Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands, French Polynesia
(cont’d from previous)
Then there is the whole nudity / sexuality thing here in French Polynesia. Which, why put sex and religion in the same blog post? Because here one isn’t exclusive of the other and that’s a good thing. In America, sex seems to be at odds with the institution of God. It’s not like the French are “modest” in that respect to start with when compared to Americans but when the European explorers landed on the Polynesian islands the natives would willingly give their women over to the sailors for sex. It was considered the polite thing to do! Hippies had no concept of “free love” compared to the Polynesians. (In retrospect, considering the syphilis that decimated their population, not the best move.) Well, a few centuries and a great deal of western Christian influence later, the Polynesian people aren’t quite as promiscuous as before but they are in their younger years still rather “open to exploration.” Interesting to note that, according to what we learned talking to the local French and reading travel guides, if a young island girl gets pregnant, her entire family simply raises the child as its own. Our guess is that when your population is decimated down to the 2% level, not to mention you are adamant pro-Catholic, your cultural views on abortion change. Right along with your views on familial responsibility to the next generation.
…and their tolerance for nudity, and for referencing the naked human body, is a good deal higher than your typical American. You all probably remember the most awesome name for a bay, ever. While in Papeete we bought a ukulele playbook from a newsstand and right there on the cover was a topless woman. Also, Tiffany was looking at a book on wearing sarongs and this is what she saw (blacked out areas explained below)
