In the column in your online archive about why the missionary position is called that [1992] you repeat the myth that the term missionary position was coined by unidentified natives as a reaction to shocked missionaries’ proselytization against unorthodox sexual positions. To your credit, you mention that there is no hard evidence supporting this assertion. However, Robert J. Priest (yes, the coincidence is amusing) in his article “Missionary Positions: Christian, Modernist, Post-Modernist” (Current Anthropology, February 2001) carefully picks this story apart. [Lengthy explanation omitted because I’m about to go through it below. –C.A.] Priest even cites the Straight Dope as one of the many sources perpetuating the missionary position story. Anyway, this is my contribution to the fighting of ignorance. –Zoinks, via the Straight Dope Message Board
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Now, Zoinks. I didn’t just “repeat the myth.” I told the story, then remarked, “That’s the legend, at least. It may not be true.” As it turns out, my caution was amply justified. Thanks to you and Robert Priest, we now appear to have the full story on missionary position.
According to Priest, however, Malinowski’s book says nothing about the missionary position as we now understand the term. What it does say at widely separated points is that (a) Trobrianders play ribald games at gatherings during the full moon; (b) islanders who work for whites sometimes mimic the inept (in their estimation) copulatory flailings of their employers; and (c) some Trobrianders object to public displays of affection between lovers, which they term misinari si bubunela, “missionary fashion,” viewing such things as an immoral Christian import. Furthermore, Kinsey in his book claims that the Christian church once considered non-MP sex sinful. Priest conjectures that Kinsey conflated these disparate elements to come up with the missionary position tale, apparently never bothering to compare his faulty recollection against Malinowski’s words.
