ANIMAL MODELS

Another approach to determine the degree of interlinkage of sex and aggression is the cultural use of animal models in discussions of sex or in theatrical or ritual performances. In certain species aggression leads to access to the female, so that there is a conjunction between sex and aggression. To what degree have the Rungus taken up animal examples of aggressive sexuality to serve as models for human behavior?

In the discussions of sexual relations or in Rungus joking, no animal models are used with the exception of the dog, the mouse deer, and the orang-utan. In discussing this material we are now in a transition in our argument. Animals not only can serve as models. They also can serve as projective subjects in that humans may attribute to animals the ideas and impulses that are unacceptable for them to admit as originating in themselves.

There is a myth about the dog. In the beginning the Creator God gave men the penises of dogs. This caused all sorts of trouble as when a man and woman were surprised in intercourse, the man could not withdraw to protect himself or to run away. So a lot of people were killed as a result of the fighting between the cuckolded and the adulterer. And even the adulteress was subject to being wounded and killed by the angry husband. When the Creator God saw what he had wrought, he exchanged the penises of the dogs and humans.8

There are cautionary accounts that females may be sexually attacked by male orang-utan if they go alone into swiddens situated near the primary jungle. The term used for this is tampakan, "to be mounted", which is also used for the female in sexual relations between spouses. The orang-utan will not try to attack a man as he is afraid of his bush knife, said one informant. But another, older informant stated that there were no such tales of a woman being mounted by an orang-utan, as the orang-utan would bite if a woman got near.

However, it is reported that about two generations ago a man had a captive male orang-utan, who would attempt to "mount" (manampak) human females. This is a fairly widespread account, and it is used to illustrate why one should not keep a captive orang-utan.

In general women have not heard any stories about orang-utan sexually attacking human females. When one female informant was told about such stories her response was how could it be done, "Humans and animals can't fuck."