I was listening to National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” on my local station while I was surfing the web, including here.  Fortunately, I was paying sufficient attention to hear an interview with the author of “The Meaning of Tingo: And Other Extraordinary Words from Around the World”.

 The part that REALLY caught my attention was the author saying that the Intuit have a word.  When you read below what it means you will know that not only does the word have no parallel in English,  neither does the activity to which it refers.

 The word and definition:

“areodjarekput”: Inuit to exchange wives for a few days only.

 I will render the typical male observation that it would be nice if this custom had developed in English-speaking countries.

 In contrast, I am glad that those countries have not seen the need for a word adopted by the Japenese:

"koro": the "hysterical belief that one's penis is shrinking into one's body".

 So, the QUESTION to English-speaking ladies: Why are you and your sisters not amenable to “areodjarekput”?

To listen to the interview:  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5403332

To read about the book:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594200866/qid=1147572009/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-3186333-7938419?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Nothing really to swap.

My SO's all have other partners... and I'm not interested in *their* partners.

The logistics don't work for me, the idea is generally fine... If *I* am the one calling the trades lol!

-- Modified on 5/13/2006 7:48:16 PM

I think you mispelled it

areodjarekput means to jam a live squid up your butt. I think you meant aerojdarkpunkt. LOL

ROFLMOL (i think) that is the funniest thing I have ever read.  Splunge, you have raised the bar again

Inuits a (1) : the Eskimo people of No. America and Greenland (2) : the Eskimo people of Canada b : a member of such people

Intuit: to apprehend by intuition.

Intuit is also the software company that sales QuickBooks products.

Accountant here.

OFF

the Inuit are known for being very intuitive, so the mistake is understandable.

Anyway, I'm not married. But what about swapping husbands and kids? Wink!

Hugs,
Ciara

Ever since I lost my gerbil I have switched to squid. Plus with all those arms the sensation is more intense.

Man, you are easily amused! LOL

-- Modified on 5/14/2006 6:46:16 PM

...such as "Checkout the 1040As on that baby! Woo hoo!"

..."a typical Friday night"

Their physical isolation, along with the lack of singles bars above the Arctic Circle, makes it a necessity to share wives in order to avoid producing entire villages filled with village idiots.  It doesn't take long in a small population for that to happen.  

Since the Inuits aren't burdened by the manufactured guilt the major organized religions, they've made a perfectly logical cultural adaptation to assure their health and survival.  While customs may vary somewhat, it's common for a traveler who spends the night at an Inuit home to be offered the wife as part of the accomodations.  

Since they view the tribe as all part of the same family, it doesn't matter that a baby that might result isn't the husband's.  It all sort of balances out in the end.

There's a similar example in the rain forest of the Amazon Basin of Brazil.  An isolated tribe had the custom of the wives going off into the forest once a year with all the men for several days of sexual adventures.  It was a no questions asked sort of "right."  The women loved it, the men loved it and the entire tribe lived peacefully and in harmony for decades.   And despite what westerners might think, the women were not taken advantage of, rather, they were highly respected and treated exceptionally well by the men.  Not surprisingly, for most of the women, it was the highlight of their year and the afterglow of being treated like a cherished princess lasted until the next year.

So what could possibly screw up something that everybody enjoyed and had served the tribe will for generations?  One guess- the arrival of the white man.  Hi, we're from the Church of Stop Thinking and we're here to help you.  Within ten years of the tribe being discovered, the custom of an annual sharing of the women had ceased and the peace the tribe had always known had been replaced with major problems like jealousy, theft and fights.   When the white men introduced the concept of personal property and ownership, the shared assets of the tribe became horded.  The previously shared and cherished women of the tribe become just one more piece of property of the husband.  

The tribe also experienced something else new- divorce.  The once-a-year partner sharing had been keeping many relationships together and had been the solution for all sorts of frustrations and problems.

The story of this tribe would be sad in itself , but this has been repeated countless times over the centuries by well-intentioned missionary types.  It's important to remember that the term "missionary position" was originallly a joke and put-down of those foolish enough to insist it was the only way to have sex.  

I posted six or seven years ago about how providers act as society's safety valve and should be treated with far more status and respect than they currently enjoy.   For without them, I think we'd have even more problems than we do today- just like the Amazon tribesmen.

Thanks to those who caught the typo.....

Interesting I did not see any posts on the Japanese word......