Picture a guy from the US who has decided it’s time to spread his wings and get out
of the town he’s pretty much never left.
He heads to some distant land he knows absolutely nothing about, and from the moment he gets
there, he’s somehow incredibly popular.
No sooner than he’s learned how to order a bottle of beer in the local language, he’s
hooked up with someone.
But as some of you well-traveled viewers might know, what happens in the bedroom in the United
States might not happen everywhere.
This guy soon finds himself completely out of his depth and wondering what he’s gotten
himself into.
Make sure you don’t make the same mistake, by watching this to find out some of the most
confounding sexual practices you’ve ever heard in your life.
Let’s start in Indonesia where there’s a pilgrimage people take to a place called
Mount Kemukus, aka, Sex Mountain.
Every year folks from all across Indonesia head to this part of Central Java for…you
guessed it, sex…
But it’s more than just that.
It’s sex with a complete stranger.
As the story goes, a long time ago a prince eloped from his town with a woman and tried
to have a fun time there.
They didn’t quite finish the job, and were chased away by soldiers and later killed.
A kind of ritual has since emerged, which involves going there and meeting a stranger.
Only, this time, they have to do what the Prince and his lover couldn’t and finish
the job.
And that’s not all, they must continue to meet up and do so seven more times throughout
the year.
If they end up fulfilling the quota then they’ll be blessed with good fortune.
Which we’re sure is the only reason that men and women flock there, married or not,
to hook up with a stranger.
If you’re thinking, no way that’s a real thing, think again.
In 2014 the governor of the province of Central Java laid down restrictions on what happens
there.
He banned the practice, saying it was not moral and there was a risk of contracting
various diseases.
He also said it made Indonesia look bad in the eyes of other countries.
We’ll let you decide if he was right about that last part.
Still, Indonesian news reports in 2017 said the stalls and huts erected for the deed had
reopened and people were getting it on for good luck once again.
You see, the business had been booming there before it was all closed down.
Many, many people enjoyed the freedom of the ritual, and in turn, that provided lots of
business for locals at sex mountain.
When the ritual was banned, they lost their means of making money.
The entry fee alone was around 50 cents, which doesn’t sound like much, but on good nights
there were around 8,000 pilgrims.
In the past when huts and stalls weren’t around, the people just did it behind trees,
so you could call the enterprising locals a good thing for everyone.
They even opened karaoke stalls to perhaps get people in the mood.
You might wonder if the fortune actually does shine down on the pilgrims after their year
of hooking up is over.
Well, one woman who’d partaken told Australian news, “Praise be to God, after coming here,
even though I have a few debts, my business is making a bit of a profit.”
Next up is a nomadic tribe in West Africa called the Wodaabe.
They don’t have a written language themselves, but this word has been translated as “people
of the taboo.”
What’s taboo in many parts of the world is having more than one marriage partner,
which is known as polygamy.
This tribe doesn’t mind at all though, and in fact, they embrace it.
Every year there is something called the “Gerewol festival” and during the big party that
happens the guys get dressed up to the nines to show their beauty.
In fact, this tribe might just think it has the most beautiful men in the world.
These people are also what you might call especially liberated, having no qualms about
the very natural things that often makes westerners blush.
The men, with painted faces and feathers on their heads, dance and look wonderful for
the onlooking women in the tribe.
It’s said they take a kind of drink that helps them to dance for hours on end and also
provides a hypnotic effect.
It’s like a very colorful beauty contest, because then the women will choose the most
attractive men.
If the women are partnered with someone already, no problem, they can put themselves forward
as someone who wants to steal another man as a new husband.
If they don’t want to go all out and steal a guy, they can just elect to sleep with him.
If the guy walks past her, she just needs to brush him on the shoulder, and they will
be together.
It totally doesn’t matter about the previous partner.
The guys don’t get much say in the matter though.
There are some rules, however.
Usually, when a woman is old enough an arranged marriage will take place.
Once she becomes pregnant, she goes to live with her mom and can’t see the husband.
After some time, she can go back to him, but she might just decide during the festival
to sleep with another guy or steal one.
One tribesman told National Geographic, “We go to the Gerewol for pleasure.
I get a woman then fine, it's a bonus.”
When a guy is incredibly hot, he’s called, “kayeejo naawdo”, “hurting man” because
he’s so gorgeous it hurts to look at him.
Just to set things straight, you have the word “polygamy”, which means marriage
between more than two people.
Then you have “polygyny”, which is when a man has more than one wife, and there’s
“polyandry’ when a woman has more than one husband.
It’s not all that common, but it happens in various parts of the world.
It’s somewhat different from having a mistress, though.
In Thailand, a man may often take what the Thais call a “mia noy” which literally
means small wife, often called a second wife by westerners.
It’s not actually legal in Thai law, but you have a documented marriage and you also
have an undocumented marriage in which a wedding ceremony still happens but nothing is officially
signed.
In the past when women had fewer opportunities this was widespread, but not so much now.
