Rites of initiation: from circumcision to army hazing. Initiation - what is it What is the name of the rite of passage into adulthood
Concepts of the origin of education
formation of human society.
I. World science offers several concepts of the origin of education.
The traditional ones include:
1. Evolutionary-biological Representatives of this concept Sh.Leturno - fr. sociologist, A. Espinas, J. Simpson brought together the educational activities of people of primitive society with the instinctive care of offspring inherent in higher animals, linked upbringing with a natural desire to procreate, with the so-called natural selection. According to this concept, education appeared and takes place not only in human society, but also in the world of animals and birds, insects.
2. Psychological concept. From the standpoint of this concept (represented by the American scientist P. Monroe), education is also based on instinct, but explains the origin of education by the manifestation in children of an unconscious instinct to imitate adults. With this approach, as in the first concept, the social roots of education are ignored, which are reduced only to the psychological process.
3. Biosocial concept (labor) The authors of the biosocial concept (K. Marx, F. Engels, V. I. Lenin) allowed the existence of education only in human society, understood it as a process of conscious human activity, associated education with the emergence of labor activity.
Many modern researchers, agreeing with the need to take into account, when considering the issue of the origin of education, the continuity between the forms of rational activity in some higher animals and in humans, focus on the qualitatively social characteristics that distinguished human education at its inception in the form of a special type of activity, believe that social the function of education is the deliberate and purposeful transfer of socio-historical experience to the younger generation, in mastering practical labor skills, as well as developed moral standards and behavioral experience.
II. The origin of education in primitive society.
Thousands of years separate us from the time when a man of the modern physical type appeared on Earth. This period (40-35 thousand years ago) also includes the emergence of education as a special type of human activity.
Education originated as both physical, mental and moral-emotional maturation. The upbringing of primitive people looked unsystematic, spontaneous. Its content and methods became more complicated as the social experience and consciousness were enriched. The ancestors of modern people should have a good knowledge of edible plants, terrain, animal habits, be able to hunt, kindle a fire, cook food, make tools, weapons, etc., be strong and hardy. Gradually, the transfer of experience from the elders to the younger ones began to acquire the features of a special type of activity. Speech that arose among primitive people became a powerful means of transferring experience.
World science offers several concepts of the origin of education. The traditional ones include the evolutionary-biological theory (Sh. Letourneau, J. Simpson, A. Espinas) and the psychological theory (P. Monroe). Representatives of the evolutionary-biological theory brought together the educational activities of people of primitive society with the instinctive concern for offspring inherent in higher animals. P. Monroe explained the origin of education by the manifestation in children of an unconscious instinct to imitate adults. Similar in both theories is the assertion that primitive education arose as a gradual adaptation of children to the existing order of things.
The period (40-35 thousand years ago) also includes the emergence of education as a special type of human activity. The life and upbringing of primitive man looked very primitive. The meaning of the existence of human ancestors was predetermined by his worldview. The spontaneously arisen goals of education were to prepare for the simplest existence. Education originated as both physical, mental and moral-emotional maturation. The upbringing of human ancestors and primitive people looked unsystematic, spontaneous. At first, education was not a special kind of activity and was reduced to the transfer of life experience. In this form, education arose in the era of the separation of man from the animal world, i.e. 2-3 million years ago.
The separation of man from the animal kingdom was accompanied by a gradual transition to the conscious transfer of the experience of gathering and hunting. Their speech became a powerful means of conveying the experience of gathering and hunting. Education as the transfer of experience from generation to generation began to acquire the features of a special type of activity. First of all, it was part of the daily struggle for survival.
The need to maintain and improve such connections through the transfer of experience from person to person, from generation to generation, prompted the development of education as a specific kind of activity. Education arose from the need of people for communication and turned out to be closely connected with the evolution of forms of primitive labor. The manufacture and use of tools were indispensable conditions for the existence of the ancients. For this, the transfer of relevant experience was necessary. Without the help of older children, they could not master such an experience. Therefore, the role of adults in organizing the education of children inevitably increased as the tools of labor and labor itself became more complex.
Thus, primitive education was collective in nature and prepared everyone equally for everyday life.
The emergence of the family. Raising children in the family
In the 9th-8th millennium BC. e. in a number of regions of the world, in particular, Asia Minor, Western and Central Asia, there is a social and property stratification of primitive society. The family becomes the main social unit. From a universal, equal, community-controlled upbringing, it turns into a class-family one. Children were brought up, first of all, by the example of their parents. In the families of the elite, the period of childhood increases and, accordingly, the educational impact on the rising generation increases. Children, according to their parents, by imitation perceived the experience and information of their predecessors. This experience was judged as mystery and magic. That is why actions related to education were given a magical meaning.
The emergence of organized forms of education
People of the primitive era used certain didactic techniques in the transfer of experience. Techniques were developed under the influence of living conditions, and therefore the initial forms and methods of education were of a primitive, unconscious nature. The children were shown what to do and how: how to use a stick, dress the skin of a dead animal, find and collect edible plants, etc. The main method of emotional and psychological influence of adults was mechanical repetition. Time passed, and a person from adapting to nature more and more often switched to influencing the world around him. The beginnings of organized forms of education appear. Gradually, it is concentrated in the hands of persons specially appointed for this purpose.
In primitive communities of hunters and gatherers, the period of childhood and upbringing was very short and was limited to the age of 9 to 11 years. The youngest boys and girls were placed under the care of women, who taught them their first labor skills. During this period, children spent a lot of time in games, imitating the life of adults. The elders and clergy ensured that the children did not violate the prohibitions established by the community. Growing up, the boys spent more and more time with men, joining in hunting, fishing, etc. Women taught teenage girls about housekeeping.
In the early primitive era, the impact of education was minimal. Small members of the community were given considerable freedom in behavior. The punishments were not severe. In the future, the situation changes. The stratification of the community and the growth of social antagonisms have toughened upbringing. Physical punishment was often used.
The collective tradition of education at the end of the primitive communal period led to the emergence of original youth houses for children and adolescents. In fact, these were the forerunners of schools organized to educate a social person, teaching him certain labor skills, abilities, rituals. Joint games and activities remained the main form of education.
Under the conditions of matriarchy, up to the age of 7–8, boys and girls were brought up together under the guidance of women; at an older age - separately. Under the patriarchal-clan system, the houses of the youth become separate. The upbringing of boys completely passes to the elders and priests. There are separate youth houses for the poor and wealthy members of the community.
All adolescents of both sexes who reached the age of 10-15 underwent initiation - the procedure of initiation into adults. The initiation was carried out in the form of a religious ceremony, and was accompanied by traditional chants, ritual dances, magic spells. The initiation preparation program for boys included the acquisition of knowledge and practical skills necessary for a hunter, farmer, warrior, etc., the program for girls included the acquisition of housekeeping skills.
Education in a primitive society. At the first stage of the development of primitive society - in the prenatal society - people appropriated the finished products of nature and were engaged in hunting. The process of obtaining a livelihood was in its own way simple and at the same time laborious. Hunting for large animals, hard struggle with nature could be carried out only in the conditions of collective forms of life, labor and consumption. Everything was common, there were no social differences between the members of the team.
Social relations in primitive society coincide with those of consanguinity. The division of labor and social functions in it was based on natural biological foundations, as a result of which there was a division of labor between men and women, as well as an age division of the social team.
The prenatal society was divided into three age groups: children and adolescents; full and full participants in life and work; elderly people and old people who no longer have the physical strength to fully participate in common life (at further stages in the development of the primitive communal system, the number of age groups increases).
A born person first fell into the general group of those growing up and aging, where he grew in communication with peers and old people, wiser by experience. It is interesting that the Latin word educare literally means “pull out”, in a broader figurative meaning “to grow”, respectively, the Russian “education” has its root “nourish”, its synonym is “feed”, from where “feeding”; in ancient Russian writing, the words "education" and "nursing" are synonyms.
Having entered the appropriate biological age and having received some communication experience, work skills, knowledge of the rules of life, customs and rituals, a person moved to the next age group. Over time, this transition began to be accompanied by so-called initiations, “initiations”, i.e. tests during which the preparation of young people for life was tested: the ability to endure hardships, pain, show courage, endurance.
Relations between members of one age group and relations with members of another group were regulated by unwritten, loosely performed customs and traditions that reinforced the emerging social norms.
In the prenatal society, one of driving forces human development, there are also biological mechanisms of natural selection and adaptation to the environment. But as society develops, the social laws that take shape in it begin to play an increasingly important role, gradually taking the dominant place.
