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Alfred Kinsey as an Apparent Guru: My Sri Lankan experience in Sex
research – Part 1 by Sachi Sri Kantha
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Front Note The Silver Jubilee
Felicitation Volume (2002) of Sangam, in its page 86, carried an excerpt
entitled ‘Attitude Toward Sex’ from the book Jaffna 1980,
authored by W. Robert Holmes (1916-1998). Bob Holmes was an Illinois
native, and another of those ‘unofficial’ American missionary
ambassadors, who lived in Jaffna for many years. Readers may not know that I
was a correspondent with Dr.Holmes, during 1981 and 1982. After joining
the University of Illinois in the Fall of 1981, I sent to Dr. Holmes (an
alumnus of the University of Illinois) a complimentary copy of my short
booklet which contained my studies on the sexuality of young Sri Lankans.
In a letter dated Jan.6, 1982, Dr. Holmes wrote to me as follows: “….I
was most interested in your paper on courting behavior, having been
warden of Jaffna College’s undergraduate hostel for several years! It
was hard to imagine any Ceylonese young persons being as romantically
free as at Peradeniya, because in Jaffna I think they are still pretty
conservative. At least I never heard of getting hitched in Jaffna but I
do not know the University campus so well, of course. In Delhi I used to
read articles about ‘eve teasing’which I thought was a beautiful
phrase. There is some of that in Jaffna. Your conclusions on courtship were informative to me. You did not mention pregnancy, so the implication is that the petting does not quite get to intercourse but exploring female anatomy below the waist cannot go on indefinitely without Since
I know how rare such determined efforts to get some information about
the society are, I particularly appreciate the effort you have made, Sri
Kantha, in doing these studies." I was thrilled by the sentiments
expressed by Dr. Holmes in his last sentence. As an ethnographer, he
knew his beans about Eelam Tamils. After all, unlike the ‘official’
American ambassadors who live in Colombo and depart at the end of their
three year term, following his Ph.D. degree (1946) in history from the
University of Illinois, Dr. Holmes lived in Jaffna between 1947 and
1960. He taught at Jaffna College, Vaddukoddai. The following essay
constitutes a chapter of my autobiography which I’m writing now. I
have tentatively titled my autobiography as Tears and Cheers: Tale of
a Tamil Scientist. In this chapter, I describe my 1978 entry into
research in a then virgin (both literally and figuratively)
inter-disciplinary territory in Sri Lanka. I was then a temporary
assistant lecturer in biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine,
University of Peradeniya, with a monthly salary of about 925 Sri Lankan
rupees (equivalent to ~$58, at the then currency exchange rate of 1$ =
16 rupees). Introduction Not many have reasons to
know that 20 years after he died, Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956) – the
pioneer of sex research in America, influenced a rookie graduate from
the University of Colombo to trod the footsteps he had planted. I was
that rookie and I provide this reminiscence of my adventure in sex
research to felicitate the 50th anniversary of the landmark
treatise, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (W.B.Saunders,
Philadelphia, 1953) by Kinsey and his colleagues Pomeroy, Martin and
Gebhard. I read and cited this book in my first study on sexuality of
Sri Lankan undergraduates. I also reach my 50th birthday next
month. Twenty five years ago, when
I ventured into this virgin territory of research in Sri Lanka after
joining the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University
of Peradeniya as a temporary assistant lecturer, I felt that I had an
affinity with Kinsey, the pioneer sex researcher. Kinsey was originally
a zoologist with his speciality being in entomology. In 1976, when I
graduated – with a poor ‘Pass’ in B.Sc.(Special) degree in
Zoology, I also had chosen entomology as my speciality. Due to my ‘sub
optimal performance’ in my first degree, I had to move from the
University of Colombo, after serving as a laboratory instructor (then
called demonstrator) in zoology for an year. Move I did, and I landed in
Peradeniya – the location of the only full-fledged residential
university in Sri Lanka. It provided me an opportunity to observe my
surrounding ‘Nature’. Like a 19th century naturalist, in
