In the deep region of Ratanakiri in northeastern Cambodia lie the Kreung people. A people invested in agriculture, electricity is a strange occurrence. Food, shelter and love are the principal needs of these people.

Unlike cultures where smoking and drinking is not allowed, teenage boys and girls have free will to. Also, in the areas of love, there is the belief that finding the right man requires a deep search through sex in the “love huts”.

Once a girl clocks 13, her father builds a hut where a girl can sexually experiment with any boy she likes.

Boys in Kreung are taught to be respectful towards girls. Because their respect for girls will determine if they will continue to maintain the number of livestock they have, they are at the liberty of responding politely to sleeping with her or just talking when they get invited to the hut.

Owing to this cultural uniqueness, the Kreung people forbid divorce. The community encourages girls to have as many boyfriends as she wants and can invite them at the same time into the hut. Jealousy and rape are unheard of.

Once she no longer finds him attractive, she can leave him for another. Despite these relations, they cannot be seen in the public with their lover unless they are engaged or married.

On the cases of pregnancy, the girl chooses who she opines will be best to raise the unborn child.
Despite the existence of this culture, HIV/AIDS was not detected in the country until 1991. From then until 2003, Cambodia had one of the highest HIV/AIDS occurrences in Asia.

However, because of modernisation and the rigorous attempt by the Royal Government of Cambodia to educate her people on the dangers of STDs, this culture is no longer as rampant as before.

Namibian tribe where sex is offered to guests

The people of Ovahimba and Ovazimba tribes in the Kunene and Omusati regions in Northern Namibia have an upheld culture that has defied western influence and agitation.

With a population of over 50,000, the women engage in the daily activity of milking their cows, taking care of the children and other extensive duties while the men go hunting leaving, sometimes, for an extended period of time. These nomads’ wealth is determined by the number of cattle one has. A polygamous people, the Himba girls are married off to male partners selected by their fathers once they attain puberty.

You cannot ignore the red skin they have. The red colour seen on their skin is called, the otjize paste ( a combination of butterfat, omuzumba scrub and ochre) and its function is to protect their skin from the sun and insect bites. They are also guided by the belief that the colour red signifies “Earth and blood”. Rather than take their baths, the women take a smoke bath and apply aromatic resins on their skin.R

Honour Is Relative

Give honour to whom it is due: This saying is applied differently in this tribe. When a visitor comes knocking, a man shows his approval and pleasure of seeing his guest by giving him the Okujepisa Omukazendu treatment. This practice literally means that his wife is given to his guest to spend the night while the husband sleeps in another room. In a case where there is no available room, her husband will sleep outside.

Photo Credit: Trevor Cole/Barcroft Images

This handed down tradition has its “benefits” in the community: it reduces jealousy and fosters relationships. The woman has little or no opinion in the decision making. Submission to her husband’s demands come first.  She has an option of refusing to sleep with him but has to sleep in the same room as the guest.

She is also entitled to give her friends to her husband when they visit but this rarely happens.

The Guardian