Chapter 65 Between Heaven and Earth: Why Girls Must Quarantine During Menarche

Many restrictions and confinement are generally imposed on young girls during menarche. The reason is that primitive people are extremely afraid of menstrual bleeding.Primitive people are always afraid of menstrual bleeding, especially the first menstrual cramps, so the prohibition to be observed by girls when they first menstruate is stricter than usual when this mysterious bleeding occurs.Instances of fears and customs which have arisen from this cause have been enumerated earlier in this book.As the dread of menstrual bleeding periodically struck upon the minds of savages, and profoundly affected their lives and customs, we may give the reader some further examples of this.

There is or used to be a superstition among the Encontebe tribe in southern Australia, "A woman must be separated from her tent every month during menstruation to live alone, and if any young people or boys approach her dwelling, she must call out to them. shouted, the young man immediately avoided her and went around. If she neglected this, she was reprimanded, and sometimes even whipped by her husband or close relatives. Boys are warned from childhood not to see women Otherwise, the hair will be grayed prematurely and the body will be weak for life." The Dieri people in central Australia believe that if women eat fish or take a bath in the river during menstruation, all the fish in the river will die and the river will dry up.The Arundas of the same area forbid menstruating women to pick "irriakura" bulbs (a local plant with the native name "irriakura", which is a food commonly eaten by local men and women).It was thought that if any woman violated this rule, the food would be unavailable.

In some Australian tribes the segregation of women during menstruation was even stricter, and severe punishments were even added to scolding and flogging.For example, there is a rule among the Weikelbula people that forbids women's tents to be put up on the same road as men's tents, and if they violate the rules, they will be executed in the big tent.It is so severe because of the fear of women during menstruation.During this period, women must stay away from the tent for at least half a mile, tie a circle of branches of their own totem around their genitals, and constantly watch and pay attention not to let men see themselves.For, it was believed, any man who had the misfortune to see such a woman would die.If such a woman let a man see herself, she should be put to death.After menstruation, women paint their faces in red and white, with feathers covering their heads, and return to their original tents.

Women on the island of Muralag in the Torres Strait [between New Guinea and north-eastern Australia] archipelago must not eat anything nautical mile long during menstruation, otherwise the fishing will be fruitless.In the Galera area in the west of New Guinea, women are not allowed to go into the tobacco fields during their monthly menstruation, otherwise the tobacco leaves will suffer from diseases.The Minnankabul people of Sumatra believed that if women walked into the rice fields during the period of uncleanness, the crops would be destroyed. The Bushes in South Africa [that is, a nomadic tribe in the Kalahari desert area of ​​South Africa] think that a girl who should be strictly isolated during menstruation, if she glances at a man, the man, no matter what the original posture of the body or what is held in the hand , will immediately freeze on the spot and cannot move; if you talk to a girl, you will become a tree.The pastoral peoples of South Africa believe that if a woman drinks milk during menstruation, their cows will die;In order to prevent such disasters, not only menstruating women, but all women are forbidden to enter the cattle pens; and they are also not allowed to enter the village by ordinary passages, or to pass from one hut to another, but must go around behind the houses and wait for the next day. Avoid village fields where cattle are located.In every Kafu village, women can be seen walking in this way.Likewise among the Bagandhas a woman is not allowed to drink milk or touch the milk pail during menstruation, nor to touch anything belonging to her husband, nor to sit on his mat, nor to cook for him.If she touched anything of her husband during this time, it was considered to be tantamount to cursing him to death, or actually performing witchcraft to kill him.If she touched anything of his, he was sure to be sick; if she touched his weapon, he was sure to be killed in the next fight.In addition, the Baganda people do not allow women who are menstruating to go near the well, lest the well water will dry up, and the woman will die of illness at the same time.She must repent of her mistakes and ask the witch doctor to pray for her forgiveness so that she can be safe.After the Akikuyu people in British East Africa built a new hut in the village, the housewife lived in the new house. On the day when the fire was lit for the first time, if menstruation happens to happen on this day, the new house must collapse, so the second It must be demolished every day, and the housewife must not live in this new house for another night.For there will be disasters for her, and for the new home.

