Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Male fertility cults

While reading the book, I looked into other Westerners' experiences in the Asmat, and I saw a clip of Tobias Schneebaum telling Charlie Rose that he wouldn't have had the access to the information that he had if he hadn't engaged in sex with Asmat men. Do you think that's bullshit? 
No, I don't. I think it's a hundred percent true. Tobias Schneebaum went deeper than I ever did, no pun intended. Tobias' journeys in Asmat and the Amazon were extraordinary. Since the book came out, I have been getting letters from missionaries in Asmat and a lot of them don't like Schneebaum. The question of how much homosexuality actually was in Asmat is a valid question: Was there was much as Schneebaum said or was he projecting? But I don't really think it matters, and I don't think he was lying about having sex with them. The male fertility cults and male appropriation of female fertility stuff—semen exchange, etc.—is well documented.