In a primitive society, the child was brought up and trained in the course of his life, participation in the affairs of adults, in everyday communication with them. He was not so much preparing for life, as it became later, as he was directly involved in the activities available to him, together with his elders and under their guidance he was accustomed to collective work and life. Everything in this society was collective. Children also belonged to the whole family, first maternal, then paternal. In work and everyday communication with adults, children and adolescents learned the necessary life skills and labor skills, got acquainted with customs, learned to perform the rituals that accompanied the life of primitive people, and all their duties, completely subordinate themselves to the interests of the family, the requirements of the elders.
Boys participated together with adult men in hunting and fishing, in the manufacture of weapons; girls, under the guidance of women, harvested and cultivated crops, cooked food, made dishes and clothes.
At the last stages of the development of matriarchy, the first institutions for the life and upbringing of the growing people appeared - youth houses, separate for boys and girls, where, under the guidance of the elders of the family, they prepared for life, work, "initiations".
At the stage of the patriarchal tribal community, cattle breeding, agriculture, and handicrafts appeared. In connection with the development of the productive forces and the expansion of people's labor experience, upbringing became more complicated, which acquired a more versatile and planned character. Children were taught to care for animals, farming, crafts. When the need arose for a more organized upbringing, the tribal community entrusted the upbringing of the younger generation to the most experienced people. Along with arming children with labor skills and abilities, they introduced them to the rules of the emerging religious cult, legends, and taught them to write. Tales, games and dances, music and songs, all folk oral art played a huge role in the education of morals, behavior, certain character traits.
As a result of further development, the tribal community became a "self-governing, armed organization" (F. Engels). The rudiments of military education appeared: the boys learned to shoot from a bow, use a spear, ride a horse, etc. A clear internal organization appeared in the age groups, leaders stood out, the program of “initiations” became more complicated, for which specially selected elders of the clan prepared the youth. More attention was paid to the assimilation of the rudiments of knowledge, and with the advent of writing and writing.
The implementation of education by special people singled out by the tribal community, the expansion and complication of its content and the test program with which it ended - all this testified to the fact that under the conditions of the tribal system, education began to stand out as a special form of social activity.
Education in the period of decomposition of primitive society. With the advent of private property, slavery and the monogamous family, the decay of primitive society began. There was an individual marriage. The family has become one of the most important social phenomena, the main economic unit of society; the functions of raising children have been transferred to it from the tribal community. Family education has become a mass form of education. But “youth houses” continued to exist, and schools began to emerge.
The emerging dominant groups of the population (priests, leaders, elders) sought to separate mental education from training in occupations that require physical labor. Ruling groups have concentrated the rudiments of knowledge (measuring fields, predicting floods of rivers, methods of treating people, etc.) in their hands, making them their privilege. To teach this knowledge, special institutions were created - schools that were used to strengthen the power of leaders, priests, and elders. So, in ancient Mexico, the children of noble people were freed from physical labor, studied in a special room and studied such sciences that were not known to children. ordinary people(eg, pictographic writing, stargazing, area calculations). It elevated them above the rest.
Physical labor became the lot of the exploited. In their families, children were early accustomed to work, parents passed on their experience to them. Organized education of children, carried out in schools, became more and more the lot of the elite.
They talk a lot about the child, but they don't talk to him. Françoise Dolto
If your child is arrogant and self-confident, but doubts himself all the time, ruthless, but good-natured, greedy, but disinterested, trusting and at the same time cunning, stupid and brilliant at the same time, then you have a completely normal child. And, most likely, he entered a difficult adolescence.
In the life of every child there comes a critical moment when it changes dramatically. Changes occur not only in the body and appearance, but also in behavior, reactions to the people around him, to society, actions, feelings and thoughts are radically changing. These few years of strained relationships bring a lot of anxiety - both to parents and to a teenager. Usually this age will coincide with the time when the family has entered a period of stability, and this stability has become so familiar to parents that any attempt by a child to destroy a stable world and parental ideas about their beloved child becomes so terrifying that parents involuntarily allow a number of, sometimes fatal , errors.
For the sake of fairness, it is important to admit that by this age the grown-up child is also slightly “disappointed” with his parents: their authority is no longer so obvious, their views seem outdated and out of date to him, their tastes are terrifying, and in general, it turns out that the “ancestors” know how to lie, pretend to play up, which means they can no longer be "ideal parents" - infallible and competent in everything, as it was before.
And how not to lose contact with the child during this period?
Our wise ancestors turned this into a kind of ritual in order to accurately define and separate this stage, to be able to conduct a dialogue with a teenager as with an adult, to give him the opportunity to officially enter adulthood. We are talking about initiation as a rite that marks the transition of an individual to a new stage of development within his social group.
In the cultures of almost all peoples of the world, this complex rite is present, which, depending on the level of development of society, looks either very primitive or extremely complicated, but always has one task - the task of transferring a child to the world of adults. In Judaism, this is Bar Mitzvah, in India - Upanayama, among the ancient Slavs - the cult of the wolf, among Catholics - confirmation. IN modern world initiation rites are largely blurred, and therefore many modern teenagers, demanding separation from their parents and transition to the adult world, are looking for their own ways and creating new rites. If we take the cultural rites of initiation, for example in Africa, preserved in some tribes to this day, it is known that they all have a traditional script. The task of initiation is always the same - the child, as a result of peculiar manipulations with his body and consciousness, leaves the world of childhood and becomes an adult.
What is important in this ritual?
It is understood that the child and adult are completely different people, in this the ideas of primitive tribes in the most distant corners of the world converge. And therefore it is believed that one person - a child - dies so that a new person is born - an adult. When the elders of the tribe decide that it is time for the young man to go through initiation, he is taken away from his usual dwelling - a hut or tent. Women, according to a scenario worked out for centuries, resist this: they scream, cry, try to recapture the young man from the men. And only the young man himself seems to be deprived of the ability to speak and move: he is carried away, laid on crossed spears. His body is painted with red ocher - this is always done during the funeral rite. In the camp, women groan and cry, and the young man remains in the circle of men. He behaves like a dead man: he does not answer questions, he tolerates any ridicule and bullying, no matter how much he is pinched, pricked or teased. Then follows the experience of rebirth, a new birth, the birth of oneself in a different capacity in another body. The initiates are given new names, they are taught new secret words, a language, sometimes they are taught to walk again or at first they are fed as little ones, i.e. mimic the behavior of newborns.
Symbolically, this is due to the fact that in the child his childish part dies, he passes into the world of adults, where there is no place for children's emotional reactions, where he must be persistent and where adult consciousness must wake up. This, in fact, is the goal of adolescence - the awakening of adult consciousness, the rejection of simple childish instincts, unbridled desires, the ability to regulate their emotions.
In adolescence, the self-regulation necessary for an adult appears, and ritual things serve to cultivate self-regulatory processes, to be recognized by society. The essence of initiation among the ancient tribes was that upon reaching the age of initiation, all the girls and boys of the tribe were taken from their families. The boys were taken to a remote place in the forest, jungle or wilderness and collected in groups under the guidance of a special mentor. There they lived in a special hut, they were forbidden to communicate with anyone, to engage in their usual activities until the end of the ceremony.
The girls also had their own ritual. They were taken away from the family and placed in a secluded part of the house, where no one communicated with them. Then these girls were gathered into groups under the guidance of an experienced old woman. She taught them women's sacred crafts and sciences (weaving, weaving, knitting, childbearing), devoted them to the cult of fertility, taught the art of carnal love. As a result, the girl (or rather, already a girl) received a female identity, became an adult, and therefore ready for her main purpose - the birth of children.
In most civilized societies, only a semblance of initiations has now been preserved, which often has lost its deep meaning and structure. Examples are: admission to scouts, pioneers, Komsomol, some religious rites, pioneer camps, trips where children settle in small detachments and, in natural conditions, cook their own food, wash their clothes, and learn to live independently.
Parents note that children come from such camps differently - matured, changed, because they had something new, their own, not connected with the parental world. Symbolically, it really looks like an initiation rite - the mother stays at home, and the adult world attracts, pulls the child along with it. It is more difficult for children who have little such experience in their lives to grow up and manage their own destiny, they seem to remain in a tent with their mother and do not grow up, do not become adults.
Unfortunately, many parents underestimate the significance of such a "separation" from parental control, which can subsequently result in completely opposite scenarios. According to one, the child will still "take his own" - sooner or later he will join a company where he will be understood, approved, accepted as he is. Unfortunately, this may turn out to be a company of a clearly asocial or even criminal nature, although it may well be an interest group, for example, a sports team, a rock band, a club for something lovers ...
According to another scenario, “growing up”, due to the fault of the parents, can be postponed indefinitely, which results in infantility, the inability of a teenager to make decisions on his own, for example, where to study, what to do in life, with whom to live. Such an “eternal child” who has grown up bodily, but not psychologically mature, can live with his parents for decades, not wanting to arrange his career and personal life, accepting the position of a child as the most convenient. It happens that growing up still comes with a noticeable delay, and then we meet a 30-year-old “teenager” who wants to “be weird” and taste life when he already has a family, and society requires him to behave responsibly. The life of the people around him becomes unbearable - he, as a rule, tends to destroy his usual way of life, family, unreasonably change work and lifestyle, get involved in dangerous sports.
