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from notes archived at Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawai'i |
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Category: |
Adolescence(1) |
Topic: |
Puberty |
Consultant: |
Michele |
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Boys: seri = to cut or circumcise so as to become a man. Before puberty 10-12 boys of the village would be gathered together in a house and circumcised by a man who knew how to perform the operation. The circumcision was no more than a slitting of the foreskin by a longitudinal cut. A stick was placed underneath the upper side of the foreskin and the cut was made against this with a bamboo knife cutting towards the end of the penis and only on the upper surface. If the circumcision was for an oldest child there would be a feast to which the members of the parents' families would come. The boys were kept in the house for one day. Girls: haina or gata = menstruation. When a girl had her first menstruation, her family would have a feast. |
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Category: |
Adolescence(2) |
Topic: |
Youths |
Consultant: | |
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The young men of the village are known as the haharagi. Literally it means fat people. The young men had certain tasks to do, and certain hard work was for them. The men who lived in the ri sipaki were known as the haharagi. It was considered bad form for the young men to sleep in the houses with the older people. |
haharagi has multiple meanings, including plump (well fed), healthy, youthful, unmarried and young looking. ri sipaki = house on stilts, built by young men as a sleeping house | ||||
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