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The following is a detailed description of the cultural practice of kissing/kissing on the genitals among different groups.

Roma peoples

Among various groups belonging to the broader Roma population, the practice of kissing/petting the genitals of boys and girls fulfills the so-called function of 'gendering the body', i.e. the process of preparing the child to fully assume his or her male gender and the associated reproductive functions.[1]
 Among the Jarana, a group of gitanos living near Madrid in Spain, kissing and touching a child's genitals is an integral part of this process:
 "From the moment of birth, adults emphasise and celebrate the child's genitals, particularly in the case of boys... their [adults'] attitude encourages children to become proud of their genitals and to develop their own identity within which genitals play a central role."[2]
 The words defining the genitals (pija for male genitals and chocho for female genitals) are used as affectionate nicknames and often as nicknames to call the child:
 "they [the words pija and chocho] are also used, in a metonymic way, to indicate the male or female child - thus pregnant mothers are often asked whether they are expecting a pija or a chocho. Along with other landmarks, these are among the first words a child learns.... Affection towards children up to the age of 5 or 6 is shown by rubbing or cupping their genitals in your hands, or kissing them and giving them clamps down there'[3] .
 Although both sexes are treated with great affection,
 "boys are most celebrated. Jarana mothers love to play with their little boys' penises, pictures of naked male children aged two or three hang on the wall of many gypsy homes, and boys are very much encouraged to be proud of their penises.’[4]
 Among the Cortorari, a Roma group from Romania, the use of touching and kissing the penis and vulva serves both to show affection and to make children aware that they have sexually different bodies (gendering the body). Again, the words kar (penis) and miž (vulva) are the first that children learn:
 "For a child at a preverbal stage of development, being able to point to his genitals when asked by adults: 'where is your penis/where is your vulva? (kaj lo kio kar/kaj la ki miž?)' is considered a sign of his intelligence. It is common to rub and kiss both boys' and girls' genitals to show affection.’[5]
 These gestures are accompanied, as the child speaks and grows, by practices designed to encourage a free relationship with one's sex and very much centred on the genitals:
 "Phrases such as 'eat my penis/my vulva (xa miri kar/miž)', which normally amount to turpitude when uttered between adults, are taught to children whose ability to use them is highly valued. In infancy, during the process of language acquisition... children are exposed not only to sexually explicit language, which may have no meaning, but also to gestures that materialise these statements... After the age of two, children are teased by adults and already know how to defend themselves using phrases such as 'eat my penis/ vulva' to which adults reply 'why do you have a penis/ vulva?' Having reached an age where they are more intrepid, children start to show their genitals without fear, or even on purpose.’[6]
 Roma peoples, therefore, confirm a varied and widespread use of the practice of kissing or caressing children's genitals.
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[1] We are grateful to anthropologist Harika Dauth for this insight and for providing us with the bibliography on Roma peoples.

[2] P. GAY Y BLASCO, A 'different' body? Desire and virginity among Gitanos, in The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute , 3(3) 1997, pp. 517-35, p. 520.

[3] P. GAY Y BLASCO, A 'different' body? Desire and virginity among Gitanos, 1997, cit., p. 521.

[4] P. GAY Y BLASCO, A 'different' body? Desire and virginity among Gitanos, 1997, cit., p. 522.

[5] C. TESÃR, Becoming Rom (male), becoming Romni (female) among Romanian Cortorari Roma: On body and gender, in Romani Studies 5, Vol. 22, No. 2, 2012, pp. 113-140, p. 126.

[6] C. TESÃR, Becoming Rom (male), becoming Romni (female) among Romanian Cortorari Roma: On body and gender, cit. p.126.

Albania

Some cases of fondling of girls' pubises have also given rise to court cases such as Krasniqi v. Dallas Cty. Child Protective Service Unit TX, 809 S.W.2d 927 (Tex. App. 1991) in which two Albanian parents, Sadri and Sabahete Krasniqi, who had emigrated to Texas, were convicted of sexual abuse for caressing their daughter on her vulva. The parents defended themselves on the grounds that in Albania caressing has no sexual value, but serves to show affection.

Turkey 

Staying in the European geographical area:
 
"In Turkey, it is considered appropriate to express verbal admiration and kiss the genitals of an infant during nappy changing.”[1]
 
Note, incidentally, how this gesture also survives in many Italian families.


[1] R. E. HELFER, C. HENRY KEMPE, The Battered Child, University of Chicago Press, 1968, (5th ed.), p. 85.

Orthodox Jews

The religious practice of Jewish circumcision may be sealed by a kiss, with which the mohel sucks the baby's blood and disinfects the wound. The practice is called metzitzah b'peh and is an oral sucking that is employed by some Jewish groups, although increasingly rarely, in place of official dressing. Such sucking is symbolically linked to the theme of the blood of the Covenant, from a functional point of view it has a practical function because it would promote coagulation following the excision of the foreskin and would have a disinfectant function (saliva). Its morphology, i.e. the fact that it manifests itself with contact between the lips of an adult and the penis of a child, implies a potential subsumption within the offence of 'sexual acts with a minor'. However, in this case it is interesting to note that in Italy no mohel has ever been charged with sexual acts with a minor or with sexual violence for having practised it. A general acceptance of this practice also seems to be widespread in other Western democracies. In New York, home to the largest community of Orthodox Jews outside Israel, several children who underwent circumcision contracted herpes as a result of metzitzah b'peh.[1] Then-New York City Mayor de Blasio resolved the dispute as a matter involving the child's right to health, demanding that the community identify the mohel responsible for the contagion, but without contesting any violation of the child's sexual freedom, and allowing the metzitzah b'peh to continue. In this case, the greater familiarity with the Jewish practice means that even the majority in Italy or the United States do not read it as a sexual act, and therefore the courts do not subsume it under any criminal offence.