the traditions of Darwin and Wallace, but with the interest Kinsey
kindled in me, I mixed Darwin and Kinsey. Thus, I observed the dating
behavior of highest primates – the species to which I belonged. I
cannot brag that I was the first to do such an observation in Peradeniya. Guided by A.V.Hill’s
Letter in the Nature I can certainly brag that I
was then the first budding scientist in Sri Lanka to report my
Peradeniya observations at a public science meeting for my scientist
peers. I was only 26 plus then. Serious observation alone doesn’t
make a scientist. That observation has to be reported via an academic
journal or a scientific meeting to his or her scientist peers for
evaluation. I was committed to follow the steps of Mendel, Darwin and
Kinsey. Call me naïve or shrewd or
a show-bag or even vainglorious. But I did something, which none of the
temporary assistant lecturer at any of the Faculties of the universities
of Sri Lanka wouldn’t have dared to do then. I submitted the abstract
of my research presentation without telling any of my senior colleagues
at the department and without asking permission from the Head of the
Department – which was a ‘No-No’ in the Sri Lankan academic
setting then. I wanted to be the sole author of my research
communication, and I didn’t want to offer any honorary authorship to
my professor and head of the department. I believe that I was partly
influenced by a short letter published in the prestigious Nature
journal (Feb.5, 1955) by Archibald V.Hill, the 1922 co-Nobelist in
Medicine and a gentleman in science ethics. I had studied in my
undergrad years about Hill’s contribution to muscle physiology and his
was a recognizable name. For its biting humor, I reproduce excerpts of this Hill’s letter: “Mr.Arthur Bryant once
told a story which is typical, one hopes, of the sturdy independence of
the British people. A dock strike was on, and enormous lorries were
going in and out with impressive notices ‘By the authority of
H.M.Government’, or ‘By permission of the T.U.C.’ Among them was a
tiny donkey cart, driven by a little old man with a bashed-in bowler: on
the cart was a notice ‘By my own bloody authority’. In the pages of Nature,
and of other journals, are many papers whose authors find it necessary
to thank the Director of This, or the Chief Scientist of That, or the
Ministry of Something or Other, for permission to publish them…. Could this nonsense stop?
It would still be possible, if they wished, for the chief scientists,
who are really amiable people, to follow the example of the late Lord
Knutsford of the London Hospital, at the end of a meeting over which he
presided: ‘And now I have one particularly pleasant duty to perform
– to propose a unanimous vote of thanks to myself for the excellent
manner in which I have conducted the business.’… This letter is published
without the permission of the professor of physiology in this College. A.V.Hill Department of Physiology, University College, London
WC1.” I was strongly enthused by
Hill’s admonition of the stuffy behavior condoned by the professors of
academia, and the research atmosphere in Sri Lanka in 1979 was hardly
different from what Hill had described from London in 1955. And I wanted
to imitate the fellow (but young in age!), described by Hill in his
first paragraph. I had a reason for it. Making a splash in December
1979 I was fuming that in the
previous year, in 1978, my very first research communication in
nutritional biochemistry was diluted by the unwanted addition of two
professors’ names (Prof.H.M.W.Herath and Prof. T.W.Wikramanayake),
whom I felt didn’t deserve authorship. This was done for reasons of
‘political correctness’ of the then prevailing atmosphere at the
University of Peradeniya. It was the norm in Sri Lanka then. Thus I felt
that my research in sex sociology – which was carried out by me during
my off-duty hours and weekends and also without any research funding
support! – need not be diluted with the names of my superiors. My first research
communication, molded by Kinsey’s flame was a provocative affair. I
presented my observations on the second day of the 35th
Annual Meeting of the Sri Lankan Association for the Advancement of
Sciences, held at the University of Colombo premises. My personal diary
entry for December 18, 1979, records the following. “Today I presented 4
papers. In the morning at 8:30am, at Section A, I read the two
biochemistry papers. 1.