In 2021, a video went viral in Thailand that featured a man secretly marrying another wife.
The guy in question, a cop, got the shock of his life when his real wife’s mother-in-law
walked into the ceremony and gave him a hard smack across his head.
The attending monks were less than impressed, but despite the chaos, the ceremony went ahead.
His real wife, who later showed news cameras their marriage certificate, was understandably
angry seeing as they’d been together 15 years and had two kids.
Believe it or not, in the past Thai women's magazines would say tolerating such a thing
was the mark of a good wife.
Maybe a small wife might be too much, but many Thai women have turned a blind eye to
a man for having what you might call a bit on the side, what Thais call a “gik.”
To understand this, you have to understand what some Thais now think of as outdated traditional
values.
These old values held that there was something called “kulasatri”, which meant an ideal
women.
She was demur, quiet, and certainly wasn’t outwardly sexual.
She wasn’t even meant to have sexual thoughts.
Meanwhile, male masculinity was defined by something called “chaai chatri”.
Under this, men were supposed to have irrepressible, uncontrollable sexual desires that could never
be limited to their one spouse.
It’s doesn’t seem fair to most of us, and wouldn’t be seen as fair by most modern
Thais either, but it still happens...quite a lot.
This is evident in a Durex pole that had Thais top of the infidelity ratings, and before
you ask, this has nothing to do with Thailand’s notorious red light districts, which only
actually make up a few streets in the entire country.
It’s actually these old cultural values that pervade most of the nation and lead to
a culture of infidelity.
Not to say women will tolerate cheating these days, or at least the majority of women won’t.
That’s perhaps reflected in the fact that Thailand is arguably the leader in penis reattachment
surgery.
This has led to the international media asking why Thailand had an “epidemic of penile
amputations.”
There’s even an old saying men sometimes say to other men about which goes, “I better
get home or the ducks will have something to eat.”
The men are often hypocrites, too, given that many men have a zero tolerance when their
ideal woman cheats.
It can often, and does regularly, lead to him killing her.
You might wonder why the second-wives marry the guy.
It’s often down to financial security or just the security of keeping him.
The first wife might not want to break up with the guy, either because women divorcing
men is frowned upon in traditional settings, or because she has limited opportunities in
life to take care of the family he will leave behind.
The woman whose mother whacked the cheating husband was well aware he had a “gik”
but she turned a blind eye to it.
She told reporters, “I initially did not think that my husband would wed.
Before the wedding, he was still staying at home with me and told me he would be going
out to work a night shift at his station.”
In some cultures, having more than one spouse is not just accepted, it’s normal.
Academic studies for instance have shown that in parts of India, China, and Nepal a woman
might have more than one husband.
One such paper published in 2019 was titled, “Marital Satisfaction and Well Being Among
Fraternal Polyandrous and Monogamous Tribal People of Kinnaur.”
Fraternal polyandry is when one woman is married to two or more brothers and Kinnaur is a district
in northern India.
The paper concluded this after spending time with some of these families: “The result
based on qualitative research revealed that that polyandrous couple's physical health,
economical and psychological well-being is better and they feel positive towards life.”
But why is that?
The paper said those families felt secure together and they had financial security.
It said a woman in those tribes with only one husband felt less financially secure than
a woman who had married two or more brothers.
The brothers also said they felt more secure.
The Toda tribe of South India have also practiced these kinds of marriages, but that may have
now stopped.
Still, it was explained that when a child is born to one of the brothers, he would hand
the wife a bow and arrow and become the father of the child.
If another child was born to another brother, he would do the same.
It certain regions of India, Nepal, and Tibet, various practices of polygamy happened throughout
history, although it’s not common now.
In a northern part of India called Jaunsar-Bawar, in some places a woman would marry the eldest
son and then she immediately became the wife of all his younger brothers.
It got tricky, though, since the brothers could have more than one wife if their older
brother was much older and the age difference was vast between his brothers and the wife.
In that case, a brother could find his own new wife.
If all the brothers stayed together with the one wife, none of them had any kind of exclusive
right to her.
All brothers were seen as equal, and the kids looked on them as one father.
In some countries, in the recent past, such as in parts of Tibet, the eldest brother would
be seen as the main husband.
A study published in 2008 said among the villages of Xigaze and Qamdo in Tibet it was found
that 20 to 50 percent of families were made up of a wife and two husbands.
In some more remote areas, the researchers said 90 percent of the families were polyandric.
To understand why, just imagine how difficult life is in some of those unforgiving mountainous
areas.
Weird to us maybe, but arguably an act of survival for others.
Laws in Tibet have long since made it illegal, but the marriage will sometimes be documented
between the wife and just the eldest brother.
In most countries, a man’s member is kept locked firmly behind closed doors where it’s
barely noticeable unless he’s wearing his favorite pair of tight speedos.
In some of the more remote parts of New Guinea though, that’s not always the case.
There the penis can have its own clothing accessory.
This is called a Koteka, which looks something like a gourd and covers the penis while being
strapped to the waist.
