Female Supremacy Articles - Page 28

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Although priestesses still control the island’s relationship with the spirit world, their clout is waning, as churches sown by missionaries have taken root.

“When I get married it will be in a church, wearing a white dress and a veil,” said 19-year-old Marisa de Pina, who strikes a modern pose under the blond grass of her family’s hut, wearing tight Capri pants and sequined sandals.

She said the Protestant church she attends has taught her that it is men, not women, that should make the first move, and so she plans to wait for a man to approach her. To make her point, the teenager pops into her hut and returns holding a worn copy of the New Testament, its pages stuffed with post-it notes, letters and business cards.

It’s a decision that has caused strife inside the mud walls of her family’s house.

Like her niece, Edelia Noro wears store-bought clothes instead of the grass skirts still favored by some older women. She, too, attends church. But she said she doesn’t see why these trappings of modern life should alter the system of courtship.

More than two decades ago, she set off for the closest beach looking for the ingredients with which to propose to the man she loved.