[1] 'Too Much Religious Freedom - Infants Infected with Herpes after Jewish Mohel Applies Oral Suction to Circumcised Penises', 19 J.L. & Health 297 (2004)

Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, the practice of kissing children's genitals consists of a twofold morphology: the father either places the child's penis entirely in his mouth and sucks it lightly, or he blows a shallow kiss on the penis. Fathers often have a photograph taken while performing this gesture, which will then enrich the family photo album. The practice corresponds to the following meaning:
 
"[The kiss] is given to show love towards the child and this is true whether the penis is only kissed or placed entirely in the mouth because there are no sexual feelings involved... Afghan culture looks at the child's penis as a part of the body that is not particularly pure and holy because it is the place from which the child urinates... [For a father] kissing his child there shows how much he loves and accepts it precisely because it is not the purest and holiest part of the body."[1]
 
This description is taken from the cultural expert report rendered in the Kargar case, an Afghan father denounced by neighbours for being seen putting his son's penis to his mouth, and decided, in the United States of America, by the father's acquittal on the basis of the principle of de minimis non curat lex.


[1] State of Maine v. Mohammad Kargar, 679 A.2d 81, 1996, transl. mine.

Manchu (China) 

Although the source is secular, coming from a quisque de populo and not from a scientific study, another example of the practice of kissing and caressing children's genitals is attested among the Manchu, a cultural minority in China:
 
"A Manchu mother ... sucks her small child's penis in public, but would never kiss him on the cheek. In fact, among the Manchu, fellatio is an accepted form of sexual behaviour in the context of the relationship between mother and child, while any other kiss, in any other form, is always seen as sexual.’[1]
 
Kissing the penis, therefore, is, in this cultural context, perfectly normal and appears as a cuddle, whereas a kiss on the cheek is perceived as an unacceptable gesture. Indeed, among the Manchu, fellatio is a sexual behaviour except in the mother/child context, whereas a kiss on the cheek is always sexual, even and especially between relatives. A mother kissing her child on the cheek would be committing incest. Exactly the opposite is true in Italy, where fellatio is always perceived as sexual, while a kiss on the cheek never is.


[1]https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnthropology/comments/38ikwr/did_manchu_women_really_fellate_their_sons/

Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea, Philippines, Thailand

The practice of kissing or caressing children's genitals is also attested, in literature and from various secular sources, in several other Asian states. The practice is generally abandoned when groups urbanise, move up the social ladder or emigrate to western countries.
The practice is attested in literature in Cambodian, Vietnamese and Korean communities that have moved to the United States.[1] In 2006, a Cambodian immigrant mother in Las Vegas was accused of sexual assault after being seen performing fellatio on her 6-year-old son. At the time, a spokesperson for the Cambodian Association of America pointed out that this practice was not widespread throughout Cambodia, but was indeed perceived in some rural areas as an expression of love and respect, although, in her experience, it was not performed on children older than one or two years.[2]
Jim Webb's novel Lost soldiers describes a scene in which a Thai father takes his son's penis to his mouth. The author of the novel, who is American, has been accused of indulging in scabrous paedophile scenes and has defended himself by explaining that he himself witnessed the gesture during one of his trips to Thailand, a gesture whose cultural and non-pathological nature he reiterated.[3]


[1] K. Malley-Morrison, D. Hines, Family Violence in a Cultural Perspective. Defining, Understanding, and Combating Abuse, Sage, London-New Delhi, 2004.

[2] C. Adams, Do Other Cultures Allow Sex Acts to Calm Babies? It depends on how you define 'sex act', 14 December, in https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/columns/straight-dope/article/13043372/straight-dope-do-other-cultures-allow-sex-acts-to-calm, 2012.

[3] C. Adams, Do Other Cultures Allow Sex Acts to Calm Babies?, 2012, cit. 

New Guinea

The practice is also attested among the peoples of New Guinea where:
 
"It is not unusual for mothers to caress the genitals of their infants, even causing an erection, and make amused comments about children's genitals.”[1]
 
In this cultural context, the practice takes on the function of a cuddle, a gesture that is part of the bodily contact between mother and child.
 


[1] W. Schiefenhövel , Ritualized adult-male/adolescent-male sexual behaviour in Melanesia: an anthropological and ethological perspective, in J.R. Feierman (ed.) Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions, New York: Springer-Verlag, 1990, pp. 394-421, p. 407.

Hawai'i

Among the indigenous cultures of the Hawai'i Islands:
 
"genitals were considered holy and were valued as inherently positive. They were treated with respect and veneration and were kept covered for protection, not shame... Genitals were believed to possess a mana (spiritual power)'. Practices directed at the genitals of infants included 'the penis being uncovered [by lowering the foreskin] daily,’[1] the mother 'pouring her milk into the vagina' of her daughter... etc.’ All these practices analysed in relation to genital preparation exemplify behaviour between adults and non-adults that should not be seen as erotic, sexual or abusive at all. It was seen as an appropriate aspect of the care adults had to give to non-adults, a necessary task.’[2]
 
In the Hawaiian cultural context, the practice therefore takes on ritual and sacralised contours.


[1] M. Diamond, Selected cross-generational sexual behaviour in traditional Hawai'i: a sexiological ethnography, in J.R. Feierman (ed.) Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions, New York: Springer-Verlag, 1990, pp. 422-444, p. 430.

[2] M. Diamond, Selected cross-generational sexual behaviour in traditional Hawai'i: a sexiological ethnography, 1990, cit., p. 431.