Anthropological studies indicate that face-to-face copulatory positions predominate among the majority of human societies for which reliable information exists. Usually, the woman lies on her back with the man on top of her; the ventro-ventral or so-called missionary position (Figure 5.1). In their study of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Kinsey, Pomeroy, and Martin (1948) reported that 70 percent of North Americans used only the missionary position during sexual intercourse. Setting aside the sexual inhibitions and reluctance to explore different positions in some of these subjects, there appears to be a fundamental human preference for face-to-face copulatory behaviour. In China, it is the major pattern used, although 54 per cent of couples may sometimes try other positions (Liu et al. 1997).
Ford and Beach (1951) found that face-to-face pos-tures are widespread in many indigenous societies, and represent the most frequently recorded posi-tion among the 185 societies they examined world-wide. Variations of such positions involve the man squatting or kneeling before the woman, with her legs straddling his thighs. The man may then pull the woman up, so that the couple embraces, face-to-face. Ford and Beach noted that this behaviour is characteristic of Pacif i c Island peoples, such as the Trobrianders and the Balinese. It appears to be a common pattern among those peoples who colo-nized the South Pacif i c, beginning more than 40,000 years ago. Marquesan Islanders, for example, have a term for this position, haku noho (sitting style), as distinct from other positions used for intercourse (Suggs 1966).
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