Further studies on the nutritive value of edible portions of 16
cultivars of winged bean, Psophocarpus tetragonolobus. 2.
Development of trypsin inhibitor in the seeds of winged bean. Then in the afternoon at
1:00pm, at Section F, I read two other papers. The New Biology Lecture
Theatre was a room with nearly 60 seats. But more than 75 had gathered. The obvious reason was the provocative title I had given for
my first paper: ‘Preliminary random observations on the courting
behaviour of undergraduates in a residential university.’ My
second paper, which followed the first, had a more sedate title: ‘A
sociological study of the 1978 Medical Entrants (Tamil Medium) of the
University of Peradeniya.’ I had to drastically shorten the
presentation time of my second paper [an equally important one for me],
since its alloted presentation time was almost gobbled up by the first
paper’s question time.” I still vividly remember,
that the presiding chairman suggesting whether I take the questions for
both papers after the presentation of both; but the sexually-curious
species among the audience were interested in throwing question darts on
me for the first ‘courtship’ paper and leave the room for the
sociologically-inclined to tackle the second paper. Thus, at the end of
my 20 minutes presentation of the ‘courtship’ paper, the
question-session continued for another 20 minutes. I was bombarded with
various questions on methodology and how did I ‘observe’ the petting
behavior. I was sure that those who posed questions like this were
unfamiliar to the Peradeniya campus terrain. For those who had lived in
the Peradeniya campus residential environment, what I presented was
‘too obvious’. Finally
the presiding chairman of the sessions had to terminate the session for
want of time. Without losing my cool, I
diplomatically answered the questions by pointing the first three
carefully chosen words of my paper’s title: ‘Preliminary Random
Observations’. I took leave with remarks that ‘Since these
observations are ‘preliminary’ in nature and I’m still collecting
data and, that one has to
wait until the following year (i.e., 1980) for the sequence.’
Though now my memory has
blurred, my diary entry for Dec.18, 1979 states, that having been
relieved of presenting four papers in a day, I went to the Sapphire
theater for a 6:00pm show, to enjoy a Sivaji Ganesan movie Theepam
before leaving for Peradeniya next day morning at 5:55 am train. In 1980, due to my
pre-occupation of completing my Master’s degree in biochemistry, the
full text of my ‘Preliminary Random Observations’ was never
submitted to an academic journal. However, my journalist friend
S.Rameswaran, fishing for some interesting local research data for
popular consumption, translated the original text of my Peradeniya
courtship paper into Tamil with reasonable liberty and published
excerpts in the Colombo Virakesari newspaper of Nov.16, 1980.
That resulted in me receiving my quota of ‘15 minutes of fame’ among
the then Tamil undergrads in Sri Lanka and the Tamil parents whose
children were about to enter the University of Peradeniya. At Peradeniya,
few of my informants told me that (like a politician) my name also had
become an object of two or three campus graffiti. I had to provide a
researcher’s response for the ‘storm in the teacup’ and it
appeared in the Virakesari of Jan.25, 1981. The complete English
text of my first paper in sex research is as follows:
Preliminary Random
Observations on the Courting Behaviour of Undergraduates in a
Residential University in Sri Lanka by S.Sri Kantha [Presented at the 35th
Annual Meeting of Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Sciences
–Section F; Social Sciences, Colombo, Dec.18, 1979 - Tuesday] Introduction Investigation of sexual
habits and practices is a relatively recent development in science.
Scientific observations and studies in this interesting field are few,
especially in this country. The pioneers in this field of study are
Kinsey et al.(1948, 1953), Schofield (1965) and Masters and Johnson
(1966). Kinsey relied much on verbal evidence: he talked endlessly to
the men and women who came forward (or were induced in some way) to tell
all. Two criticisms of this approach were, (i) Were the people
interviewed a reasonably random sample of the population? (ii) Do they
tell the truth? On both points, much scepticism has been expressed (for
e.g: Maslow and Skoda, 1955) and no doubt such scepticism is right and
proper. Later, Masters and Johnson had the courage to go a step further.
