Thursday, June 11, 2009

Rites of Passages


Rites of passages are practiced in most cultures in the world today. They are important to every culture. Although the ceremonial rituals and religious beliefs may be different, the fundamental concepts are the same. Rites of passages signify transitional phases in someone’s life mainly during puberty. The rituals processes and manifestations are used as helpful mechanisms to make initiations. They usually occur from births to baptisms and period of confirmations, weddings, etc. These changes or initiations always have strong psychological and social impacts on the individuals. They reinforce personality, cultural values, and religious views. They are marks of social recognitions for manhood and womanhood. In some cultures, these events can generate new experiences, behaviors, and outlooks. They characterize separation, liminality, and incorporation. Giving the historical landmark of Mount Kenya, the term Facing Mount Kenya is used here as a metaphor to explicate all the preparations and anticipations to perform this form of ritual to initiate boys to men or girls to women by circumcision and clitoridectomy. Knowing how much culture binds people and how dear people hold traditional beliefs within their cultures, it is not a surprise to see the majority of even educated Gikuyu men voted to keep their custom regardless of what Scotland missionary church/school decided to do. Setting quietly is another form of rite of passage associated with terrifying words, dance, and other ceremonial illustrations that get boys and girls ready to face their fears as if they were going to fight a monster. But yet, the initiators or parents would show the importance of it and tell about their cultural rewards after the fact. What is punishable, intolerable, and unacceptable by laws and religious beliefs in some cultures are practically and fundamentally normal in others. The Sambian ways of understanding the human anatomical or physical makeup and growth lead them to believe that, in order to mature, grow strong, and know all secrets about women, young boys have to leave home and live with grown men and older boys and involve fellatio. It is a homosexual and child molestation practice where as the younger ones (7-10 years old) would give the much older ones oral sex so they can swallow semen from the oldest that would supposedly make them strong as a mother’s breastmilk does. The man’s semen is also believed to be so nutritiously essential that it would give women strength to endure pain while giving birth to a child. These cultural beliefs and practices can be ambiguous to people of different cultures, but their importance is clearly implied. Whether painful or dangerous, it is apparent that parents are proud to mentally guide and pass on their traditional traits to their offspring. Rites of passages are parts of formal education in all cultures. The training and learning process we go through prepare us for different stages of life. In most western cultures, some of the basic principles about our society are taught in school. Just like in rites of passages in some cultures, our level of education presents who we are in the society.

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