Sexual Taboos

The only sexual taboos that exist in most traditional Indigenous American societies are the following:

- Rape (forced sexual intercourse).

- Incest between immediate blood relatives (first cousins and beyond excluded).

- Sexual contact on the part of adults and adolescents with pre-pubescent children (generally under the age of 12).

- Sexual activity on the part of a woman during her menstrual cycle.

The menstrual cycle issue is a personal matter of conscious on the part of the woman and her traditional tribal teachings on the subject. Indigenous American traditionalists do uphold the other taboos for reasons that are obvious and practical.

Rape is a violent, non-consensual act. In the old days, heterosexual and homosexual rape of defeated/captured aggressors and battle captives took place as a form of punishment and humiliation on the part of some Indigenous Americans.

Incest – Indigenous American traditionalists have always known that sexual relations between parental figures and offspring can be psychologically damaging to the latter, and that babies that are the product of immediate blood relation incest are often born with birth defects.

Pedophilia -- Traditional Indigenous American societies have always recognized that sexual relationships with pre-pubescent children are not healthy because most of them have orifices not large enough to accommodate adult penetration, including those children that begin puberty pre-maturely. Pre-pubescent children are generally not emotionally fit to enjoy sexual contact, particularly intercourse with an adult or adolescent.

The following are not taboo in most traditional Indigenous American societies:

Asexuality is not considered an abnormality in traditional Indigenous American cultures. Indigenous Americans have always recognized that there are some people who go through much or all of their life without a sex drive and are perfectly content to be that way.

Celibacy on a seasonal basis is exercised by many Indigenous American shamans due to the belief that conserving sexual energy for a season increases spiritual powers and awareness.

Homosexuality is not taboo, and is addressed in detail separately in the February 2006 posts of this blog.

Masturbation is considered a healthy and safe form of sexual relief. Modern science has even indicated that it is a natural biological process in the way of replicating genes.

Pederasty is a European-rooted term in reference to full-grown adults that have a sexual attraction towards pubescent adolescents.

Consensual sexual and romantic relationships between adults and post-pubescent adolescents is not taboo in traditional Indigenous American societies, nor is it taboo or illegal in most European countries today. Most jurisdictions in the Americas have the legal age set at 18 because they hold the view that most adolescents are not emotionally mature enough to engage in sex, especially with an older person, even though Mother Nature says otherwise by the much younger, average age of the onset of puberty.

Indigenous Americans and contemporary Europeans tend look upon adolescence as the first stage of adulthood as opposed to the last stage of childhood, and thus prepare their children for the responsibilities of adulthood at an earlier age than do most non-Indians of the Americas, even though most teens consensually lose their virginity before 18, and many of them are naturally attracted to adults of varying ages.

Pornography is just a form of erotic art. Many Indigenous American cultures have always created various forms of erotic art and fetishes because most types of consensual sexual acts among indigenous adults and adolescents are not considered obscene, shameful, or "dirty." Eroticism depicted in art form is thus included among other forms of indigneous human actions that are depicted in indigenous paintings, carvings, etc.

Most people today who enjoy viewing sexually explicit acts and images depicted in still photos and motion pictures consist of adult and adolescent males who use such images to enhance their masturbatory fantasies. Indigenous American traditionalists reject the argument that porn encourages some people to commit rape, or to sexually molest children. On the contrary, it helps deter such acts through masturbatory fantasies as an alternative.

Indigneous American traditionalists do not condone pre-teen, pre-pubescent children being used for pornographic purposes because they do not have a developed enough maturity level to decide for themselves to engage their bodies in that fashion for the sexual gratification of others, or for commerical profit.

Prostitution among consenting adults and adolescents has never been taboo in most traditional Indigenous American societies. In "primitive" societies in particular, it is not uncommon for an older person to barter an item with a younger, attractive person for a sexual favor.

The taboo and legal prohibition against commercial sex was born out of "Western" societies that incorperated into secular law the traditional Judeo-Christian moral code against sexual lust, fornication, and extramarital sex. The only major country in the western hemisphere where prostitution remains illegal today is the United States, save for most counties in the state of Nevada. Most Indian reservations forbid it as well due to the strong, ongoing influences of Judeo-Christian moral codes planted there by missionaries as part of the greater colonization, assimilationist pogram.

Public nudity is not taboo in traditional Indigenous American societies because the human body is not considered shameful. The taboo against public nudity was born out of ancient Middle Eastern cultures that incorporated it into their religious beliefs, supposedly due to a divine mandate by the MIddle Eastern god that men are to keep their genitals and buttocks covered, particuarly in the presence other females who are not their wife, and that women are to keep their genitals, buttocks, and breasts covered in the presence of men who are not their husband. This custom came to be spread almost universally by European Christianity.

The original reason behind the taboo of public nudity was to deter males in particular from becoming too "arroused" in public by the nudity of others. Displays of sexual arrousal in most ancient MIddle Eastern cultures was restricted to the privacy of one's own home or a brothel.