They were permitted to observe people making love and in this way were
given an opportunity of checking not only what they said they did, but
also whether they described matters correctly. Their study material
consisted of approximately 700 people of whom a couple of hundreds or so
were married couples. Studies on sexual habits
among the college and university students of America had been reported
by Robinson et al.(1968), Davis (1969), Kaats and Davis (1970) and Bell
and Chaskes (1970). As far as Peradeniya undergrads are concerned, their
sexual behavior pattern have yet to be studied in detail. An attempt is
made here, just to note some relevant features of the residential
undergrads’ courtship behaviour. Study Population and
Methods Study Population: Undergraduates of the University of Peradeniya. Almost all of
them stay in the halls of residence. Method: Mosser and Kalton (1971) had classifed the methods of obtaining
data about a group of people as follows: (a) documentary sources –
personal documents like diaries, letters and autobiographies, (b) direct
observation, (c) questionnaire, (d) interviewing. Of these, it was felt
by the author that for a study of this nature, observation method can
only be adopted, when taking into consideration all the conservative
tendencies of a typical Sri Lankan society. [Note: One like to express
at this juncture that, facts and data alone do not make a science,
especially in a virgin field like this. We also need theories,
postulates, unification and generalisations.] Time of Observation: Mainly in the afternoon, evening, twilight hours to late in the
night. Places of Observation:
Vicinity of the Girls’ Halls of Residence, corridors of lecture
blocks, library and the surroundings, corners, Gymnasium building and
the adjacent locations, canteens, sports pavilion, riverbank, roads
leading to the places of worship, Arts theatre (especially when films
are shown), Open air blocks – summer houses. Observation and Comments (1)
Con-sessions: A con-session is a
conversation between two or more undergrads (can be with same sex or
with opposite sex) which takes place in a relatively stationary
situation. It should be noted that the topic of a con-session need not
be serious or weighty in nature. Episodes of humorous exchange, logical
argument or the exchange of personal experiences may also properly
constitute con-sessions. Many
con-sessions come about as a result of the attempts of individual
participants to enhance their prestige rather than any deeply felt
commitment that they have about a specific issue. It is these
con-sessions which boosts the image of partners, who are ‘getting
hitched’, or ‘going steady’. Though dating may occupy only a small
segment of a student’s time, talk about dating is of immense
importance for many undergrads, especially girls. (2)
Partner selection:
When it comes to choice of a mate, the ‘choice’ is not of course, a
deliberate one at all, but is conditioned by circumstances about which,
we don’t know much enough to be entirely specific but which include
the interplay of so many factors. Anyway, I’ll try to generalise them
in the following manner. The
‘seniors’ spend the least amount of time with their own sex, while
the freshers have the most such time. It is difficult o tell, the
undergrads of which faculty have ample time, to spend in the company of
the opposite sex, because their courses of study and the time taken for
it varies. But generally the students in the Arts-based coruses, spend
more time in the company of the opposite sex than any other category of
undergrads. This is because they have to attend only a handful hours of
lectures per week. Barring this short period of occupation, they’ve to
‘kill’ the time in a satisfying manner; and they do so by partner
selection and getting hitched. Those
undergrads following a science-based discipline (Medicine, Dentistry,
Agriculture, Veterinary Science and Pure science) have to attend
practicals, dissections, field work etc. in addition to following the
lectures. And it is not wrong to say that, boys get to know more about
girls, and about their behaviour during these practical sessions. These
sessions provide flexible opportunity in that boys can attend to their
work and at the same time they can roam around the laboratory or field
doing a bit of ‘eve-teasing’, and of course the girls retaliate with
‘adam-teasing’, if it can be called like that. It
is probably traditional in the campus, for the undergrads (boys) to
