The+Asmat+of+New+Guinea

=**Asmat Non-Monogamies**=

**Introduction to the Asmat: The Consummate Consensual Non-Monogamists**
toc Prior to their being introduced to Christianity, the Asmat of New Guinea exhibited a number of unique cultural traits. The discussion that follows describes traditional Asmat culture as it existed in the mid-20th century, before the introduction of Christianity. Though much of traditional Asmat culture is a thing of the past, the present tense shall be used in this discussion, as if the current year were 1950, rather than 2014. Perhaps the Asmat are best known for being head-hunters. Less well known, but equally central to Asmat culture, is a complex of non-monogamous behaviors that are permitted, and in some cases required, of Asmat men.

Components of Asmat Consensual Non-Monogamy
There are three components to Asmat consensual non-monogamy (Schneebaum, 1988). First, Asmat men may take multiple wives, and a married Asmat man may be required to take as a second wife the widow of a deceased brother. As Asmat males are often the victims of head-hunters from neighboring villages, widowed sisters-in-law are commonplace. Second, each Asmat boy is, at a young age, paired with a //mbai or// "bond friend," who is approximately the boy's own age. While an Asmat male is free to divorce a wife, he is bound for life to his //mbai.// The //mbai// relationship is explicitly, but not exclusively, sexual. Pre-pubescent boys are encouraged to engage in sexual play with their //mbai.// Even after puberty //mbai// are permitted to have anal or oral sex with one another anywhere and at any time. While the general rule in Asmat culture is that sexual relations are to take place in private, until a young man marries a woman, he may have sex with his //mbai// in a private or public setting (Schneebaum, 1988). After a man marries, he continues to have sex with his //mbai//, but only in private settings. The third element of Asmat consensual non-monogamy is //paptisj,//a ritual wife exchange that takes place on certain feast days or at times of exceptional societal stress. As set forth below, head-hunting and Asmat non-monogamy flow logically from Asmat core religious beliefs.

New Guinea and Papuan Cultures
Asmat is both the name of a region in the southwest corner of New Guinea and the name of the people who are indigenous to that region (Schneebaum, 1988). New Guinea is a tropical island located north of Australia. It is the second largest island in the world, with a land mass as as large as France and Germany combined (Lea, 2001). New Guinea is the largest of the Melanesian Islands. The name of this island group is derived from the word "melanin" and reflects that the peoples indigenous to the islands have dark skin pigmentation. (Neill, 2009). New Guinea has more distinct cultures per square mile than any other place in the world, and is the home of more than 700 languages (Lea, 2001). The Asmat are a subset of the Papuan peoples, who constitute the largest racial/ethnic group on New Guinea (Schneebaum, 1979).

Papuan Semen Veneration
While there is a proliferation of distinct Papuan cultures, many of those cultures have a shared belief concerning the importance of semen. Semen is viewed by many Papuan cultures as the substance of vitality and virility. It is a precious substance that is necessary for the physical and sexual development of male children. In these cultures, a boy's physical growth, development of virility, and hunting and warrior skills cannot be achieved if an older male's semen is not implanted in the boy (Neill, 2009). Different Papuan societies use different methods of initiatory homosexuality to accomplish the implantation. For instance, the Sambia, who reside in the northwest of New Guinea, utilize a system whereby adolescent boys make themselves available to receive oral sex from pre-pubescent boys, who are encouraged by the elders to avail themselves often of the opportunities to ingest the older boys' semen (Herdt, 1982). The Keraki of south-central New Guinea use a method similar to that of the Sambia, but implantation is accomplished anally, rather than orally (Neill, 2009). The Etoro of the New Guinea Highlands employ the oral method of insemination, but in the case of the Etoro, the donor of the semen is not an adolescent, but an adult family member of the recipient (Neill, 2009). The Asmat method of initiatory insemination is unique. The Asmat initiate sits for three days holding the decapitated head of an enemy against his groin and, thereby, absorbs through his penis the essence and vitality of the decapitated man (Schneebaum, 1982). To understand why the Asmat consider this ritual as an act of insemination, it is necessary to know a bit about Asmat religious beliefs.

