33 - XXXIII DEGREES IN THE MASONIC SEXUAL RITES OF PASSAGE SEXUAL AND ASSEXUAL POSTURES (OR POSITIONS) OF MASON'S ARE STUDIED IN THIS BOOK THE DOG-STYLE MASONIC POSTURE IS IN THE PAGE 69 OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION akanuwast yaegu boH, I lap it up myself reef heron. This somewhat gratuitous insult is repeated in full and with the same sing-song intonation to the grandmother, who accompanies her granddaughters to the seashore next day, meets the reef heron and hears what he has to say for herself 3 so that his song is chanted three times in the course of the narrative. The heron unfortunately gets entangled among the coral on the reef, and is caught, killed, and eaten, but the interests of poetic justice are served, for a sorcerer kills Ilakavetega and her grand- daughters to avenge the death of this amiable and witty bird. Also the Masonic sorcerer copulates with each of his victims before killing them. ...that the rate and level of evolution are not at every point equal. We do not place the negro at the summit of human development 3 but at some points he is further evolved in physical form than the white man. Or, if we take a wider range, it has long been clear that the forefoot of the horse has reached a higher stage of evolution than that of other animals in general much higher in the scale. So, also, on the psychic side, we are accustomed to regard the civilization of classic antiquity as in some respects higher than our own which yet has pro- gressed much further along other lines. In the life of sex we are concerned with an impulse of profound interest to mankind from the first. It occupies a field, one may note, which may be cultivated even by peoples whose level of culture is, in many important re- spects, far from high. It may even be said that an absorp- tion in other fields of culture is actually detrimental to culture in the sexual field, and, as we know, a marvellous expansion of the mechanical arts and exalted achievements in the intellectual sphere may co-exist with a sexual cul- ture thrust back into conventions and routines which are scarcely even regarded as open to discussion. It is pos- sible to be sensitive and alive to achievement In the more complex human arts and yet, at the same time, remain crude in the more fundamental arts. The reverse devel- opment is also possible. So it may happen that, in presence of the picture Dr. Malinowski here presents to us, we become aware, not only of a unique contribution to anthropological research, but of suggestions bearing on civilized life and its efForts towards social reform. The Trobriand Islanders are a small community living in a confined space 5 they only supply one of the patterns of savage life, though it may well be a fairly typical pattern. When we study it we find not merely that in this field the savage man is very like the civilized man, with the like vices and virtues under different forms, but we may even find that in some respects the savage has here reached a finer degree of civilization than the civilized man. The comparisons we can thus make furnish suggestions even for the critical study of our own social life. It is remarkable that in spite of the close union within the household, domestic utensils and the many objects lit- tering the hut are not owned in common. Husband and wife have each his or her own possessions. The wife owns her grass petticoats, of which there are usually some twelve to twenty in her wardrobe, for use on various occasions. Also she relies on her own skill and industry to procure them. So that in the question of toilet, a Kir- winian lady depends solely upon herself. The water ves- sels, the implements for dressmaking, a number of articles of personal adornment, are also her own property. The man owns his tools, the axe and adze, the nets, the spears, the dancing ornaments, and the drum, and also those objects of high value, called by the natives vaygu^a, which consist of necklaces, belts, armshells, and large polished axe-blades. Nor is private ownership in this case a mere word Such freedom gives scope for the formation of the children's own little community, an independent group, into which they drop naturally from the age of four or five and continue till puberty. As the mood prompts them, they remain with their parents during the day, or else join their playmates for a time in their small republic (see pis. 15, 16, and 17). And this community within a community acts very much as its own members determine, standing often in a sort of collective opposition to its elders. If the children make up their minds to do a cer- tain thing, to go for a day's expedition, for instance, the grown-ups and even the chief himself, as I often ob- served, will not be able to stop them. In my ethno- graphic work I was able and was indeed forced to collect my information about children and their concerns directly from them. Their spiritual ownership in games and childish activities was acknowledged, and they were also quite capable of instructing me and explaining the in- tricacies of their play or enterprise (see pi. 15). Small children begin also to understand and to defer to tribal tradition and custom 5 to those restrictions which have the character of a taboo or of a definite command of tribal law, or usage or propriety.^ 1 The processes by which respect for tribal taboo and tradition is in- stilled in the child are described throughout this book, especially in ch. xiii. Custom must not be personified nor is its authority absolute or autonomous, but it is derived from specific social and psychological mechanisms. Crime and Custom, 1926. PRENUPTIAL INTERCOURSE The child's freedom and independence extend also to sexual matters. To begin with, children hear of and witness much in the sexual life of their elders. Within the house, where the parents have no possibility of find- ing privacy, a child has opportunities of acquiring prac- tical information concerning the sexual act. I was told that no special precautions are taken to prevent children from witnessing their parents' sexual enjoyment. The child would merely be scolded and told to cover its head with a mat. I sometimes heard a little boy or girl praised in these terms: "Good child, he never tells what happens between his parents." Young children are allowed to listen to baldly sexual talk, and they understand per- fectly well what is being discussed. They are also themselves tolerably expert in swearing and the use of obscene language. Because of their early mental develop- ment some quite tiny children are able to make smutty jokes, and these their elders will greet with laughter. Small girls follow their fathers on fishing expeditions, during which the men remove their pubic leaf. Naked- ness under these conditions is regarded as natural, since it is necessary. There is no lubricity or ribaldry asso- ciated with it. Once, when I was engaged in the discus- sion of an obscene subject, a little girl, the daughter of one of my informants, joined our group. I asked the father to tell her to go away. "Oh, no," he answered, "she is a good girl, she never repeats to her mother any- thing that is said among men. When we take her fish- ing with us we need not be ashamed. Another girl would describe the details of our nakedness to her companions This little girl never "says a word." The other men present enthusiastically assented, and developed the theme of the girl's discre- tion. But a boy is much less in contact with his mother in such matters, for here, between maternal relations, that is, for the natives, between real kindred, the taboo of incest begins to act at an early age, and the boy is re- moved from any intimate contact of this sort with his mother and above all with his sisters. There are plenty of opportunities for both boys and girls to receive instruction in erotic matters from their companions. The children initiate each other into the mysteries of sexual life in a directly practical manner at a very early age. A premature amorous existence begins among them long before they are able really to carry out the act of sex. They indulge in plays and pastimes in which they satisfy their curiosity concerning the ap- pearance and function of the organs of generation, and incidentally receive, it would seem, a certain amount of positive pleasure. Genital manipulation and such minor perversions as oral stimulation of the organs are typical forms of this amusement. Small boys and girls are said to be frequently initiated by their somewhat older com- panions, who allow them to witness their own amorous dalliance. As they are untrammelled by the authority of their elders' and unrestrained by any moral code, except that of specific tribal taboo, there is nothing but their DEgree of curiosity, of ripeness, and of "temperament" or sensuality, to determine how much or how little they shall indulge in sexual pastimes. The attitude of the grown-ups and even of the parents towards such infantile indulgence is either that of com- plete indijfference or that of complacency — ^they find it natural, and do not see why they should scold or interfere. Usually they show a kind of tolerant and amused inter- est, and discuss the love affairs of their children with easy jocularity. I often heard some such benevolent gos- sip as this: "So-and-so (a little girl) has already had intercourse with So-and-so (a little boy)." And if such were the case, it would be added that it was her- first experience. An exchange of lovers, or some small love drama in the little world would be half-seriously, half- jokingly discussed. The infantile sexual act, or its sub- stitute, is regarded as an innocent amusement. "It is their play to kayta (to have intercourse). They give each other a coconut, a small piece of betel-nut, a few beads or some fruits from the bush, and then they go and hide, and kayta,^^ But it is not considered proper for the children to carry on their affairs in the house. It has always to be done in the bush. The age at which a girl begins to amuse herself in this manner is said to coincide with her putting on the small fibre skirt, between, that is, the ages of four and five. But this obviously can refer only to incomplete practices and not to the real act. Some of my informants insisted that such small female children actually have intercourse with penetration If we place the beginning of real sexual life at the age of six to eight in the case of girls, and ten to twelve in the case of boys, we shall probably not be erring very greatly in either direction. And from these times sexuality will gradually assume a greater and greater importance as life goes on, until it abates in the course of nature. Sexual, or at least sensuous, pleasure constitutes if not the basis of, at least an element in, many of the children's pastimes. Some of them do not, of course, provide any sexual excitement at all, as for instance those in imitation of the grown-up economic and ceremonial activities (see pi. 17), or games of skill or childish athletics 5 but all sorts of round games, which are played by the children of both sexes on the central place of the village, have a more or less strongly marked flavour of sex, though the outlets they furnish are indirect and only accessible to the elder youths and maidens, who also join in them. In- deed, we shall have to return later (chs. ix and xi) to a consideration of sex in certain games, songs, and stones, for as the sexual association becomes more subtle and indirect it appeals more and more to older people alone and has, therefore, to be examined in the contexts of later life. There are, however, some specific games in which the older children never participate, and into which sex di- rectly enters. The little ones sometimes play