select their partners from among the fellow students of the batch, in
the second year. Fresher girls are the chief objects of attention of the
senior boys (mainly 2nd years). In the guise of ragging, a
senior attaches himself to his beloved ‘selection’ and get to know
all the details about the girl, her background, education, family status
etc. (Very personal details also are not spared.) And it is very common
to see the senior boys in Peradeniya chaperoning the fresher girls to
their halls of residence in the first two weeks of the academic year,
which is the normal duration of the ragging period. The tradition had
come down, that during ragging period, freshers should appear in
white-and-white; so, any senior can have a try at a fresher, who have to
nod her head, or answer in positive, to all the teasing questions. At
the end of this ordeal (I mean, for ignorant fresher girl students), a
certain proportion of the boys become successful in getting
‘hitched’. Senior
girls initiating a partnership with junior boys are relatively uncommon,
in almost all the disciplines of study. There may occur a few
exceptional cases. (3)
Initiation of Pairing:
In accordance with the normal trends, the initiation stimulus is usually
provided by the boy. The hints and messages are taken and passed on to
the girl concerned, by her close friends and/or by room mates. For some
boys the search for a mate is a highly self conscious one. For others,
it follows so effortlessly from the fun of dating that no conscious
decisions are made at all. Mutual
lending and borrowing is a sign of close friendship; hence, books and
notes may also serve the purpose of initiation of pairing. Offering
practical assistance, one way or another, may also little by little,
leads to initiation of pairing. A batch trip, an active interest in one
particular extracurricular activity (for e.g: sports, drama, societies)
and even ragging also serve as catalysts for the actual initiation to
occur. (4)
Campus dates: Two major kinds of
campus dates can be recognized. One is the formal party or dinner type
date, often on a large group followed by dancing, much good fun, and a
return to the hall in the small hours of the morning. The batch dinner,
hall ‘socials’, faculty ‘nights’, going-down dances, farewell
parties, ‘hitch’ parties or even birthday parties provide occasion
for this sort of date. This kind of date is supposed to characterise the
community life of residential university students. The
second kind of date is the soulful date of the single couple, perhaps
starting with evening stroll in the park or roadway, or even in the
library but having its core in moonlit romance, placed in a nook or
corner. The couple, though seated in a common place, like a canteen,
library, theatre or [play]grounds, remain unattached with the rest of
the population. Their dating episode doesn’t directly involve other
people. The hour or two, they spend together is filled mostly on
satisfying personal and physical emotions. In a corner they sit under a
hided triangle, thereby evading direct exposure to a third person’s
eye. For about an hour or two they spend on talking, necking and
petting. It is presumed that the only topic of discussion revolve mainly
around private and personal affairs between them. This sort of
conversation is only an accompaniment of erotic play. (5)
Erotic play: The erotic play
varies in intensity from pulling, pressing, hugging
and kissing and also petting to extreme. As usual, the male partner
dominates the scene with the female partner responding passively. The
male partner surveys the female anatomy in four stages of petting
sequence; outside above the waise, outside below the waist, inside above
the waist and inside below the waist. Of course the last two stages are
carried out in strict privacy in connivance with the darkness and around
the pillars of the Arts theatre, Gymnasium and the corridors of lecture
halls. These enormous numbers of building corners serve to explore
freely the intimacies of sex, away from the prying eyes of batch mates
and security guards. Even when the security officers happen to arrive at
the scene, they tend to turn a blind eye. (6)
Inter-racial and Inter-religious pairing: The family life in Sri Lanka, strongly
disapproves of mixed pairing. This is particularly so in inter-racial
bonding than in inter-religious bonding. The final sanction upon a boy
or a girl, who enters into a mixed affair, is ‘outcasting’.
