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Keep those wholesome family traditions

On the long, lovely beaches of the Trobriand Islands, with its azure waters and coconut palms, life is peaceful and simple. Men fish and grow yams. Women garden and weave skirts. Teenage boys learn ancestral dance and live in a bachelor pad. Teenage girls have sex with any bachelors they choose—variety is the spice of life! Doting parents give their daughters thoughtful advice, such as which boys look like good lovers.

There are rules of propriety, of course. Screwing a guy is fine, but don’t you dare engage in a premarital meal. Want to be the village bad girl? Have dinner with a guy before you’re married.

Big losers in the Trobriand Islands are the birth control merchants. Trobrianders know that sex doesn’t make babies. The proof? They have lots of the former, but few of the latter. Forget the silly notion that intercourse makes women pregnant. It’s obvious that the ancestors’ spirits (called baloma) make women pregnant. Trobrianders acknowledge, though, that intercourse might make her more susceptible to the baloma.

All these affairs are not just fun and games. They give couples a chance to test their sexual (and other) compatibility. Young women check out the guys’ potential as husbands…and they diligently conduct as much research as possible.

Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea