“In the other societies around the region, the young men will say, `Oh no, a girl has to obey me if I want to have sex with her, and if I don’t want to use a condom, that’s it,'” says Lee.
“With the Ju/'hoansi, their high status in the community gives women plenty of leverage in sexual negotiations.”
Indeed, Lee says, acceptance of a man’s sexual advances is usually a prelude to marriage in the tribe. And Ju/'hoansi men would typically have fewer female partners than males in most western societies, he says.
“The traditional high status of women has worked in their favour in keeping the rates of HIV very low.”