Therefore it is not surprising that most undergrads conform to the norm
of avoiding mixed affairs. Nevertheless, mixed affairs do occur even if
rarely. Who
are the deviants? The majority of these are with Tamil boys and Sinhala
girls; and if lesser number, with Sinhala boys and Tamil girls. (Muslims
who speak Tamil mainly are included in the Tamil category, for the sake
of convenience.) It is common inferene that, the majority who are
involved in mixed affairs have a knowledge of English. Any sustained
relationship with another racial link is impossible for the partners
otherwise. Although there is hostility to inter-racial affairs in a
typical Sri Lankan society, when it comes to the residential campus
background, it is tolerated since it can more easily be broken off,
after the partners had received their quota of sexual satisfaction. The process of the initiation of an inter-racial affair is gradual, and in the majority of the cases, it blooms only around the 2nd year or 3rd year of the couples’ residential life. It occurs mainly among the batch mates or body-mates (in pre-clinical years of the Medical Faculty) or group mates (in lab classes). A couple who carry on an inter-racial love affair have to accept drastic cultural changes. Of the two, one can no longer move closely with his/her friends, as often as he(she) used to. One of the two, can integrate only through an acceptance of the other’s culture, in personal behaviour. He (she) must also establish new interpersonal relationships with other undergrads. Compared to inter-racial pairing, an inter-religious pairing is more tolerated in our society, if the partners belong to the same race; hence, the frequency of the occurrence of inter-religious pairing is more (Hindu-Christian and Buddhist-Christian) than that of an inter-racial pairing. (7)
Reasons for Pairing at the Campus: The following can be cited as the main
reasons, for the occurrence of pairing. (a)
Bandwagon effect: Pairing (or getting ‘hitched’) has become ‘the thing to
do’. Not only have this pairing become quite acceptable to the
majority of the residential student population but the junior students
are often directly or indirectly encouraged by the hitched seniors.
Pairing of a friend or a room mate or a batch mate encourages and
contributes to another and soon the feeling spreads that ‘Everybody is
doing it, so why not try?’ (b)
The two-some nature
of campus life: Not only is there a
casual bandwagon effect, but there are subtle ‘pressures’ working to
make paired life appear more comfortable and practical. The social life
in a residential university, is a two-some experience. Generally
speaking, such affairs as parties, dinners, socials, dances,
art-festivals and film shows are considered as two-some experiences. (c)
Insecurity of our
‘time’: The general insecurity of our ‘time’ is often thought by some
as encouraging campus pairing. Anxieties concerning possible impending
national disasters and closure of campus (for trivial reasons, during
the major part of this decade) generate in undergrads a need to develop
deep attachments with someone in order to achieve sexual satisfaction.
For many undergrads who are free from the vigilant, prying eyes of their
parents or guardians, the ideal time for experiencing sexual relief is
the three-year period they spend in the campus. Hitching, they trust, is
the type of relationship that will give them, some sort of excitement
(or ‘go’) in the basic human instinct. (d)
Stimulation of
sexual attitudes: We are living in a period
of sex age. The mass media (cinema and the pulp magazines, novels in our
island) must be held responsible for titillating and enticing an
undergrad’s sexual fantasies. The emphasis on sex appeal and the
intense physical expression of love makes it difficult for undergrads to
handle sexual arousals. This results in the unwillingness to defer
sexual gratification until after marriage. ‘Wherever
we look and wherever we go there’s something about sex. And it makes
us look foolish not to find out about it ourselves.’ is an explanation
given regarding the background of predicament, by a few ‘hitched’
undergrads. Another opinion is, ‘There aren’t really many places to
go around in Peradeniya; only a park and a few theaters in Kandy. After
you’ve seen all the movies (and in most of the theaters, the released
Sinhalese films run for more than two months.) we simply don’t know
how to kill time; and this especially so in the weekends, and poya
(full moon) days. So, the ideal pastime is to get hitched.’ And ‘if
you are in love with opposite sex you know – that’s it.’
