Roggeven in 1772 emphasizes that only two or three old women approached the ship, and that no young woman or girl did. Captain Behrens, of the same expedition, indicates that old women dressed in red and white cloths sat in front of them and undressed, that they were cheerful and friendly. He also relates that others signaled them to invite them to approach the houses. Agüera e Infanzón (Mellén Blanco, 1986), officer of the ship “Santa Rosalía”, reports that “they insistently demonstrated what each one could offer a man.” In his opinion they seemed to be the old women, the old midwives, the ones who They always accompany and offer young women. Cook in 1774 observes few women and that they were held inside the houses and in the care of an older man. Surely these observations were influenced by the wishes and fears of Europeans and written with a Western and non-Polynesian lens. The importance of the reproduction of life, of fecundity and sexual symbolism in ancestral Polynesian societies was clear, and its manifestation explicit. These were societies in which relationships were constantly being created from practice; especially sexual practice.

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