It can be long and thin or short and wide and can point in any direction that the wearer
chooses.
Obviously, when a man is working, a smaller Koteka would be preferable.
If they are worn as a way of attracting a female though is still up for debate.
They might only be worn as a way of covering up as well as a way of looking good.
Still, you have to wonder if some women favor a bigger Koteka.
The Sambia people of Papua New Guinea are heavily focused on what you might refer to
as the warrior culture.
When the boys are very young, usually around the age of seven, they are taken away from
their mothers.
In some ways, this is to toughen them up and there are some comparisons to the training
known as “Paides” in ancient Sparta.
But with the Sambia, it’s because the boys need to be detached from what is believed
to be the contaminated blood of the mother.
It’s said that in each woman there is something called “tingu”, which has the power to
manipulate men.
When the boy gets a little older he might be around younger women, who also have tingu
in their blood.
Since her tingu gets stronger during her menstrual period, during that time a woman is kept away
from males completely.
Ok, so if women have this sorcery that they can use to manipulate men, how do couples
ever get together?
Well, when the boys are old enough, they are taught how to safely have sex without being
trapped by a woman’s tingu.
One way is to kind of disassociate himself from her and not get too heated in the act
of sex.
He should also try to prevent her from enjoying herself too much, lest she make him become
sick and he possibly die.
Once copulation is over, he goes through a blood-letting ceremony which is supposed to
decontaminate him of her tingu.
This happens until she gets pregnant, and then after she has the child he can become
a fully-fledged warrior.
In the 1990s people who visited these very remote tribes said times were apparently changing
though.
Supposedly something called “luv marriage” was occurring from time to time, and those
marriages didn’t include all the fear and ceremony we’ve just described.
In a 2006 book, the writer called this shift nothing less than “revolutionary.”
While many of take kissing for granted, the romantic, full-on, juices shared, lips-bitten
kind of affair is utterly disgusting to people in some cultures.
Researchers at the University of Nevada explained that when the Mehinaku of Brazil were asked
about kissing the general reply was that it was gross, with one asking why you would want
to share your dinner with someone.
Fair point, and let’s be honest, no one wants to see anyone devouring each other’s
tonsils on the subway.
In another paper, researchers found in some other cultures that there was also no kissing
at all.
The Aka pygmies didn’t do it, and when questioned about sex they said it was basically to make
a child and nothing more.
One person referred to sex as a “night’s work”.
According to the website, This is Africa, the Tonga tribe in Mozambique think much the
same way, saying kissing is unhygienic and when they see westerners do it they just think
about someone eating dirt.
And the last but certainly not least strange romanic custom comes from Iran.
There they have something known as “Sigheh” which means a man and a woman can have a temporary
marriage, explore each other’s bodies, and if after some amount of time they decide they’re
not right for one another they can annul the marriage with ease.
You might ask why someone would do this, and doesn’t it sound like a lot of short marriages
in the US?
Well, for one thing, this marriage might only last for an hour, or perhaps a day, or maybe
even a few days, which even in the US would be very unusual.
You see, in Iran just getting it on with someone you aren’t married to is considered sinful
and also illegal.
That’s one reason why men meet women online and then head to the city, get a temporary
marriage, book a hotel room, do what they have to do, and then get divorced.
As human rights advocates have pointed out, since not being a virgin before marriage is
also considered sinful, this can have negative effects on women in the long run.
It’s also been called a way of having “legal prostitution.”
The Iranian Cyber Police have said that some websites will even help with a match and then
do all the paperwork for the marriage.
They can even book someone a hotel.
It’s like Tinder, Airbnb, and a priest all in the same app.
Sigheh is supposed to provide a way for a woman to keep her chastity since she is technically
married when she has sex, but she still become stigmatized after.
This is what one young Iranian man had to say about the practice:
“If I temporarily marry a young woman for three years and then divorce her, would anyone
be willing to marry her?
It would be impossible that any man would want to have a family with this woman.'”
Still, some Iranian women have happily made use of the law.
One woman told the New York Times about her relationship, “We went out a lot together,
and I didn't want to get into trouble.
We wanted to have documents so that if we were stopped on the street we could prove
we weren't doing anything illegal.”
She and her husband renewed their marriage after six months, and then they did it again.
We don’t know how things ended, though.
A British-Canadian woman in 2015 talked to The Guardian about her dating experience in
Iran, saying she was hounded by police and others while out with a man, asking how they
knew each other and what they were up to.
She said, “In public, I had to face the opposite direction and pretend to read.”
She got a temporary marriage and said it actually allowed her and her lover to live a normal
life.
“It was like a bubble; we were in love and no one bothered us.
It was beautiful,” she said.
A month later and she was on a plane out of there…
But there’s a happy ending.
It took some time, but he eventually moved to the UK and they were remarried in London,
this time for longer than a day.
Now you need to watch, “Taboos Around the World.”
Or learn to impress with, “Scientifically Proven Best Ways To Kiss.”