(e)
Economic buffer: There is also one extremely good reason (especially in the case
of girls) for getting hitched. But under normal circumstances it is not
divulged to anybody, even to the partner. For a girl coming from a rural
village, there wouldn’t be much cash in her handbag, to spend for
pocket expenses. Hence an ideal alternative to cover the embarassment is
to ‘get hitched’ to a boy, who will look after her in his pocket
money. The expenses incurred for snacks, short eats, stationery,
traveling, cosmetics etc. are paid out from the partner’s purse. (f)
Escapism: So many complexes arise for a newly arrived undergrad in
Peradeniya set-up. Urban-rural complex, high caste-low caste complex,
wealthy-poor complex, ‘fluent english-bad english’ complex and
racial complex are a few which can be identified. In order to escape
from the existing realities, the poor souls search for some sort of
compassion and they obtain this by ‘getting hitched’, I suppose. Discussion In
a typical rural village of Sri Lanka, whether at work or at leisure,
whether inside the house or outside it, boy (girl) finds himself
(herself) somehow surrounded by elders. This ensures not only the lack
of privacy but also a constant supervision by a group of elders. Here,
in Peradeniya, this constant vigilance factor is hardly present. And
when left in a surrounding with a host of opportunity and time, the
arrows of cupid easily penetrates the undergrad’s heart. The
curiosity, excitement and the ever-present liberty from the prying eyes
of guardians and society elders, climaxes in the profuse pairing at
Peradeniya University. A lot of rural girls get caught into the whorl of
free love, when they enter Peradeniya. I personally don’t think that
many girls in the campus, feel that being stroked by a boy is bad or
dirty anymore. There
is accelerating evidence that pre-marital courting has become almost
accepted among campus girls, as with campus boys. Perhaps one of the
most important factor that prevents Sri Lankan girls from making
friendships, when they are with parents, is the fact that the majority
in them still find most of their companionship of their homes. They
therefore may not feel the need for the friendship of their peers.
However, when they move into a new residential campus environment, they
are often separated from their families and relatives. The girls
discover that they must find new friends who can share their problems
and guide them through novel experiences; this security, they may find
among peers who are going through the same period of transition. The
intimacy of the campus environment keeps the undergrads together for
nearly three years or more, which is a long enough period for them to
build close relationships. The
established value of Oriental culture that pre-marital courting is
wrong, is crumbling. But there seems to be conflict of opinion for a
significant number of campus girls, who come from conservative
background. These girls have to decide how far they can lean. If they
are not permissive, they lose an ideal opportunity of mixing with
opposite sex; yet, if they are too permissive, the news may leak to home
sources and the consequences may upset the balance. But, even the campus
girls from conservative background are much more open and free now, than
their parents, with regard to sexual attitudes. Conclusion Living
conditions at the University of Peradeniya are often far from easy
living and this give rise to strain and stresses which contribute to the
undergrad’s heavy mood, resulting in his urge towards sexual fantasy.
Anxiety, worry, social, educational and family pressures and the
emotional imbalance of sexually immatured (but physically matured)
students produce various sorts of sexual behavir, which need attention
and study. The
campus student of today is too hurried, too badly housed with too little
recreational facilities and working under too strenuous conditions.
He/she needs psychological counseling, at least during certain periods
of stress. In
general, the mental climate of the University of Peradeniya is
ill-suited to relieving sexual tensions which often reach breaking
point. When steps are taken to bring in more students from poor homes,
this problem may increase in scope and intensity. References Bell,R.R.
and J.B.Chaskes (1970). Premarital sexual experience among co-eds, 1958
and 1968. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 32: 81-84. Davis,
K.E. (1969).Sex on the Campus: Is there a Revolution? Boulder,
Colorado, Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado. Kaats,
G.R. and K.E.Davis (1970). The dynamics of sexual behavior of college
students. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 32: 390-399. Kinsey,
A.C., W.B.Pomeroy and C.E.Martin (1948). Sexual Behavior in the Human
Male, Philadelphia, W.B.Saunders. Kinsey,
A.C., W.B.Pomeroy, C.E.Martin and P.H.Gebhard (1953). Sexual Behavior
in the Human Female, Philadelphia, W.B.Saunders. Maslow,A.H.
and J.M.Sakoda (1955) Volunteer error in the Kinsey study. [In]
J.Hmeloch and S.F.Fava, eds. Sexual Behavior in American Society,
New York, Norton & Co. Masters,W.H.
and V.E.Johnson (1966). Human Sexual Response, London, Churchill. Mosser,C.A.
and G.Kalton (1971). Survey Methods in Social Investigation, New
York, Basic Books. Robinson,S.E.,
K.King, C.J.Dudley and F.J.Clune (1968). Change in sexual behavior and
attitudes of college students. The Family Coordinator, 17:
119-123. Schofield,M.
