Pamuk pasin

Shortly after arriving in Papua New Guinea back in April 2005 I seriously thought that I had arrived in a land of sexual abstinence and frigidity.

Almost five years down the track and I now have a much better insight into the quirks, nuances and covertness of PNG sexuality. The fact is that Papua New Guineans as a people and as a rule are an extremely promiscuous bunch.

The paradoxes of PNG never cease to amaze me. You will never see a husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend ever (ever) holding hands or showing physical affection in public. Not sure why this is – must be some form of cultural taboo or perhaps an innate shyness. Having said that – the covert and sneaky eye movements and winks certainly make up for the lack of open expression.

The fact is that Papua New Guineans are a very physical people and physical people generally have a much higher libido and sexual need than sedentary office types. Occasionally I’ll have a bit of a joke with the local street boys on this topic and I tell them that the “engine room” of the average PNG male is fired up and runs on all eight cylinders as opposed to the “engine room” of the average white-skin which either needs fancy pills to get going or is in a permanent state of lethargy.

I’m going to leave you with cartoon today which I stumbled across recently. It depicts really well the impact that promiscuity is having on the PNG social fabric. But before you let out a chuckle first a language lesson in Tok Pisin.

Pamuk or Pamukim

Sexual activity: relating to promiscuous, paid or illicit sex. (a) to have promiscuous sex (b) to prostitute oneself.
Kind of person: a whore, a prostitute, a promiscuous person.

pamuk nabaut: (a) man or woman: to engage in promiscuous behaviour. (b) woman: have sex for money.
haus pamuk: a brothel.
pasin pamuk: (a) promiscuity. (b) prostitution
pamuk pikinini: an illegitimate child
bladi pamuk!: bloody whore!
pamuk meri: a (female) prostitute
pamuk man: a man who screws around
em i wok long pamukim tupela wantaim: he had sex with them both at once
em i wok long pamukim ol haiwei meri: he habitually had sex with Highway prostitutes

pasin: behaviour, manner, custom (way)

Courtesy: http://www.mihalicdictionary.org/ and http://www.tok-pisin.com/