talk will be of interest to students and staff of both faculties!
Sponsored
by School of Engineering and Science
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Semen Warriors Of New Guinea
For them, 'gays in the military' is a necessity
by Hank Hyena Published September 16, 1999 in Whoa!
Sometimes, culture shock is inevitable. Consider the following:
See also...
... by Hank Hyena
... in the Whoa! section
... from September 16, 1999 An essay by anthropologist Gilbert Herdt, editor of Ritualized Homosexuality in Melanesia and the author of Sambia Sexual Culture, shows how radically different cultural perceptions of a proper masculine upbringing can be.
Bizarre homosexual rites are practiced extensively by numerous Melanesian tribesmen in New Guinea and adjacent islands. Young boys must "accumulate" semen for several years, either by regularly receiving anal penetration, or by swallowing the ejaculations of older males they fellate. This ancient custom springs from a religious belief system that regards sperm as the essential conduit of masculine energy; puny boys, they believe, are only transformed into virile warriors if they ingest large quantities of sperm.
"If you boys don't drink semen, you won't grow big," a Sambian elder tells prepubescent initiates. "You should not be afraid of eating penises ... it is just like the milk of your mother's breast. You can ingest it all of the time and grow quickly. A boy must be ... inseminated... If [he] doesn't eat semen, he remains small and weak."
Ten to twenty percent of all tribes in Melanesia -- an Oceania region stretching 3,000 miles from Irian Jaya to Fiji -- have mandatory "boy-inseminating" practices, claims Herdt. Boys here are separated from their mothers when they are 7-14 years old, and installed in "bachelor's houses."
The Marind-anim of Southwest New Guinea -- who were ruthless headhunters -- give the boys to maternal uncles who "top" them in anal intercourse for six years. The nearby Jacquai tribe refers to the adult penetrator as "mo-e" (anus-father) and the receiving child as "mo-mog" (anus-son). Big Namba chiefs of the New Hebrides Islands have numerous boy lovers; the Keraki of the Papuan lowlands sodomize lads at a bull-roarer ceremony; and the Great Plateau Kaluli "engage" youths to older men selected by their fathers.
Although many boys tremble initially ("I felt afraid... the penises were enormous," recalls Kalutuo, a Sambian from the Eastern Highlands) they all adjust quickly, because they believe semen is an elixir for manhood.
Many tribes -- like the Etoro of the Papuan Plateau -- claim that semen does not even exist in boys until it is orally or anally "planted."
This myth seems valid to tribesmen because boys start ejaculating when they achieve adolescence -- they are allowed to penetrate younger boys then, to maintain the tradition.
The "butching" of Melanesian boys with homoerotic activity is not unique in the annals of history. Spartan soldiers were carnal tent-comrades when they conquered Greece in the Peloponnesian War. They believed genital bonding between buddies enhanced battlefield loyalty and valor. The warlike Romans -- Mediterranean masters for 500 years -- were also a pederastic people. Catullus' poems reveal that men seeking boys' bottoms were not regarded as sissies; the habit was at least as "studly" as pursuing women.
The aggressive, arrogant, sperm-sucking warriors of Melanesia would probably agree with Spartans and Romans that the current "gays in the military" phobia is laughably obtuse; physical love between GIs, they would suggest, is beneficent for morale. Gay male lust is often castigated as "feminizing" in Western society, but Melanesians in Herdt's studies refute this: the sole purpose of homosexuality in their culture is to create "a fierce warrior masculinity that is the inverse of femininity."
The New Guinea data contradicts the religious fundamentalists who regard same-sex desire as a decadent post-civilized vice. Melanesians subsist on yams and superstitions -- they are among the Earth's most primitive peoples.
"Semen warrior tribes" are rapidly disappearing, due to oppression imposed on them by Christian European colonialists in the last 150 years. The "heroic homosexual" customs will probably vanish soon, buried under the inhibitions and scientific knowledge promulgated by missionaries and bureaucrats.
Herdt's observations will remain, though, as documentary evidence of an institutionalized queer culture that is often incestuous, always non-consensual, and impelled by erroneous nutritional assumptions. One wonders, though, whether the Melanesian model is actually any weirder than the vast, civilized, imaginary construct that modern humanity flutters inside, like a bird imprisoned in an invisible cage.
Hank Hyena is a columnist for SfGate and SfMetropolitan, and a frequent contributor to Salon
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na ol sepik na tolai ol lain blo koap ass stret ya....just ask their wives and girl friends.......i heard from one wife that it kept their marriage fresh and was a weekly thing!
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First of all the whole lot of you are too narrow minded. I'm not gay but i have a couple of gay friends and i gotta say that they are the most nicest people i have ever met. But your opinion is your opinion and you are intitled to that but i just have to say that Gay people are people to and so they hurt the same as we do when a negative thought is thrown our way. But you don't have the right to judge. Maybe in your eyes it's wrong but the only person who can judge is the big man upstairs....and i'm sure even though it is a sin he still loves them the same as you and me and so if he can care enough to love them regardless the least we could do is to just leave them alone and mind our own business....so they're GAY and what? Is it gonna ruin your life to know that someone other then u is GAY...don't think so! They're no point in name calling..it's just a waste of space. But that's just my opinion...You don't have to listen to me!