Of course, there are many more ways of initiation in the world that rather scare parents - the first cigarette, the first alcohol, the first sex, the first fight. Many teenagers also resort to bodily changes: they secretly get tattoos from their parents, pierce different parts of the body - they pierce their nose, ears, navel, make themselves scars. Modern "rites of initiation" can be not only complex and intricate, but also dangerous.
The risk arises when a teenager does not feel threatened, especially if the parents are too protective of him. In this case, the feeling that there are no dangers in the world becomes real, and the child does not perceive the danger. Sometimes he must be frightened and must experience frustration in order to understand that life is valuable, and you need to measure your capabilities with the real state of things. Yes, it is important for a child to try something new, unusual, and it is important that this is exactly what parents forbid to do.
To overcome the ban means to take responsibility for this act upon yourself, for the first time to try to be independent, adult, competent. It is important to feel in time when the child is able to answer for himself and delegate such an opportunity to him. If parents have too many prohibitions, it is difficult for a child to know what he really thinks about this. Sometimes it is appropriate to experiment, because if there is a feeling that the child needs more strict prohibitions, it may be worth imposing them, because the child seems to be asking for them himself. Growing up can often go through a negative experience, where there is an internal choice, and the parent needs to understand that the child is already able to separate "good" from "bad", because he had already explained all this to his baby before. Now he is ripe to apply the parental experience that has become his experience.
The child will always start from the parental norm, as from a certain standard of behavior, and no one has ever forbidden you to instill in your child the principles of correct behavior, however, as well as setting a personal example. Therefore, it is important not to be too great friends with a teenager in order to keep his secret - do not smoke or drink with children at the same table, do not swear with them, but in a difficult period, you still need to be nearby, somewhere nearby, so that in a difficult situation, the child was not afraid to turn to his parents for help, was not rejected by the closest people. You can not leave a teenager alone with himself, with his thoughts, fears, doubts, he should be helped to join a conformal group, where he can gain authority, join new concepts.
Such a group can also be a psychological support group for teenagers, where a child can find friends with similar problems and understand that what is happening to him is a normal course of time. It can also be useful to communicate with a psychologist, psychotherapist, psychoanalyst who can explain to the child what is happening to him and how to cope with the difficulties that have arisen.
You should not be too strict parents, you should not persecute the child, follow him, stoop to insults and harsh criticism, you should not blame him for becoming an alcoholic, a prostitute, a drug addict, ruining his life. These terrible accusations traumatize the teenager and to some extent predict the future. Therefore, the parental task is to independently cope with their fears and not hang their anxiety on a teenager, not predict the bad, but note that this is just an experience. And if a child has no experience, it's really bad for him.
The second variant of parental attitude is a comprehensive acceptance of any manifestations, which is also not entirely good: after all, if there are no prohibitions, this significantly slows down the psychological growth of a teenager. Adolescence is given to the child for experience, and for parents - for patience.
Initiation is part of a historical ritual, and whether we are ready as parents or not, there will come a time when children will still begin to enter into this search, and it is necessary to consciously accept this process of your child’s personal journey of growing up.
The eternal logical error "after - means due to" had a huge impact on the formation of any civilization. When you do not know the laws by which your universe exists, you are forced to guess everything yourself, by trial and error. If yesterday you managed to kill an earth rat after you urinated to the east, always urinate to the east. And in no case - to the west, because the last time you did this, you were bitten painfully by a vulture. A person has always paranoidly suspected that nothing in this world exists just like that, everything is connected by invisible but powerful connections, invisible terrible forces are watching you from the bushes, and the flight of cranes across the sky and planets across the Galaxy is regulated by the zeal with which you follow the rules - for example, don't eat turnips after six.
Ideally, there is only one absolutely correct way to live, sleep, yawn, marry and kill water rats, and deviation from the ritual is the road to chaos and destruction. Ethnographers who have observed the life of very savage tribes have always noted with amazement that, despite the seeming absolute freedom to Europeans (no tailcoats, no marriages, no books on etiquette), savages often lead an extremely monotonous life, subject to many taboos and restrictions.
But there is a category of the population to which this did not apply. Children. A child, especially a boy, is completely free in a primitive society - simply because there are many children, they are unreasonable and you cannot keep track of everyone. At best, they can somehow be persuaded not to tease the crocodiles, but expecting them to follow the ritual is a utopia. Therefore, in absolutely all cultures, a tradition has arisen of the initiation of children when they reach the age at which they already have to comply with the rules and traditions, as well as be responsible for their actions. Before initiation, the child wears special children's hairstyles or clothes (or does not wear any), he is actually not considered a person, therefore his ritual sins do not fall on the head of the entire tribe, those around him are condescending to his unreason. In order for the Little Serpent, this thief of other people's cakes, to become a being responsible for his actions, he will have to be born again, this time for real. And there is a suspicion that he will not like it, ha!
In fact, there have always been several stages of initiation. Traditionally, ethnographers distinguish four main ones.
Birth initiation
It is clear that this piece of squeaking meat, just pulled out from the devil knows where, can bring a lot of trouble to the tribe. He is not a member of our flock, he is not protected by the Great Toad, because she is unfamiliar with him, and he came from the world of darkness and spirits, being himself still an evil spirit and probably taking with him a lot of evil spirits to our good world for company. That is why in the era of infanticide (which lasted until about the 6th century BC), the first-born of young mothers were so often killed: it was believed that they were evil spirits of great power, since they managed to break into reality along the road that had not yet been traveled first. Also extermination in different eras in different nations twins, albinos and infants born with teeth were subject, not to mention children with severe malformations of intrauterine development.
So the child had to be ritually cleansed, but for now it is simply dangerous for people, except for specially trained shamans, to approach these tiny receptacles of evil. The tradition still preserved in our regions not to show a very small child (even his photographs) to strangers is caused not by the fact that the child can be jinxed, but by the fact that initially the baby was magically dangerous to others.
They washed the baby, cast spells over him, expelled evil power from him (yes, the rite of baptism did not fall to us from the moon either). In many traditions, it was considered necessary to inflict a bleeding wound on him so that the spirit had somewhere to go. In some cultures, this has evolved into circumcision of newborns, in other cultures, infants were inflicted shallow wounds on the forehead, chest or palms. In those tribes that understood the role of fatherhood, rituals were also performed to confirm the connection between the father and the newborn. For example, according to J. Fraser, the North Indians had a ritual when the father imitated childbirth and the baby was dragged between his legs. There was also a beautiful custom in India: children were ritually born with the help of a yoni statue - a wooden image of a huge vagina.
childhood initiation
The second initiation, also found in many cultures, is the latest of all. This is a ritual associated with the transition from infancy to childhood and is absent from the most primitive peoples. Usually such a ritual is performed at the age of 3–5 years, when the child is recognized (in various variations): completely weaned; able to wear long shirts or panties - like a being who already knows how to control his natural needs; ready to eat any adult food; suitable to start learning. Here, too, spells are read, an adult or pre-adult name is given to the child, clothes that were previously forbidden are solemnly put on him, the first lines of sacred books are read out for him, or somehow they help to fulfill some ritual norm. For example, to light or extinguish the fires on the altar*, to shoot from a bow, to accept a brush and an ink pot from the father's hands - there are many traditions. In general, this is a late norm, which immediately became more of a family holiday than a true ritual.
Marriage initiation
Sometimes the third stage of initiation was combined with the fourth, but more often permission to marry required separate feats and rituals. All these tales, in which the hand of the princess is promised to daredevils who are ready to gallop over glass mountains and slay dragons, are borrowed from initiatory marriage rites. In Africa, for example, it was possible to get the right to marry only by getting the skin of a leopard. Among the Blackfeet Indians, only murderers could marry - those who had at least one damned crow or a vile pale-face behind them. Somewhere the right to marry was won by clever theft, fisticuffs or running competitions; somewhere it was required to possess a certain amount of property. Control over the number and quality of the population has never been dormant.
Warrior initiation
But this is already serious. It was this type of initiation that was intended to make a man out of a boy. The rite pursued several goals at the same time: the removal of a young man from the society of women and his transition to men; teaching the youth all the ritual duties of a man; testing his courage, self-control and patience - important qualities for a warrior; decrease in his sexual desires, slowing down involvement in adult sexual life.
In all countries of the world, the concept of masculinity has its own meaning, and the inhabitants of different countries themselves determine when a boy can be considered a man. In a modern civilized society, in order to become a man, you need to enter sexual maturity, start a family, gain status in society. But in various tribes, in order to be considered a real man, you often need to go through terrible rites of initiation, including pain and humiliation. And only after that the boy can rightfully bear the title of a real man.
