The Nagas

Hill Peoples of Northeast India

Project Introduction The Naga Database

manuscript notes made by W.G. Archer between 1946 & 1948, and miscellaneous papers and letters

caption: sexual behaviour
medium: notes
person: Nokshang
ethnicgroup: Ao
production:
person: Archer/ W.G.
date: 1946-1948
refnum: 14:12
seealso: Mills, 'Ao Nagas' p. 264, 212
text: Aos - sex (Nokshang's views)
text: Posture as by Europeans - if pregnant, on side face to face. No menstrual taboos (cf. Mills 264) - sex during the menses if they feel like it - after child birth, genna for 30 days (not 3 months - Mills 264).
text: Cohabitation once every night is normal 'but when a boy and girl are first married, they may go 6 or 7 times'. Pre-marital relations normal - (even among christians, though more furtive). If a girl is pretty, she may have a long string of lovers - if she gets pregnant, she is called upon to declare the month of conception and the boy who was responsible - if the month is found to be correct, the lover is held to be correct as well (Mills 212). 'Christians have rooms but they are like the others. Who can control youth?'