(1965). The Sexual Behavior of Young People, Boston, Little Brown
& Co. ** Postscript
in 2003 When
I returned to Peradeniya the following day, Dr.Navam Hettiarachchy –my
then senior colleague and research supervisor - and a few other faculty
members teased me by saying ‘Now
the secret has come out on why Sri Kantha don’t stay in the lab after
5:00pm on weekdays and hardly turns up to do his Master’s degree
research in the weekends. He must have been checking all the corners and
bushes surrounding the buildings.’ I had no retort for that
teasing. Prof. T.W.Wikramanayake, the head of the department, did not
utter a word. I was a bit scared about whether he would pull my ears asking why I didn’t get
his formal permission before submitting the research abstract for my
paper – which was a routine protocol then followed, in the colonial
British tradition. [In hindsight, I believe that there was another
reason for this tradition to keep living in Sri Lanka. The professor and
the head of the Department, being the most senior person, was assumed to
possess the best English capabilities in the nearest circle. Therefore,
even for checking the English, submitting one’s research abstract and
full manuscript to the professor was a given before mailing. If a junior
fellow submit a manuscript just for checking the English and without
Professor’s name as a co-author, that would also be a cause of
concern. As such, unwanted addition of the professor’s name as a
honorary author also became an unquestionable, unethical practice in Sri
Lanka. At least, even when I was a beginner, I wanted to stand on my own
legs!] Thus, Prof. Wikramanayake’s silence was fine with me. Like a
gentleman, he extended my period of stay as a temporary assistant
lecturer by another whole year for 1980. I
have four confessions to make now on my ‘courtship’ paper, after 24
years. First, in the Methods section, I then stated that I used the
‘direct observation’ method for this study, without any numbers
to substantiate my observations. But I also used informal interviews to
write this paper and had gathered some numbers. I used self-restraint in
not pushing some numbers without solid back-up data. Since my informants
were half a dozen (then) junior faculty members and
ten students at the University of Peradeniya, for reasons of
privacy I had to mask their identity. My informants included my room
mates at the Jayatilleke and Arunachalam Halls of Residence as well as
one private lodging in the campus vicinity (Rajawatte). Now I can tell
that junior faculty members S.Surendrakumar, K.Kandiah, P.Vivekanandan,
V.Mathavan, P.Pushparaj and B.G.Padmabandu. In addition, two of my
graduate peers Rohan Rajapakse, H.A.S.Perera at the Post Graduate
Institute of Agriculture, as well as medical undergraduates S.Sugumaran
(son of T.Sivasithamparam – the then MP for Vavuniya) and
N.Shanmugalingam also served as my confidants and informants. Secondly,
readers may feel a vein of male-chauvinist element in the text of the
paper. This was inevitable since all my informants were unmarried
in young men in their twenties. Even then I recognized this as one
serious limitation of my study. Thirdly,
not to be a prude, I have to admit now that I was also a
participant-observer of few aspects of the courtship ritual described in
my study. These included con-sessions, partner selection and initiation
of pairing. At the ‘initiation of pairing’ step I faltered miserably
twice. This fact was a secret to all my informants except S.Sugumaran,
one of my confidants. Fourthly, having realized the limitation of lack
of input from female members of the Peradeniya campus, I had to modify
my ‘lone wolf’ approach to sex research in Peradeniya and was
tempted to seek collaborators. This resulted in a second sociological
study begun in September 1979, which though not strictly
sexuality-oriented, nevertheless revolved on a significant baggage of
sexual frustrations of university undergrads. April 14, 2003. |
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