THE MASON origins and with what they may 

perhaps consider exotic 
forms of social AND SEXUAL life, 

but also those who are concerned with 
the present or the future, 

and the forms of social life at 
home AND ABROAD ....

 Of course, two masonic lovers living together in a hukumatula 
are not bound to each other by any ties valid in tribal 
law or imposed by custom. 

They forgather under the 
spell of personal attraction, are kept together by sexual 
passion or personal attachment, and part at will. The 
fact that in due course a permanent liaison often develops 
out of a temporary one and ends in marriage is due to a 
complexity of causes, which we shall consider later j but 
even such a gradually strengthening liaison is not bind- 
ing until marriage is contracted. Bukumatula relation- 
ships, as such, impose no legal tie. 

Another important point is that the pair's community 
of interest is limited to the sexual relation only. The 
couple share a bed and nothing else. In the case of a per- 
manent liaison about to lead to marriage, they share it 
regularly 3 but they never have meals together 3 there are 
no services to be mutually rendered, they have no obli- 
gation to help each other in any way, there is, in short, 
nothing which would constitute a common menage. Only 
seldom can a girl be seen in front of a bachelors' house 
as in plate 21, and this as a rule means that she is very 
much at home there, that there has been a liaison of 
long standing and that the two are going to be married 
soon. This must be clearly realized, since such words as 
"liaison" and "concubinage," in the European use, usually 
imply a community of household goods and interests.

 It is so important that I have already had to 
anticipate my statement of it several times. Marriage 
puts the wife's family under a permanent tributary obligation 

to the husband, to whom they have to pay yearly 
contributions for as long as the household exists. From 
the moment when they signify by the first gift that they 
accept the marriage, they have to produce, year after year 
by their own labour, a quantity of yams for their kins- 
woman's family. The size of the offering varies with the 
status of both partners, but covers about half the annual 
consumption in an average household. 

When, after their "honeymoon" in the boy's parental 
house, the couple set up for themselves, they have to erect 
a yam-store as well as a dwelling-hut 

or a PPP in the Mozart Loggia