Oddly enough, but it was the fourth goal that was perhaps the most important. It is possible to make bows in front of the graves of ancestors and throw spears at cows without any special external influences. But a youth in the midst of puberty was a headache for any community. Romeos, ready to give their lives at ease for a night with the leader's wife or the daughter of a priestess, juvenile rapists of virgins or no less juvenile fathers of many children were the last thing that was required for a comfortable life in society. Therefore, very often initiatory trials led to the fact that the young man was forced to give up any sexual life for a long time. On Egyptian frescoes, we see how thirteen-year-old "men" are circumcised for profit. The inhabitants of Kalimantan sewed fish bones into their penis for their teenagers, the Africans of some tribes practiced stretching the penis, tying stone discs to the long-suffering organ. Scarification, tattooing, rubbing the penis with caustic compounds - these are the mandatory stages of growing up in many cultures. (Note that the initiation of girls was often no less traumatic, and the consequences of some rituals are simply monstrous. A large part of Egyptian female mummies have infibulation - a type of female circumcision, in which the clitoris and labia were removed, and the rest was tightly sewn up, leaving only a small hole for any During the wedding night, the husband had to make an incision with a knife in order to fulfill his conjugal duty, and during childbirth, the incision was widened and re-sutured.By the way, in 29 countries of the world this type of circumcision is still practiced - for example, in Sudan, Indonesia, Somalia .)
In addition to mockery of penises, the menu also included lengthy fasts, ritual beatings and mutilations, cutting off the phalanges of the little fingers on the hands, tearing the ears and nostrils, knocking out teeth ... In general, say thank you that the "grandfathers" during your military service were not familiar with the works of such ethnographers as Arnold van Gennep and René Guenon, otherwise they could draw a lot of interesting ideas from the material collected by scientists. On the other hand, we also know less bloody rites in more advanced civilizations. In China, Korea and Japan, for example, they limited themselves to fasting, prayers and a thorough written examination for boys from middle and high society. Although there is reason to believe that many applicants for the title of “shutsai”, swollen from scrolls and wisdom, would prefer to have a fish bone inserted into their penis without any fuss. Yes, and our martyrs of the Unified State Examination, perhaps, would not have refused.
Below are some more interesting initiation rituals that have existed (and in some cases still exist) around the world.
Each Indian tribe had its own unique male initiation ritual. But the most impressive was, perhaps, the Mandan ritual. Before the ceremony, the boy fasted for 3 days to cleanse his body. Then, on the day of the ritual, the tribal elders would pierce the muscles of the boy's chest, shoulder, and back with large wooden needles. Then, with the help of hooks and ropes hanging from the roof of the hut, the young man was suspended in the air. Despite the pain, the guy shouldn't have screamed. While he hung in the air, several more spokes were hammered into his arms and legs. At their ends were placed the skulls of his dead grandfathers and other ancestors.
Ultimately, the young man passed out from blood loss and pain. After making sure that he was unconscious, the elders lowered him down and removed the ropes. The needles, however, remained in place. When the young man regained consciousness, he offered the elders a sacrifice - his left little finger. He put his finger on the deck and quickly lost it. It was a gift to the gods to help him become a good hunter. Then the guy ran inside the ring formed by fellow tribesmen. They grabbed the needles threaded through the body and pulled them. But it was not allowed to pull them out from the side from which they were driven in. It was necessary to pull only from the back side, which caused the young man even more pain. Thus ended the ceremony, which lasted all day, and the boy became a man.
In the Algonquin tribe, it was believed that childhood was just an obstacle to becoming a real man. For this reason, they performed initiation rites aimed at completely erasing the childhood memory of the boys.
The ceremony went as follows. Young members of the tribe from 14 to 21 days were kept in special cages, and they could not eat anything except a very powerful hallucinogen - visokkan. It not only leads to memory loss, but also causes other side effects - loss of speech, rapid heartbeat, severe hallucinations, aggression, inability to move, weakness, and even death. After two or three weeks, the young initiates were released from their cages and questioned. If they completely forgot their childhood, then they went through the ritual and are now considered real men. If they still have at least some memories, then the cruel ritual will have to go through again.
Each generation of the Karo tribe goes through an initiation ritual - men must jump over a row of bulls in what their mother gave birth to. Literally. Sounds like something simple and fun? Not really. The solemn ceremony has a truly terrible subtext: if a man is biologically already fully grown, then among the Karo he is considered a boy until the ceremony is over.
The ceremony begins with the fact that the young girls of the tribe begin to jump at the same time. Usually these are relatives or good friends of a guy who is about to be initiated into a man. Their metal ornaments chime rhythmically. The girls jump towards the "mazha" - men who have already gone through the rite of passage - and hand them a freshly cut rod. With this rod, the men will whip the girls on the back, and they will continue to jump until blood appears. Scars will subsequently mean that women have endured pain for the sake of a guy and his initiation into men.
After the ceremonial flogging, the tribe stands around the herd. The air is shaking with singing. The four largest bulls line up side by side. The ceremony is considered valid only if the bulls are castrated. The initiate guy, who is naked except for a few ropes around his chest, is led to the animals. The young man must jump on the first bull, run over the backs of all the animals and jump off. Then you need to do the same in the opposite direction. In total, you need to run 3 times. As soon as he does this, a loud cry is heard, and the boy becomes "mazha", that is, a man.
Karo babies born to non-ritualized fathers are considered illegitimate, and according to Karo law, illegitimate children have no right to live. The tradition of killing illegitimate babies is called mingi - mothers themselves stuff the mouths of their children with earth and leave them to die in the desert.
In the Philippines, circumcision is an important event. Statistics from 2011 showed that about 93% of Filipino men are circumcised. Interestingly, boys are not given it in infancy, but at about 12 years old, and Filipino teenagers can only be considered male if they are already circumcised.
And if this did not happen, society considers them cowards and weaklings. And in order to save themselves from constant ridicule and bullying, Filipino boys themselves ask their parents to cut them off.
In the Philippines, there are two types of circumcision: modern medical and traditional. In the traditional method, anesthesia is not used - instead, the boys chew guava leaves, as it is believed that this reduces the pain of the operation. Instead of a knife, a piece of wood called a subokan is used for this painful procedure. After circumcision of the foreskin, the penis is wrapped with a white cloth.
The Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania have a number of rites of initiation of boys into men. Every 10-15 years, a new generation of warriors is initiated. Boys from all over the country between the ages of 10 and 20 come together. Special houses are built to serve as a place of initiation. The night before the ceremony, the boys sleep in the forest under the open sky. At dawn, they return to a small makeshift homestead and spend one day singing and dancing there. They drink a mixture of milk, bovine blood and alcohol and eat piles of meat. After the celebrations, boys aged 12-16 are circumcised.
Circumcision ("emorat") is part of the "emuratare" - the most important ceremony in the life of a Maasai boy. It is only after circumcision that the tribe considers him a man, a warrior and protector of his village. As the young man makes his way to the place where the elders will perform the circumcision, friends and family tease him by saying things like, "If you falter, we will disown you." The Maasai value courage in their warriors, and circumcision is the first way to prove one's courage, even in the face of great pain. The wound heals for about 3 months, during which time the young men wear black clothes and live in huts built by the women of the village. Now the Maasai boy has become a warrior.
For the next 10 years, the young men live together in manyata - military camps. There they learn martial and oratory, as well as animal husbandry. After 10 years, young people take part in the coming-of-age ceremony "eunoto", which marks the transition to the status of senior warriors. After a Maasai has gone through "eunoto", he can get married. The ceremony is basically a few days of celebration and ends with the initiate's mother shaving off his hair.
Maasai boys must go hunting lions with clubs and shields. In the past, they had to hunt alone, but since there are few lions left, the tradition has been changed, and now maturing Maasai hunt in groups. Lion hunting is very dangerous. It is because of this danger that she is considered a worthy ritual of initiation into men. When Maasai boys hunt lions, they demonstrate the quality that, according to the Maasai, only real men possess - courage.
The matis ritual for gaining masculinity consists of four extremely painful stages. At the first stage, poison is injected into the eyes of young initiates: the matis believe that this improves their boys' eyesight. In the second and third stages, the boys are subjected to severe physical pain - repeatedly beaten and whipped.
In the last stage, the boys ingest a poison called kampo, which is extracted from tree frogs. Campo is not a hallucinogen, although it can cause strange mental reactions. But the physiological effects of it abound - vomiting, dizziness and uncontrolled bowel movements. The Matis tribe firmly believes that campo increases the stamina and strength of boys, turning them into real men and hunters.
Charles P. Mountford in 1947 made a journey through the desert regions of Central Australia, where the Australians preserved ancient customs inviolably. Here's what he says.