According to Jewish scriptures, if a woman walks between two men during menstruation, one of the men will definitely die.Lebanese farmers believe that menstruating women are the source of many disasters. Their presence can make flowers wither, trees wither, snakes and scorpions can't, and if they ride horses, the horses will die, at least they will not be able to use them for a long time.Orinoco [Venezuelan river that enters the Atlantic Ocean by the border with Brazil. The Guikiri of ] believed that everything a woman stepped on during menstruation would die, and that if a man stepped on where she walked, the man's legs would swell immediately.Married women of the Bribrai Indians in Costa Rica use only banana leaves as plates during menstruation, and immediately throw them away in remote places after use. If the cattle find and eat it, the cattle will emaciate and die.She can only drink water from a special cup. If others drink water from the cup she drank from, they will definitely fall ill and die.

The customs of most tribes of North American Indians: women leave their tents or villages when menstruating, live in specially prepared huts or shelters, eat, live by themselves, and keep warm by themselves. All communication with men is strictly prohibited. We avoid them like the plague. The superstitions surrounding this mysterious phenomenon of women's physiology are no less among the civilized peoples of Europe than among the primitive savages.The oldest surviving encyclopedia—Pliny's Natural History—lists far more dangers of worry about women's menstruation than any savage people ever suggested.According to the book, if a menstruating woman touches wine, the wine will turn into sour vinegar; she will also cause crops to wither, seedlings to rot, vegetables to rot, fruits to fall early, mirrors to dim, razors to become dull, and steel to grow. Rust (especially during waning waning), bees die (at least out of the hive), mares abort, etc.All over Europe, it is still believed that if a woman during menstruation enters a brewery, the brewed beer will be sour, if she touches beer, wine, vinegar or milk, all these things will go bad, and if she makes jam, the jam will not be good. If she rides a mare, the mare will have a miscarriage; if she touches a flower bud, the flower bud will fall; if she climbs a cherry tree, the tree will not survive.People in Brunswick [a region in Lower Saxony, Germany] believed that if menstruating women helped in slaughtering pigs, the pork would rot.Women on the Greek island of Kalymnos are not allowed to draw water from wells, cross rivers, or go to sea during menstruation.It is said that if she is in a boat, there will be a storm.

Therefore, it can be said that the purpose of women's isolation during menstruation is to eliminate its dangerous effects.The reason for the special care and strict isolation of girls who are first menstruating is that they are considered to be extremely dangerous, and we exemplified the precaution above, namely, that the girl should not touch the ground or see the sun.The general method is to hang the girl in the air, so that she can't go up to the sky or down to the ground.Whether it is hanging the girl in a hammock high on the roof like in South America, or shutting the girl in a dark and narrow cage above the ground like in New Ireland, as long as the girl can be isolated from the earth and the sun so that she will not be polluted and poisoned. Great source of life, on the line.Anyway, in electronics terms, making the girl an insulator is harmless.The preventive measures taken for this purpose are all based on the safety considerations of the girl herself and others.They believed that if the girl ignored these rules, she herself would suffer.So, as we have already examined, Zulu girls believe that if they are exposed to the sun during menstrual cramps, they will be skinny.The Marcuse imagined that if a young woman violated these precepts, her whole body would be ulcerated.In short, girls are seen as possessing great power, which, if not kept within a fixed range, is a danger to the girl herself and to all with whom she comes in contact.For the safety of all concerned it is necessary to keep that power within bounds, and this is the object of many of the taboos we have examined in this respect.

This explanation also applies to the reason why divine kings and priests were bound to observe the same taboos as above.In primitive man's mind, there is essentially no difference between the menstrual uncleanness of girls (the so-called uncleanness) and the holiness of gods and men, but they are just different manifestations of the same mysterious power.This kind of mysterious power, like ordinary power, is neither good nor bad in itself, only how to use it to benefit or bring disaster to others.Therefore, like the girls during menstruation, the gods and men can neither touch the earth nor see the sky. The reason is that on the one hand, they are afraid that the destructive power of the god nature will be vented on the heavens and earth after touching the heavens and the earth, and on the other hand, they are afraid that the gods and men will The subtle divinity possessed by it has been exhausted, and it will no longer be able to perform its priesthood of relationship with the people and even the safety of the world.Therefore, the above-mentioned precepts are at the forefront of taboos (these taboos have been discussed earlier in this book), and their intention is to preserve the lives of God-men, and in turn preserve the lives of God's subjects and worshipers.Primitives believed that the precious and dangerous lives of gods and humans were not as safe and harmless as hanging between the two, no matter whether they were placed in the sky or on the ground.