Culture Observation: Naked Babies

Babies tend to go running around without pants or diapers here…and they breast feed till way into toddler age! And those mothers are not very shy about where they “whip it out” (e.g. crowded meekers). However, I have to say I was fairly warned during orientation days in Darkhan the first week that we arrived in country. There was a whole session (demonstrated by a full on skit) of the Mongolian custom of “eat the penis”. Basically, the idea is that they “offer” you (the guest) to “eat the penis” by either holding up the baby – privates exposed – or making a mocking gesture of ‘transferring” the penis with their hand. All in all, I think it’s a Mongolian kept secret to make foreigners feel as uncomfortable as possible (a favorite Mongolian “custom”).