We saw a movie on Monday which it was very interesting to me and the movie was about, The primary focus of the initiation ritual is to transform “boys” who are considered feminine persons of women houses into fierce, strong, male warriors. This process of initiation from boy to man is also known as masculinization. In actuality men are “reborn” from men and are taught many important things such as that woman are dangerous and emasculating. Strangely enough the women are placed in a situation where their husbands, who are much older than them, isolate them. The youths are now the targeted ones who the women want to use to fulfill their sexual desires. The men however, are not concerned about falling for these women. They have been taught well about how women can be dangerous to men, especially the younger adolescent men who can even die from heterosexual intercourse.
The isolationism they encounter not only prevent the youth from having any sexual activities with women, but also from seducing, or being seduced by married women - which would later create chaos by enemies. This certainly teaches the boys that they can indeed live without their mothers and certainly without any females around them. What the boys need is semen in order to mature. In some cultures such as this one in Papa New Guinea a homosexuality ritual takes place. Ironically the homosexual practice is not a feminizing ritual, but rather the beginning of a fierce and brutal warrior. The Sambia initiatory cycle starts when the boy is between the ages of 6 and 10, and proceeds to 6 stages until he becomes the father of one child, some 10 to 15 years later. The following six initiations take place over time where the boys are isolated from women. They are killed as boys and reborn as men.
The tribes of the Sambia and the Samburu are not the only tribes that engage in rituals concerning manhood. In order for a boy to become a man, he must engage in vigorous activities and rituals to prove his manhood. Manhood is not something that is just developed naturally; it is a process in which a young boy must earn the right to be called a “man”. It is through these understandings of other cultures, that the Western way of life seems to be much easier when it comes to manhood in the making. Whoever said that becoming a man was an easy task, must not have ever studied about the different societies around the world who can prove them wrong. Thank goodness I am a woman!
The initiation rituals among the Sambia are definitely interesting from an anthropological perspective. Anthropologists believe that we need to study each culture in its own terms...but it's sometimes easier said than done.
ReplyDelete100% Agree. I am thankful I am a woman. It is insane to me what boys will go through to prove to people they are "real men". I understand cultural beliefs have a lot to do with it and I get that when your in a tribe like that, its pretty much all you've ever known, but still I feel like drinking an elder mans seamen is foul and cruel. I know the woman of this tribe do not like their sons being taken from them at such a young age but it is clear they have no say in what goes on, it seems like they are only there to cook and to produce children. Kind of unfair.
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