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It is not new that PNG is branded that way; as bad as uncivilized, carnibals, pigs, murderers, and even the worst names you can think of. The simplest reason for that is that our media, especially Post Courier and The National can not keep / throw away such negative news because they want to maximise profit.
On the same token, many people in the world have yet to know about PNG even intellectuals do not know where the hell PNG is located on the world map. Many times, PNGuineans that are travelling overseas have to sweat their guts trying to explain about the country and the good things while the media on the other hand, reveals the bad things. What a contradiction? Countries like Australia and US are still as worse as PNG; take New York, it's filled with robbers and looters and rapists and the list goes on. In Australia, Australians are smiling to the world saying that it's The Australian Way, yet Australia being the only racist nation in the world. Aboriginese are treated badly, other blacks and refugees as well as Muslims are treated harshly. However, they don't put such on the media very often. All they have is the goodies that that have to offer to the world; for tourism, investments and very much, the national image.
PNG has much to offer to the world; being rich in many, many aspects. All we have to do is to create positive image and awareness at the global level which only requires our collective efforts, from; the citizens, government, NGO's, the MEDIA and of course with the use of the most effective tool; the internet. Our very few websites like, PNG Tourism Promotion Authority and the others have come up with some good websites but are still low in quality and the capability of creating a maximum positive image. I am sure PNG is on its way... but our country needs our help - yes from individuals and groups. Despite everything, may God bless this wonderful land.
all that talk of Homosexuality beliefs and pactices, might be true but personally, I never heard of such practices in my own culture.
Homosexuals ae looked down upon in my traditional culture, they can be seen as unnatural or strange, as they are.
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If you are bi or tranny or whatever the word is for people who do not have the normal body part for the sex they represent, then homosexuality is for them coz they can't insert or be inserted. Otherwise, let them live on their own, why bother and discriminate?
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We must not mix our culture with the influence of the western world, If there was a practice that now know as an act of gay, then it must not be changed to be used as an excuse of being gay.
Our culture must be respacted and that it lives on,PNG has many different cultures and traditions, is a free nation and that if people want to practice it then its their will. It must not be used as an excuse to westernise our culture,
Please treasure and let our identity live on.
Tribesman.
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I have a nephew who I can say is a Gay, and is misunderstood everytime! It wasn't his idea of being GAY!but comes back to their parents.
I think that it has to do with the types of hormorns that a "GAY" person has! Too much of FEMALE hormorns in a guy can make a person FEEL like a woman, likewise to a woman.
So if you ask about GAYs existing here in PNG, I would say, as evolution changed time time, humans also changed! In terms of physical appearance, mentally and psychology.
Thank you...
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OK i have a question, ok so most of us are Christian...we believe in God and wat not...so if he "created" us...why is being gay a sin? It is not something a person choses, homosexuals are simply just born gay...I personally don't think there is anything wrong with being gay...but yeh...Why is it a sin?...God created us all...right...???...so then he himself created a sin...Im confused...
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I think the gay population in png has been around for a long time, but it has been taboo to talk about it and so kept hidden. but as our country ages, we are all open and susceptible to the world around us and therefore, opening up to the gay community and the gay feel they can come forward and come out.
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yeh...im confused too, gay people don't chose to be homosexual, they don't wake up one morning and say, hmmm i think I wanna be attracted to the same sex, theyre just born that way. So why is it a sin? Why is it a sin to god?
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Why don't you inspect the rear ends of all 5.6 million papua new guineas and sniff? Maybe there is a difference between the gays and straight. You will need to develop a method to differentiate between the gay sniff and the straight sniff.
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Ask any sepik and they will tell you whether or not there are gays in PNG. Its entrenched into the culture, and they all love it. So when you are sleeping in a Sepik person's house especially a male companion, make sure you cover your back. Before you even realise it, the pukpuk is aready hard at work at your rear; you cant stop the unstopable: Sepik culture at its best!
gay livewire
maprik stronghold
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I think there were such people existing but not to the extreme of having that sexual attraction to the same sex. Maybe they had the urge to do but because of traditions and cultural restrictions that never showed out. I know of a girl from a neighbouring village whom we attended primary school together back in the late 80's who used to wear boys clothes to school. He used to wear 'ass target' and 'malo' during cultural shows, carry firewood on the shoulder instead of on the head etc. This girl refuses to get married to boys and eventually about two years ago she got her cousin who is also a girl and living together. Therefore, from this example, I think homosexuality existed before.
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kaikai lek blo lapun paps...
This is good for my exploration essay... PNG and the Gay culture... Wow!
What about EMOS? Punks? Ravers? or should Trans and Bis be grouped with the GAYS?
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My family comes from Mt. Hagen and once we were in the village and my uncle was telling us that when the first white people when to Mt. Hagen, they used to see the local people, especially the guys, always holding hands and walking around and they thought that they were homosexuals. Only later did they find out that that was actually a normal show of affection between people there. Still have to find out about homosexuals in PNG..