Australian children are surrounded by universal attention, affection and care. But then comes youth. And then the boy's carefree life suddenly ends.
Even the women closest to him: grandmother, mother, sister - suddenly pounce on him and, threatening with flaming torches, drive him out of the common habitat (parking lot, camp). From this time until the end of the rite of circumcision - for about a year - the young man is treated as an outcast. He now sleeps at some distance from the parking lot, never approaches women and does not talk to them. Nor does he speak to the old men until they themselves call him. Answering the old people, the young man is obliged to speak only in a whisper.
The life of an exile goes like this: during the day he is among men, and at night he sleeps by his small fire outside the tribal camp. And then, finally, the day comes when the old men grab the young man and, under the lamentations of women, the cries and stomp of men who have already passed initiation, lead him to a secluded place. Here the closest relatives of the young man - adult men - open the veins on their hands and smear the body of the young man with blood. The long rite of initiation aims to teach the young Australian the laws of the clan and tribe and give him a religious and moral consciousness.
In this case, everything is used that can lead to the achievement of the desired result: a test of hunger and pain to strengthen the strength of the spirit, an atmosphere of incomprehensible mystery.
The young man, lying face down, hears but does not see what is happening around him. Only for a moment let him raise his head and look at this ecstatic spectacle in the light of the wavering flame of the fire. The receptive young man is so captured by amazing impressions that this picture remains in his memory for the rest of his life. The first rite of initiation, which includes circumcision, is the most important step for a young Australian on the path to maturity.
After circumcision, the young man is given a distinctive bandage on his head, which testifies to his social growth, and now he can only be seen among old men-mentors and guards. He is obliged to avoid women and not to look at them. His new name is now vangarapa - "hiding boy". Together with the elderly, he makes long and difficult journeys, getting acquainted with the life of other friendly tribes.
The next initiation rite is associated with the cutting of the penis (a longitudinal incision at the base of the penis - Ed.); this rite symbolizes that the young man has become a full-fledged man. Now he can marry if his betrothed is old enough. He may take part in the council of a tribe or clan. Pruning is the most difficult and painful of all trials and signifies the transition of the initiated into full members of society.
To this it must be added that not all young men are able to endure all the hardships and tortures they undergo during initiation: some die from torture and hardship. This is probably why the young men undergoing initiation are in a position of deep isolation, women and children are strictly forbidden to even approach the area where the camp of the initiates is located, so that they cannot see the tortured and hear their groans and cries.
The extreme cruelty of the initiatory rites undoubtedly contributed, on the one hand, to the elimination and elimination of the weak in body and, most importantly, the weak in spirit, and on the other hand, cultivated, encouraged and passed on the high qualities of courage, stamina, modesty.
(Matyushin G.N., At the cradle of history. M., Enlightenment, 1972, pp. 191-193.)
I must say, the men of the tribe were lucky that they were not born, for example, on the island of Ponape, which is part of the Caroline Archipelago - the men there not only cut the tip of the penis, but also deprive them of one testicle.
Tribes of Papua New Guinea
There are over 1,000 different cultural groups in the small state of Papua New Guinea.
The Kaningara tribe of Papua New Guinea practice a very unusual ritual that aims to strengthen the spiritual connection between the members of the tribe and their surroundings. One of the ritual ceremonies is held in the "House of the Spirit". Teenagers live in seclusion in the House of the Spirit for two months. After this period of isolation, they prepare for an initiation ceremony that recognizes their transition to adulthood. In the course of the ritual, the person is given skin incisions with bamboo shards. The resulting notches resemble the skin of a crocodile. The people of this tribe believe that crocodiles are the creators of people. The marks on the body symbolize the teeth marks of a crocodile that ate a boy and left a grown man.
The Matausa tribe of Papua New Guinea consider women's blood to be unclean. Matausa are convinced that their boys, in order to become real men, must be cleansed of the filth of their mothers.
The elder begins the ritual of purifying the blood by inserting reed tubes into the throats of young initiates - then they vomit blood. The elders then insert tubes into their nostrils to expel bad blood and mucus from the body. Periodically, the tubes are taken out to be cleaned, and the initiates at this time have time to take a breath of air. Finally, the elders make several cuts in the young people's tongues with an arrow-like instrument. After a painful ceremony, young people become real men in the eyes of the community.
Cleansing the blood of the mathaus is such an important and secret rite of passage that not all members go through it - you still have to prove that you are worthy. Men who have not passed the ritual are not considered adults and cannot enjoy the corresponding privileges - for example, they do not have the right to marry. In addition, they are considered weak members of the tribe, unable to fulfill their masculine duties.
Among them is the Sambia tribe, which, perhaps, has the most insane rite of passage into men in the world. What distinguishes the Sambia tribe from other groups is the second part of their male initiation rite, the drinking of semen.
The Sambia believe that both men and women are born with "tingu". This is the part of the body that makes procreation possible. The tingu of a woman is ready for reproduction after the first menstruation. The male tingu is born shriveled and desiccated, and the only way to correct it is to drink "man's milk", or the semen of other sexually mature males. They believe that by drinking the "masculine essence" of other men, the boys will become strong and courageous. Secluded in the woods with a young, unmarried boy between the ages of 13 and 21, the boy gives him fellatio. In general, boys are advised to drink "male essence" as much as possible in order to become stronger.
Around the age of 13, a young person enters puberty and the next stage of initiation begins. Another nosebleed ritual takes place along with the beatings. The boy is already considered a sexually mature bachelor, and will now provide "man's milk" to boys who have just embarked on the path of manhood.
At the age of about 20, a Sambia man is ready to marry, but before the wedding takes place, the elders of the tribe will teach the young man the secrets of how to protect himself from being "infected" by a woman. For example, during intercourse, a man should stuff mint leaves into his nostrils and chew the bark to mask the smell of his wife's genitals. Moreover, when a man has sex with his wife, penetration should not be too deep, as this will only increase the likelihood of "infection". Finally, after intercourse, a Sambia man must bathe in mud to wash away all the impurities after contact with his wife. Even after marriage, a young man does not spend much time with his wife, and continues to spend it with other men.
After a man marries, he is forbidden to continue to participate in the ceremony. The Sambia believe that women's genitals make men's reproductive organs dirty and their sperm become "impure" so that it is no longer suitable for children who are just about to become adults.
The rite of initiation into a man ends for a guy with the birth of his first child, after which he acquires the full right to be called a man.
Jumping on an elastic vine is a traditional ritual of the South Pacific, which first appeared on the island of Pentecost, the Vanuatu archipelago. Locals build huge wooden towers and jump from plank platforms, tying natural rope around their ankles. The purpose of the jump is to get as close to the ground as possible so that only the head or shoulders barely touch it. An error in calculating the length of the vine can lead to serious injury or death.
Approximately in April-May, villagers build towers from a height of 30 meters from wood. Then there are men who express a desire to measure their height from their own experience. They tie two elastic vines first to the platform at the top of the tower and then to their ankles. Gathering all their courage, the men dive from the platform upside down. During the fall, "divers" develop speeds of more than 70 km per hour.
Such jumps into the ground have almost 15 centuries of history. The purpose of the ritual is twofold. First, it is held as a sacrifice to the gods to ensure a bountiful harvest of sweet potatoes. Secondly, it serves as a rite of passage for the boys of the tribe into men. Boys can attend the ceremony if they are already 5 years old. The ceremony is often preceded by circumcision. Boys start jumping from a low height, and increase it as they grow older. The higher a man rises, the more courageous he is considered by the tribe.
Deep in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon lives the Satere Mawe tribe. To become a male in this tribe, a boy must put his hand into a glove filled with Paraponera ants, also called "bullet ants", and endure their stings for 10 minutes without making a sound.
According to the Schmidt Sting Strength Scale, Paraponera ants have the most painful sting. This is a "throbbing, all-consuming pain" that lasts for 24 hours. The locals call the ant "hormiga veinticuatro" because of this 24-hour pain.
If the bite of one such ant is so painful, then you can imagine the pain that a person experiences when putting his hand into a glove filled with angry ants.
To prepare the glove, the tribesmen put the ants to sleep with some herbal sedative. While the ants are calm, the elders make a torture device by weaving the ants into a glove made from leaves so that the ant's stingers point inward.
When the ants regain consciousness, the boy puts on a glove and for 10 minutes boldly looks into the face of real hell. Due to the large amount of poison obtained during the test, the boy's arm will be paralyzed for some time, and he himself will be shaking for several days.
And this ritual is not carried out in one approach. The boy will have to slip his hand into the ant glove a few more times before he is recognized as a man. Each time during the test, he must behave as quietly as possible. It is a test of masculine endurance and stoicism, which is necessary to be a useful tribal warrior.
