24. As mentioned, the Baruya people believe that semen is a strong, powerful force. Boys around ten
24. As mentioned, the Baruya people believe that semen is a strong, powerful force. Boys around ten have to live for a time away from their mothers, in a house together, where they drink the semen of older boys. Drinking semen enables them to turn from being boys into being men.They also believe that semen is the main contributor to making strong, healthy babies, and that breastmilk is really transformed semen. When a young man and woman get married, the young wife has to drink her husband’s semen every day, so that when she has a baby, she will produce good milk. The Baruya also believe that menstrual blood and vaginal juices are polluting. Hence once a man is married, he can no longer let boys drink his semen, because his penis has been inside a woman’s vagina and therefore to put it in a boy’s mouth would risk polluting the boy.What do these beliefs show about how men view women? Do they show that they think men are strong and powerful and good compared with women? Or do they show the fear that women are truly the ones with power, because they can grow a baby inside them, and produce milk to feed the baby? The insistence on the power of semen and on the requirement to drink it would then be something like a compensation, designed to conceal their own repressed anxiety about feminine power. Can we learn anything about Western society and Western understanding by examining such beliefs and practices? If so, what? -- source link