Sambia people

The Sambia people are a tribe of mountain-dwelling, hunting and horticultural people who inhabit the fringes of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, and are extensively described by the American anthropologist Gilbert Herdt. The Sambia – a pseudonym created by Herdt himself – are well known by cultural anthropologists for their acts of "ritualized homosexuality" and semen ingestion practices with pubescent boys. In his studies of the Sambia, Herdt describes the people in light of their sexual culture and how their practices shape the masculinities of adolescent Sambia boys.

The full initiation is reported to start with members of the tribe being removed from their mothers at the age of nine. This process is not always voluntary and can involve threats of death. The children are then beaten and stabbed in their nostrils with sticks to make them bleed. In the next stage the children are hit with stinging nettles. The boys are then dressed in ritual clothing and an attempt is made to force them to suck on ritual flutes. The boys are then taken to a cult house and older boys dance in front of them making sexual gestures. Once it gets darker the younger boys are taken to the dancing ground where they are expected to perform fellatio on the older boys.

Male Rites of Passages:

The Sambia people believe greatly in the necessity of gender roles within their culture. The relationships between men and women of all ages, within this tribe, are quite complex and involve a lot of rules/restrictions. For example, the boys are removed from their mothers at the young age of seven, in order to strip them of contact with their mothers. They even perform a ritual called "blood letting" on the boys who have just been isolated from their mothers in order to rid them of their mother's contaminated blood that has a presence within them. This separation is not due to the men hating the women, but because they live in fear of the women in the tribe, and are taught at a young age about the women's ability to demasculinize and manipulate men. The women possess what the sambia call "tingu" which allows them to use their manipulation skills. In order to combat the women's sorcery, the men go through their Rites of Passages, where they learn to safely have intercourse with women without becoming trapped metaphorically by them. The women are also separated from the men when they go through their menstrual cycle. During this time they stay in the "Menarche Hut" because it is believed that the women's powers are strengthened during this time.

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Wikipedia