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There is no way in the blue hell highlanders are gay, pls u mst be on dog fud eh...highlanders can't be gay lol u wanna c gay people..u go down to central, Ngi and sepik...dats were u fnd em!!
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This is a misunderstanding on how males in png conduct themselves. Any expat who first see a png male/male holding hands, the conclusion is they are gay. The male population in png show a lot of affection towards each other in the form of holding around the shoulder, holding hands and joking and all the horse play with each other. To the expat, only gay people do this and they will be offended should you do this to the expats [especially Oz]
Do not be misled by what you read, especially when it is written by a expat. The expat community have yet to fully understand png culture.
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Look, as from my point of view in regard to this topic I have seen that many people not only PNGians but westerners too have come up with all those claims that PNG had a history of gay practice. Contrary to that obviously if such practices ever took place like they claimed I believed it wasn't for sexual exploitation (like gays of today knowingly and willingly becoming gays)but it was for the sake or of some tradition or a ritual of some sort. Therefore I would not say that pngs had gays but they were forced unknowingly with misinformation.
By the way gay is not a Papua New Guinean Tradition and introduction of western ideas is probably the main cause. I think that those gays in PNG have some genetics problem thats why they are acting gay around. On the other hand gays are thoroughly not welcomed in PNG and if they happen to find out that you are one you will be bashed up every where you go.
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Hmm,
even though this is an old thread I couldn't help putting in my 2 toeas worth.
The reason western people regarded such behaviour as "homosexual", is that we do not have any other word to use for it in our language. These were merely tribal/cultural practices. The young men grew up, married, and had families, and did not indulge in same sex practices any more. Therefore, by definition, they were not homosexuals. It really needs another word to describe it.
When I was a young, guy and one of my PNG friends offered his hand, I took it. Whilst I realized it was only a sign of frienship, I still felt uncomfortable - a little. Even though I am loath to admit it, I am as much a product of my culture, as you are of yours. So what?
Inbuilt prejudices are the hardest to overcome, and one never totally succeeds.
Regards......Ralph.
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you mas wanpla idiot stret na askim disla kain question stap ya ah? mahn nau chol u born?? gay exist before yet ya!! maski u mas wanpla blo ol halfy stret ya!!
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Were there gays before the white men came? My answer to this question is NO. Do not confuse yourselves with ritualised homosexuality and being gay. I would argue that the former is a ritual performed by some societies in PNG before and possibily during early part of colonisation. Being gay is a total lifestyle. It is one's sexuality on the daily basis and often comes with a kind of personality. Anthropological studies in PNG clearly show that these practices were ritualised. It was not a lifestyle that people live which would potray someone as being gay. In other words, homosexuality in these societies was a ritual practise where boys become men by engaging in bodily fluids that symbolically represent power. It is not suprising that these rituals were carried out in patrilineal societies where male superiority must be legitimized by the ritual. Boys will become men. They were absence in matrilineal societies in Milne Bay, Bouganville, New Ireland, and New Britain while more predominant in the region we refer to as MOMASE and parts of the highlands. The men and boys engaged in these rituals were not gays (I would argue) though they engaged in the ritual.
To me, the ritual was a way of dealing with the conflicts experienced in human relations, especially between the same sex. Homosexuality in these societies was not about constant sexual encounters between the same sex. Therefore the boys and men cant be labelled as gays because after the one-off ritual they melt back into the rest of society..marry women, and have kids... I believe that these societies through the rituals create much stronger straight men, strong warriors, and therefore prevent boys turning into what the West call as "gays." Hence gay relationships and sexual acivities are purely Western (European). They (West) gave it recognition, promoted it, gave it legal protection and now it is being adopted in PNG. It is already a habit in PNG that we always think that everything the white man does is good for us too. We are looking forward to gay marriage in PNG. The distinction between male and female identity and power is becoming obscure. In the end we will not know who we are....because we will be a nation of a thousand tribes lost in transition.
eL
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Not quite eL,
you are still blamimg the waitman for everything. A common melanrsian trend in this day and age.
If "gay" lifestyle is a western introduced thing, then how do you account for the Fa'fine in Sa'moa? You will find such behaviour (institutionalized?) in many societies.
However, we both agree that same sex sexual practice in PNG society, could not by definition be described as a homosexual lifestyle. As it was with the Spartans, the homosexual practices were only a means to an end. In their culture, if a young man was found unaccompanied wuth a young lady, the penalty was death. So there was little choice for these warriors. Not only that, their culture did not condemn such relationships. Guilt only occurs, when you are comdemned by your own culture for what you do.
This is a fascinating thread to read. So many prejudices show through. I have little doubt, that those who rant and rave most about Gays being scum etc, are probably the least sure of their own sexual identity. When in doubt create a smokescreen.
Backs to the wall chasps......Ralph.
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yeah they did but they disguised themselves cause the last one that expressed his sexuallity did it in the wrong place... on STAGE and as an effect of his carelessness he too ended up in the wrong place... the ICU with undoubtedly the wrong thing wedged up his arse ... a bottle of SP
LOL im sorry but its just funny
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! Talk about evoking a discussion hehe... Hang on, I'll get back to you right after I am through with my tub of ice cream 