Modern civilized initiations
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A rite of initiation in Judaism, meaning that a Jewish boy who has reached the age of 13 becomes religiously of age and assumes all religious duties. The ceremony is performed in the synagogue, usually on Saturday; date of birth is calculated according to the Jewish calendar. The boy is invited to read the last portion of the Torah reading for the day, as well as a passage from the prophetic books. He can give a prepared speech on a given topic, most often devoted to the explanation of the read chapter from the Torah. In the USA, the bar mitzvah and a similar ceremony for girls (at the age of 12), called the bat mitzvah, have become one of the most fun Jewish holidays, dinner parties are arranged on their occasion, and gifts are given to the child. In reformist communities, instead, a solemn ceremony is held to introduce the Jewish boy to the faith of the fathers, although many communities continue to keep the rite of the bar mitzvah. The origin of the Bar Mitzvah is unclear. The first to use the term "bar mitzvah" was Mordechai ben Hillel, a scholar from Germany (13th century), the author of comments on the Talmud.
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Among Catholics and some Protestants, it is required that, having reached a certain age, a person baptized in infancy should already consciously recognize himself as a Christian. Usually, confirmation is carried out in large numbers (for example, for students of Catholic lyceums), but quite private confirmations are also possible. Although the rite is still more often performed with groups of teenagers: only a bishop can conduct it, so organizationally this is a very complex event. The age of confirmants is 13–14 years old. Girls are traditionally dressed in white dresses, boys are stuffed into new costumes, then they confess, receive communion, smear with myrrh, give them prayer books.
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The ritual of putting on an adult hat for a boy (genpuku) and an adult belt for a girl (mogi) in ancient Japan was performed with teenagers 12–16 years old. Today, in this country, both rites are combined into one official public holiday - Coming of Age Day. On the second Monday of January, all young people who turned 20 last year dress in national costumes - kimonos, socks, geta sandals (however, European costumes are also allowed for young men), go outside, listen to the mayor's speech, and pray in the temple , and in the evening comes off in restaurants and karaoke bars, paid partly by parents, partly by the city treasury.
The rite of initiation of couples aged 16–18, which has survived to this day in rural Ukraine. The girls of the village jointly bake a special loaf-kalita and hang it high - from the ceiling or from a pole. The initiate is brought to the gate on a poker with his hands tied behind him, the guy must jump to the gate and bite off a piece of it. It didn't work - shame on him. It turned out - now he is already an adult and can hang out with older guys, as well as take care of girls.
In very Protestant, rural America, balls are common where girls and boys aged 13-16 make a public vow to preserve their virginity until marriage and receive a special ring that they wear until engagement. For obvious reasons, parents are more actively dragging girls to these balls than boys. So in some places the balls have been transformed into the tradition of “betrothal to dad”: the girl promises that her only boyfriend before marriage will be her daddy - it is to him that she will confide all her troubles and grievances, and he will be her faithful knight and friend. Of course, no incest, only spiritual unity.
Expensive proof of loyalty
As society became more complex and human ideas about the nature of things, the importance of rituals faded away. You no longer need to attend the coronation at Westminster Cathedral on your own to be convinced of the queen's legitimacy - just read the newspaper. You already know for sure that the testicles painted white on your wedding night will not help you not to conceive a cannibal demon, let what is conceived be conceived - this is the problem of the institution of general compulsory education where the demon will go. And we no longer decorate the New Year tree with the intestines of a ritual sacrifice, since the return of the sun from the world of winter darkness will certainly take place without it (at least, so they say on TV). Rituals have remained an important part of religious life, but even there their importance is steadily waning.
Nevertheless, rituals and rituals fill our lives - already as a light superstition, a game, a generally accepted formality. Solemnly presenting a guy in a funny hat with a certificate of graduation from school or beating him unconscious with a whip made of hippo skin - this is not a choice for society. Almost not worth it.
There are, however, corners where the cruel laws of initiation still function. Registration in prisons, bullying of newcomers in schools, especially closed ones, the smacking of "spirits" in the army - this is not just disgusting from boredom and brainlessness, but the germination of archaic norms in societies artificially formed according to the archaic principle, the inhabitants of which, for the most part, have not gone too far from primitive tribes.
Army traditions
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Soldiers in the army have their own hierarchy, their own unofficial ranks and promotion career ladder. Growing up to the "grandfather" is not only to rewind the prescribed two years of service, but also to go through a whole series of rites and initiations: after all, even before dismissal, you can still remain a disenfranchised "spirit" if you do not follow the unwritten laws.
The first six months in the army of soldiers - absolutely no one. "Spirit" is incorporeal, "Salaga", "Lace" ... True, successfully passed the "first baptism" can greatly facilitate the life of a recruit. In some parts, this rite is called "candle", in others - "enema". The essence of this test is the same: the fighters who swore allegiance to the Motherland during the day on the parade ground at night in the barracks hold a severe exam. With a pod of red pepper inserted between the buttocks, they should lie quietly all night. To "grandfathers" means not to wake up and not to disturb.
If in the morning the subject demonstrates an unextracted peppercorn and is able to walk, then he is awarded the title of "pepper". If he cannot or, God forbid, tries to feign, then he will remain a "spirit", whose destiny is to wash socks for "grandfathers" and fill other people's beds.
The second rite of initiation awaits the young soldier after six months of service: "grandfathers" solemnly transfer him to the category of "skull". Salaga is placed on a stool in the middle of the barracks or laid face down on the bed. They lower their pants and ... they just hit the soft spot with a soldier's badge. At the end of the ritual, the buttock turns into a solid hematoma with traces of twenty-four stars: the "grandfathers" beat with all their might - a year ago they themselves went through this test. Now the initiate acquires new rights and opportunities. He himself can scare the "spirits" and receives concessions from the elders.
Six months later, the "skull" becomes a "scoop" - in the same manner, but it receives half as many blows, and not with such force. They beat not with a badge, but with a ladle, dragged from the dining room in advance. They say that this tradition came from the fleet: the cook had assistants, whom he beat with a scoop just below the back for various offenses.
Having exchanged a year and a half of service, you become a "grandfather" - a barracks demigod. You can have fun with the young yourself from boredom: after all, the "grandfather" is not burdened with work and service. During the day he can sleep off in the supply room, and at night he can joke. For example, look at the "bicycle": a sleeping soldier is inserted between the toes of matches or pieces of cotton wool and set on fire. The poor fellow jerks his legs in pain, and the "grandfather" laughs: it looks like he is pedaling.
Even "grandfathers" like to "dry the crocodile." This is when the "spirit", catching hands and feet on the back of the bed, hangs over the merry fellow lying below. He can tickle and kick with his foot - the "crocodile" must hold on at all costs. Otherwise, severe punishment awaits him. They can make a "moose" (the recruit puts his hands on his forehead, and the "grandfather" beats him on the "horns"), they can "release a thrush" (they beat him in the chest, sometimes with a foot). Some "grandfathers" force "spirits" to "watch TV". The soldier stands on half-bent legs, holding a stool in his outstretched arms, on which stands a three-liter jar of water. This is the "TV" (you still need to retell what is shown there). "Telecast" is designed for 5-10 minutes, but as a rule, no one can stand more than three. And this is fraught with "moose" or "thrush" ...
There are also peaceful entertainments in the army. Most often they play "demobilization train". All night long, three young soldiers are courting the "grandfather", who is supposedly going home. One shakes the bunk, making the sound of train wheels clattering. The second runs around the bed with a flashlight and a branch, imitating the landscape flickering outside the window. The third plays the role of a conductor: straightens the blanket, fluffs up the pillow, brings tea and cigarettes, sings lullabies. If the "grandfather" is hot, then they fan him with a newspaper, if it's cold, they cover him with a blanket. In the morning, the passenger of the "demobilization train" is greeted with a bouquet of field daisies and with a cheerful song.
Sometimes the "grandfather" awakened by someone's snoring opens the "hunting season". One of the young soldiers is ordered to "kill the tiger". Armed with a pillow, the “hunter” sneaks up to the snorer with all precautions and with a loud cry beats his “weapon” on the head, after which he hides under the bed. A report follows from there: "Comrade "grandfather", "tiger" is killed. Allow me to go to sleep? .. "
In the tank troops, "grandfathers" teach the young to drive "tanks" at night. "Spirits" crawl under the beds with a piece of a tank caterpillar - a truck - and amusingly buzz and rumble like a tank diesel engine. Sometimes they are forced to arrange "shooting" and "frontal attacks": from the outside it looks funny.
