Coming of Age Rituals Essay

A group oriented period, this liminal stage is crucial for the cementation of the collective identity that follow the initiates for the rest of their lives (139). After the circumcision, when the initiates commence seclusion, the mother’s brother usually host a party called an ekehonio. The celebrations that follow circumcision rituals are meant to reinforce and reestablish familial bonds that are an explicit sign of kin and communal relations. As illustrated by an ekehonio at Stephen Wambura’s home, the celebration includes a large feast, the distribution of presents and money, and where male and female initiates embark on a obosamba performance (songs sung by initiates) where they can show their oratory skills and leadership (149). Finally, the social scene also serves the initiates an opportunity to scope out and evaluate potential

Imagine you are dancing all night and you can't show any emotion, you can't show any exhaustion or tiredness. That is what Indian girls of the Apache tribe must go through. In class we have watched a video called “Apache Girl Rites of Passage.” In this video a girl named Dachina goes through a grueling journey to become a women. In addition to that story read a short story called “The Medicine Bag.” In the Medicine Bag a boy named Martin goes through his on struggles and rites of passage from his Lakota family traditions and his struggle of accepting his tribe. In addition to these stories I researched a tribe from Ethiopia called the Hamar tribe. The Hamar tribe has a much more scary rite of passage to become a man which a boy has to jump

Courage means “the ability to do something that frightens one.” Which is what three Native American’s did, but in many different ways, and showed courage to a lot of different things but they are all still related in at least one way.

Another example of how training proved to accompany courage as "the right stuff" is when test pilot Chuck Yeager was flying the rocket-powered NF-104 when the aircraft went into a flat spin and he lost control of it. While the aircraft was plummeting down to Earth from 104,000 feet at 150 per second, Yeager was able to stay calm and run through all the scenarios that he had been trained in, and then some extra attempts to restart the aircraft and save it from destruction instead of

In addition the ceremony is also a milestone in the lives of many young men in the tribe. Each year the boys who have reached the age of manhood voluntarily subject their bodies to four days of fasting, abstinence, and torture as part of preparation to become warriors and respected men within their tribe. The men considered the bravest in the community have subjected themselves to the torturous process many times.

Native American sweat lodge ceremonies are more than just sweating. They are purifying rituals used for many purposes depending on the culture and the occasion. Most sweat lodge ceremonies are used for healing purposes, to give thanks to their spirits or their God, for seeking of wisdom and to clear their mind, body, and soul. According to “aktalakota.stjo.org,” the term sweat lodge means 'to live again’ (Raymond A. Bucko, 1989).

The cultures of each of the many ethnic groups in Africa surround their family, art, music and through some oral literature. There are also very interesting traditions that make Africa’s culture stand out and make it unique in many ways. The following three African traditions are very interesting and fascinating to learn about and can be thought to be very weird as well. The first of the many celebrations and traditions they have is a celebration ceremony known as the “Khweta Ceremony”. In the Khweta Ceremony, the point of it is to prove the manhood of a young boy, by the boy showing endurance and strength. This Khweta Ceremony is practiced in several regions throughout the continent Africa. In the second tradition, the African people have is what they call “Spitting Your Blessings,” this tradition is when members of the village spit as a way of a blessing for what they have or get. And finally, the third cultural tradition is when they get married, each wife has their own house that she and her child live in, the child never lives with the father. Throughout the rest of their culture, the people in the continent only speak a related language to the others but has a different dialect and practice a lot of valuable religious customs and have specific dwellings. The majority of the people living in Africa are indigenous to their region. The indigenous people believe that an aboriginal person's

Humans have come a long way from physical bravery to psychological bravery, but we still value the courage as a

Those ritual practices healed their heart and picked up the broken hope. The ritual process provides a new dimension of understanding the pain and leads people out of the shadow by transferring the pain into strength. During the ritual participation, people feel the pain, make sense of the pain and finally find a way of healing

“ ‘Why do people do rituals, Mama?’... ‘But we don't live in the tribes,’ I countered. ‘Papa should stop doing rituals.’ ”(32). Even at such a young age, Mark realized that the superstitious tribal religions are not appropriate for a city dweller. This small realization

People from all around the world handle death differently. Some countries have different burial customs for religious reasons or respect for their loved ones. The practice of Famadihana highlights both of these things. In southwest Madagascar, native tribes hold an interesting ceremony known as Famadihana in remembrance of their deceased ancestors. Also known as “the turning of the bones”, Famadihana may seem strange to those who do not know its symbolism. Famadihana is celebrated by those who reside in the Malagasy tribes throughout the island of Madagascar (Holloway). Although it first started off as a religious ceremony devoted to African mythology, people of other religions have grown to view it as more of a cultural celebration than a religious ceremony (Spies

Afraid that I would forget how or why my family does certain traditions, I chose this fear to be the exigency to which I would respond. Not only did this project have the purpose to dispel my own fear, but it was also to dispel those

A boy’s rite of passage for becoming a man is called a Mukanda. This begins between the age of ten and twelve and is announced when a masked, garbed creature (or makishi) travels from village to village announcing when an upcoming Mukanda is about to occur ( “Mbunda” 2007 ). The boys usually live three to six months away from home at a bush camp and are taught survival-skills, knowledge about nature, religion, social practices and values ("Mbunda people" 2014).

Native American tribes throughout America had this ritual called “The Papago Ritual”. If parents noticed a boy who wasn't into boyish play or manly work they would put him through the Papago Ritual.

Whether it comes down to proving yourself as a man of the tribe or just as the faith that the elders will keep their blessings upon you for the next harvest, the men of the Sa tribe on the Island of Pentecost really make you test your trust and loyalty to traditions passed down through the years. If there were ever an award for the highest masculinity provided out of one culture, these men should take the grand prize. When relating the Sa tribe’s views and mentalities with Hofstede’s Masculinity charts the Sa men show signs of highly masculine lifestyles rather than low masculinity or high femininity (Hofstede. 299). This is represented by men being the providers and leaving the emotional wellness to the women. Women are also expected to be the caretaker for the children. Men are not only the