The Etoro, or Edolo, are a tribe and ethnic group of
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
. Their territory comprises the southern slopes of
Mt. Sisa, along the southern edge of the central mountain range of
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
, near the
Papuan Plateau. They are well known among
anthropologists because of ritual acts practiced between the young boys and men of the tribe. The Etoro believe that young males must
ingest the semen of their elders to achieve adult male status and to properly mature and grow strong.
In 2009, the
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...
reported an estimation that there were fewer than 1668 speakers of the Etoro/
Edolo language.
Marriage
O'Neil and Kottak agree that most men marry and have heterosexual relations with their wives. The fear that heterosexual sex causes them to die earlier and the belief that homosexual sex prolongs life means that heterosexual relations are focused towards reproduction.
[; .]
See also
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Baruya people
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Pedophilia
Pedophilia ( alternatively spelled paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of pube ...
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Rite of passage
A rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of social status, status in society. In cultural anthropology the term is the Anglicisa ...
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Edolo language
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Sambia people
The Simbari people (also known as the Simbari Anga, called Sambia by Herdt) are a mountain-dwelling, hunting and horticultural tribal people who inhabit the fringes of the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. The Sambia a pseudonym
...
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Kaluli people
The Kaluli are a clan of indigenous peoples who live in the rain forests of the Great Papuan Plateau in Papua New Guinea. The Kaluli, who numbered approximately 2,000 people in 1987, are the most numerous and well documented by post-contact e ...
References
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Ethnic groups in Papua New Guinea
Tribes of Oceania
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