The Asmat Creation Myth
While Judeo-Christian religion adheres to the notion that man was made in the image of God, the Asmat believe that man was derived from and made in the image of trees (Caglayan, 2004). The Asmats believe that the first human, Fumeripits, was lonely for lack of human companionship, and he cut down some trees and carved them into human forms in the fetal position. The lifeless wooden statues were not sufficient to cure Fumeripits' loneliness. He therefore created the first drum and began to play. As he played, the statues started to break free from the fetal position and came to life. Because humans were created from trees, the Asmat believe that trees and humans have similar anatomies. As a tree has roots, trunk, limbs and fruit on top, a human has legs, torso, arms and a head on top. As the tree gets its vitality and reproductive capacity from the fruit, so does man get his vitality and reproductive capacity from his head. So, the Asmat view the brain as the primary male reproductive organ, with the white matter of the brain being a concentrated form of semen that travels down the spinal cord to the penis. So, during the initiation ritual, the flow is reversed, with the brain of the decapitated enemy flowing up the urethra of the initiate and then up his spinal cord back to his brain (Schneebaum, 1988).

The Need for Balance
A key concept in Asmat religion is //balance.// To the Asmats, all ills of the world can be attributed to two factors: (1) the bad intentions of one's enemies and (2) an imbalance in the world. Thus, no human simply dies. All deaths can be attributed to murder by physical force or by magical forces applied by one's enemy (Schneebaum,1988). The greatest source of imbalance in the world is a death that is not avenged. Until a death is avenged, the deceased is stuck in the world of the living without the capacity to enter paradise, and until the deceased enters paradise, he will wreak havoc among his living family members until they avenge his death. This paramount need for balance is the prime reason that head-hunting is a religious necessity for the Asmat. The never ending quest for balance also impacts Asmat sexuality.

**Balance as Mediator of Sexuality and Motivation for Non-Monogamy**
The imperative for balance is most evident in the sexual relationship between //mbai.// As one Asmat warrior reported, "There must be balance. There must always be balance between //mbai.// There is no other way. When one //mbai// sucks the penis of his friend, the two may not part until the friend turns around and sucks //his// penis. If one enters the ass of another, the other must turn around and enter //his// ass. //Mbai// must always give back what they take." (Schneebaum, 1988, pp.195-196).

Balance is the motivating force behind the tradition of //paptisj// or wife exchange. As semen has strong magical powers, the flow of semen can affect balance within the community. If there is stress in the village, the cause could be an imbalance resulting from routinized flows of semen. Thus, the tradition of //paptisj// serves to disrupt the habitual patterns of semen exchange, so as to bring matters back to balance (Schneebaum, 1988).

Semen Veneration and the Definition of Sex
The veneration of semen serves to define sex for Asmat. In short, among the Asmat, sex has not occurred if a man has not ejaculated. So, if a man learns that his //mbai// has engaged in orgasmic sex with another male, the infidelity will likely cause great upset and jealousy. If, however, one's //mbai// engages in anal or oral sex with another man but does not ejaculate, it is unlikely that any jealousy or hurt feelings will result (Schneebaum, 1988). Because semen exchange is the //sine qua non// of Asmat sex, it is simply impossible for two women to have sex with one another. It may well be that Asmat women engage in physically intimate behaviors with one another, but no amount of intimacy between females would constitute "sex" in the Asmat lexicon. Accordingly, it is not known whether Asmat women, like Asmat men, regularly engage in behaviors that a Westerner would deem homosexual. Because the flow of semen is a defining characteristic of Asmat sex, the following diagram is an apt description of the Asmat sexual landscape--a landscape in which consensual non-monogamy is perhaps the most prominent feature.