In the airborne troops, the game of "wrecked aircraft" is very popular. The "grandfather" lying on the bed of the lower tier is watching the "battlefield", the "airplane" itself is arranged on the upper one. Another recruit "shoots" from a stool at the upper tier: "Ta-ta-ta-ta ...". "Knocked down!" - shouts the "old man" and kicks the net with a mattress over his head. "Airplane" rapidly dives down and, when it hits the floor, loudly shouts: "Bang!" The stool gunner reports: "Comrade "grandfather"! The enemy plane was shot down on your orders. There are no losses among the personnel ..."
In some parts of the "laces" they are forced to work at night as "hairdressers" - to make fashionable hairstyles for lawns. "Hedgehog" must be strictly defined height, say, 2.3 centimeters. The soldiers are armed with rulers, scissors and combs: if you make a mistake, you can get a new task - to clean the parade ground with toothbrushes ...
When 100 days remain before the demobilization order, the final dedication comes: the "grandfather" is transferred to the "demobilization". He is carefully laid on the bed and beaten six times in the causal place ... with a thread. Now, every evening after lights out, one of the young soldiers will climb onto the bedside table and crow from there to the entire barracks: "Demobilization has become a day shorter, good night to all" grandfathers! Soon the "grandfathers" will go home - to an ordinary life without army eccentricities.
(Dmitry Zlenko, Moskovsky Komsomolets)
But there are groups consisting of adults and educated people who also require a very tough initiation upon entry. In part, some monasteries and, say, sectarian communities can be attributed to these, but most fully we see completely bloody initiations in student fraternities and various secret and semi-secret organizations, of which the Masonic ones are the most famous. Here, beatings, bullying, hunger strikes, intimidation, unquestioning obedience to elders are almost an indispensable test for candidates.
Dan Rapoport, who passed through a tough selection of candidates in the elite student fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon, once spoke about how this mechanism works: “Despite the seeming absurdity and cruelty of all these laws, they had a deep meaning. We were given difficulties in order to unite us, so that getting into the brotherhood was perceived as obtained at a high price. So that those who survived these horrors together really become like brothers to each other, like fellow soldiers. For many, these five months turned out to be the only serious test in their prosperous life. There were twelve of us, in the end four were accepted. And these guys have been my best friends for life.”
Rites of initiation have always made the best use of the principle of "expensive proof of loyalty." Teenagers who went through a joint hell of trials turned out to be a more cohesive group, highly appreciated their new status and, most importantly, zealously, rigorously performed all the rituals that were attached to this status. And the Great Toad was pleased, and no one peed to the west.
The formation of personality is a complex and important process, one of the components of which is initiation. Many leading specialists in the field of psychology, studying the institutions of modern youth development, attach great importance to this practice. What is initiation and where this practice is applied can be found in this publication.
Acquaintance with initiation should begin with its definition. This word has Latin roots and in translation from this language initiatio means "initiation" or "accomplishment of the sacrament." This concept refers to a system of rituals characteristic of the tribal community, which are the procedure for the initiate to adopt a new status.
Thus, young boys and girls were previously "transferred" from one age category to another. Through initiation, girls were initiated into women, and boys, respectively, into men.
The purpose of such rituals was to prepare a new generation for social and family life, as well as to production useful activity. Since the preparation provided for individuals for new conditions, each initiation rite was accompanied by training, a kind of test, sometimes more like painful torture, through which girls and boys had to learn the secrets of the tribe (legends, myths). Later, some initiation rituals, due to the loss of their original meaning, began to be used in more early period life of the new generation.
Practice in the real world
In the modern world, the programs for educating and adapting young people to life in society have been greatly shaken under the influence of the crisis. Its adverse effects have particularly affected the formation of personalities and their transition from adolescence to adulthood.
In this regard, at present, we can observe a rapidly increasing number of crimes committed by minors, actively spreading drug addiction and a frightening number of suicide cases among representatives of this age category.
The period of adolescence, already difficult for teenagers, has become even more difficult against the backdrop of the crisis. Therefore, the conditional interval between childhood and adulthood can be safely called a “tipping point” for a developing individual. The alarming symptoms that arise as a result of negative influence from the outside suggest that the real culture and modern civilization do not correspond to the conditions of reality, and therefore cannot provide full assistance to people who are on the way to adulthood.
In this regard, modern scientists and researchers have to turn to the skills and knowledge of previous cultures accumulated over the past centuries for clues on how to solve the problem that has arisen: what methods, experiences or models of society will allow individuals to become full-fledged, regardless of the surrounding conditions?
The way out of this "dead end" is made possible by the results of research in the field of anthropology, psychology, cultural studies, religious studies and other scientific areas. The material obtained in the course of studying past experience provides a wide field of opportunities for making comparisons and drawing new conclusions regarding options for getting out of the current situation.
And the most impressive among the rest is the practice of initiation, initiation into adulthood, among the ancient peoples. In other cultures that existed long before our time, initiation was a kind of "ritual of transition."
A similar rite was held as a confirmation of the accomplishment in the life of an individual of the most important event. Thus, a tradition arose to carry out initiation in honor of the birth of a person, his growing up or marriage, the transition to a more mature age. Even the death of a person was accompanied by an initiation ritual, because ancient cultures did not deny the existence of other worlds.
As can be seen, the rite of initiation symbolizes the transition of a person from a lower level of his own experience to a higher one. The implementation of the rite in this case testifies to the need for society to recognize the right of the individual to change or transformation, i.e. the right to move on to a new stage of personal development. It is quite possible even to compare initiation with an examination, when, thanks to the experience gained, you receive new instructions necessary for the correct activity in a new stage of life.
If we turn to the words of the famous researcher in the field of mythology M. Eliadze, for a young man, initiation meant initiation into three areas of new knowledge at once:
- Revelation of the Holy.
- Revelation of Death.
- Revelation of Sexuality.
Called by one term, "the triple revelation," these areas of practical knowledge are absent from individuals before the onset of adolescence. With his arrival, the initiate could not only recognize and add them to the new structure of his personality, but also become assimilated with their help to the cultural ideal of his tribe.
As a rule, in ancient cultures, the most ancient ancestors of the tribe, deities, mythological characters or heroes could be represented in this capacity. The rite of initiation stipulates that a young man accepting a new status must repeat the difficult path of the ideal.
How was the ritual in antiquity
If we briefly describe the course of the ritual, then in ancient times it followed the same pattern: first, children are taken from the tribe and divided into groups (boys separately from girls), then the boys with an experienced "instructor" at the head are settled in a forest hut, and girls they are placed in the house of an old woman who teaches them sacred traditions, crafts and other family wisdom.
In this case, the focus is on the environment. The forest is associated with the original environment, is the personification of the original starting point. Placed in such conditions, the boy must be symbolically "reborn" from a child into a young man and begin a new life cycle. The hut is an image of the mother's womb. Living in it is identified with a period of severe trials, the acquisition of new skills, knowledge of the structure of the world, the secrets of the tribe and other secrets that only adults know.
The culmination of the rite of initiation is the experience of the moment of symbolic, initiatory death of the individual. The boys undergoing initiation were buried in the ground, special marks were made on the body and covered with dry tree trunks from above. After that, a new day came and the revival of a new personality, its birth in a new quality. It is with this that the tradition of giving new names to boys after passing initiation is connected.
At the end of the ritual, a grand celebration was held. On it, special attention was paid to those who accepted the initiation - they were welcomed, congratulated and met as adults worthy of a more respectful attitude. Socialization, thus, helped the participants of the ceremony to establish themselves in a new look, in a new role.
As noted earlier, initiation rituals were mandatory for every ancient community. But even today, in the archaic cultures that have survived to this day, initiation continues to exist. For example, the initiation rite is performed by the Indians living in North America, and is also preserved among the African Bushmen.
Modern civilized communities have moved away from such primitive traditions, while retaining the more primitive "rudiments" of initiation rituals. However, they differ from the original ones not only in meaning, but also in structure.
Modified initiation rites in modern society, although considered timed to coincide with a specific event in the life of an individual, do not carry the deep context that they tried to reproduce in antiquity. Examples of modern interpretation of initiation:
- Scout admission.
- Passing testing after training.
- Taking an oath in the army.
- Religious traditional rituals (circumcision, baptism, wedding).
At the same time, a slight breeze of the main idea is present in every modern initiation rite. That is, in order to pass the stages of initiation, an individual must meet certain requirements in order to obtain a status and the right to be “enrolled” in a new category of society.
Useful ritual experience adapted to real conditions
At present, based on the experience provided by the practice of initiation, modern scientists and researchers have developed new techniques and psychotechnologies. Thus, innovative methods allow us to conditionally divide the initiation procedure into several stages:
1. Preparatory stage, briefing and creation of rules that will allow the individual to interact with the external environment. This stage also includes education or training as part of a group, thanks to which a person learns to recognize his emotions and feelings, accept intuitive signals, dreams and fears. This helps a person to correlate his essence, personality with real reality.
