Monday, October 22, 2007

part one: where do babies come from?

Duh, doesn't everyone know. Yes, everyone does and they each have their own version of the answer to that mysterious question:
WHERE DO BABIES COME FROM?

Here's part one of the incredibly lengthy list of responses.

The Cuna people of Panama keep children sheltered from sex, telling them instead that babies are found deep in the woods cradled between the velvety horns of a deer. They also elaborate on the mystery of the ocean, saying that dolphins swim to the short and leave babies nestled in the warm sand.

High on the mountain Kilimanjaro, the Chagga are known to tell children that an animal brings the baby as a precious gift to the village. The baby lived in the forest as it grew inside of a beehive, the honey nourishing the little one until it was ready for delivery.

South Pacific Trobriand Islanders don't cloak sex in sweet stories of deer horns or beehives. They know that sex is involved in conception, but only half of the process. The copulation is thought only to prepare for conception. After love making, the woman goes into the ocean and bathes herself with the seaweed that is sacred to her. Only after she has her special salty bath will she possibly be with child.

From the lovely book "Mamatoto" published by Penguin.
There's more where this came from, so get ready to learn every possible place a baby could have come from.

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