2. Cleansing from the essentials (fasting, washing, baptism).
3. Loneliness, isolation. Group training in isolation, away from society, helps a person to return to the state of his own consciousness. This can be achieved through fasting, special rites or ceremonies, and rejection of the norms and rules of real society.
In such conditions, a person is able to feel like a natural being in the natural world. Initiation at this stage consists in the fact that a person finds his own "I", understands who he is and what his purpose is, as well as which path he should choose in the future.
4. Celebration in honor of the acquisition of a new status (title), as well as a new context. The holiday is held in a team, community - this is how society recognizes the rebirth of a person, and the initiate is reunited with the outside world. Experts call this stage the interpretation of the experiences of the Visionary Quest into real life.
Passing through emotional cleansing helps participants find a new meaning in life, strengthen their position in life, discover new talents, learn how to deal with stress and not be afraid of the unknown. As practice shows, having survived the difficulties of initiation, a person successfully asserts his hidden individual strength and becomes more self-confident.
Such people treat themselves better, interact with the community without problems, feel comfortable in any conditions and bring social benefits. Author: Elena Suvorova
Since ancient times, it was believed that the path of a man is littered with dangers and difficulties. In order for him to be ready for them and be able to overcome them, an initiation ceremony was held, as a rule, including tests of strength, courage and the fight against fears. However, you can also meet quite humane and funny rituals, during which young people do not have to be on the verge of life and death.
Ukrainian rite. Kalita
A very fun and even a little crazy ritual performed on St. Andrew's Day. Girls bake large cakes (they are called “calita”), which are later hung on a rope from the ceiling. The guys have to “jump” astride the poker and jump to the bread, without the help of hands, biting off a piece of it, after which the cake is removed, and everyone else is treated to it. All this action is accompanied by fun and jokes of the audience. Only after that, the guy can do all the "male" work, go to the mowing, woo brides and get married.
Funny and probably the kindest rite of all. An evening of jokes is provided, and photos from the holiday will take their rightful place in the photo album.
Jewish rite. bar mitzvah
Boys must undergo this rite upon reaching the age of 13. Only after that they become adults in terms of religion and society, and can themselves be responsible for their actions, before that, all responsibility lies with their parents.
The initiation itself is very diverse depending on the community and the direction of faith, but the need to read a passage from the Torah or Haftarah in front of everyone who came to the synagogue is mandatory. Usually, a bar mitzvah is held on Shabbat.
The tradition itself takes its origins from the Talmud, which states that from the age of 13, young men themselves are punished for their actions, and their oaths and promises have official legal force. After the service, everyone gathers at home and celebrates this wonderful event, and the guests give the young man useful gifts: books, certificates for something or money, from which the newly appeared bar mitzvah makes his first donation to charity.
A cult event for the Jews and an interesting show for tourists who find themselves at the right time in Jerusalem. A kind of religious ritual, not without charm.
Australian rite. Tribe Kamilaroi
The exact age at which this ceremony is performed has not been established - the elder of the tribe can choose the moment when the young man, in his opinion, is ready to plunge into adulthood.
The ceremony itself is carried out similarly to a funeral: the young man, who should not move and speak, is laid on a stretcher, his body is stained with orchid broth, and relatives are crying around and prevent him from being carried away. After that, the young man is still carried away.
He settles with his mentor outside the village and whole year dedicates to teaching. The most interesting thing is that the young men learn a secret language that only men in the tribe know! Upon returning to the settlement, a grand celebration is held with ritual dances, and the elder gives the young man the first men's clothing - an apron.
An interesting tradition, the study of a secret language is especially impressive. However, naive men think in vain that women do not understand at all what they are talking about. Rather, they simply pretend not to disturb the idyll.
Indian rite. North America
Native American tribes living in North America from early childhood begin to prepare a child for an adult life full of dangers. After birth, a very tiny bow with arrows and a spear are placed in the cradle, and as they grow older, the boy grows into a real weapon. Older men teach him the tricks of hunting and survival in the forest, the ability to ride a horse, climb trees and much, much more.
The rite of passage itself is an examination of the ability to use previously acquired skills: running, hunting, and everything that his fathers taught. By the way, you need to run as much as 60 kilometers! After that, the young man goes alone into the forest for several days, where he eats only hallucinogenic drugs received from the shaman: his task these days is to see the animal in delirium, which will become his patron for life. Only after that he can return to the settlement and be considered an adult.
With more and more Indian tribes becoming committed to modern life, I don't think this rite will continue to serve as an initiation into adulthood. Unless they leave the moment with hallucinogens.
Canadian ritual. Algonquin tribe
A completely unthinkable ritual awaits young men in a tribe of North American Indians living in Canada. Traditions say that in order to become a man, it is necessary to say goodbye to childhood. The only way to do this is to forget it. To do this, young men are locked in a cage for 2-3 weeks and fed with visokkan algae, which have a pronounced hallucinogenic effect. True, these algae lead to completely irreversible consequences not only for the brain, but also for the body - during use, some experience temporary paralysis, heart problems, and, worst of all, there are even deaths.
After a few weeks, those who have passed the initiation are asked about the past, childhood life, and if the young man remembered something, the torture is repeated. Ultimately, not a single male from the tribe remembers his childhood.
A terrible barbaric tradition with the erasure of memory, and even by such methods. The human memory is already doing an excellent job of forgetting everything that is needed and not needed.
East Slavic ritual. tonsured
A long time ago, noble families (princes, nobles and boyars) had an interesting rite of initiation into men - tonsure. In this context, it had nothing to do with monastic vows and was carried out for very young children: at the time of the event, the child could be from 2 to 5 years old! It was then that the boy's hair was cut off for the first time in his life.
The action took place in the church, under the reading of a prayer. After that, the boy was put on a horse and given a weapon, usually an ax, in his hands. The ability to ride and wield weapons in those distant times was an urgent need for all noble men. After that, only men were engaged in the upbringing of the future warrior.
In modern society, such initiations are still being carried out. Of course, depending on the locality and beliefs, ritual actions differ, and the child is brought up further by both parents, but the essence remains unchanged.
Pacific Tribes
An interesting tradition exists among the tribes inhabiting the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Closeness to nature inspired them with the idea of turning a boy into a man, similar to the transformation of a chrysalis into a butterfly. The young men (and in some tribes, the girls too) glued their fingers and toes together, closed their eyes and left them on the shore for a long time. They could do nothing but hear the sound of the waves and the birdsong. Later, a man dressed in a lizard costume - their distant ancestor - came out of the water and cut his glued fingers, symbolizing this growing up. After the ceremony, the "lizard" gave the initiates weapons and taught them how to use them.
Such a romantic ritual, as if invented not by wild tribes, but by a good wedding toastmaster. Of course, there is a certain amount of cruelty, but in comparison with the rituals of other tribes - just lovely.
Africa. Hamar tribes
A rather amusing ritual will have to go through the future men and warriors of the Hamar tribe. They only need a little dexterity and endurance, and also ... a dozen bulls!
The animals are placed side by side, and each young man passing the rite must jump over them naked. Not all at once, of course, usually everyone jumps from one bull to another until they go through the whole chain. It would be fun if it were not for the terrible, bloody need to go through this initiation: if a young man had a family and children before the rite, then the latter were considered illegitimate and had no right to life.
Omitting details, I will only say that it is in the interests of young people to undergo this ceremony as early as possible, given that it does not represent particular complexity and self-mutilation, like in many other tribes.
Vanuatu. Jumping from a height - naked
This is the wildest tradition in this review, but, unfortunately, not the most terrible among African tribes - there are even worse. They say that this tradition dates back to ancient times, and there is even an explanation for it: an angry husband chased his wife to punish her for some offense, but the fear of reprisal was so great that the unfortunate woman rushed down the cliff, after tying to the feet of the branches of the creeper. Her husband, out of grief, also rushed after her, thinking that she was dead, and, of course, crashed.
I think that this is still a myth, but the tradition is still alive and enjoys enviable popularity among local residents.
All the men of the island, starting from the age of 7-8, train in order to one day climb a high 30-meter tree, on top of which a wooden platform is built, and jump down, relying on luck and the right calculation - everyone measures the length himself vines. The task is to press your head in and touch the ground with your shoulders. I can’t even theoretically imagine how it is possible to calculate how many meters a liana wet from the rains will stretch, and what length it will ultimately take to safely reach the ground - after all, a difference of literally 5 centimeters can already cost a person’s life or health.
Most likely, the key to the ability to make calculations well lies in evolution - over the many years of this ritual, only those who really did it well survived.
Even in modern society, far from tribal rituals, remnants of old traditions remain: the last call, graduation, demobilization, obtaining rights or celebrating coming of age - all this is essentially nothing more than more humane and therefore more boring rites of initiation into an adult life.
Used photos from the site: nationalgeographic.com
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