Coming Of Age Traditions

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As human beings we perform rituals every day, whether we are aware of it or not. Sometimes they are in the form of special occasions such as birthdays or weddings and other times as just our everyday morning routines. Some types of rituals we perform to symbolize a significant change or shift in and to our lives. In particular is the coming of age ritual performed by boys in the indigenous tribe from the Amazon rain forest in Brazil called the Satere-Mawe tribe. This special coming of age tradition is crucial if one wants to enter into the stage of manhood. No one ritual is the same nor does it mean the same in every culture. Although one ritual might be used to signify, say the coming of age, in one country or culture, that same stage in life…show more content…
Rituals are an integral part of human culture and our existence. They play an important part in society and the way we all live our lives, whether we realize it or not. Some rituals like weddings or baptisms are performed to validate our beliefs and values and other times just so that we can be part of and belong to age old traditions. And other times certain rituals, like how we get ready in the morning become so fixed in our everyday lives and routines that we don’t even realize that we are performing them or that they are a type of ritual at all. A ritual is a process of transition from one defined social status to another to another. It consists of performing set actions or reciting a set text, mainly to show their symbolic value at an important stage of life, which is already either prescribed by a certain religion or by the traditions of the culture. A ritual can be performed on particular occasions such as a funeral, sweet 16 or even in private at the…show more content…
This painful ritual not only marks the participant’s initiation into world of adulthood, it is also supposedly makes them better men, (Initiation with ants 2015). Before the ceremony starts the boys and elders of the village go out into the jungle to gather the tropical bullet ants. Then the village’s medicine man soaks them in a herbal medicine to drug them and while they are sleeping they are woven into special ceremonial gloves, with the stinger on the inside of the gloves. When they are awake and ready to sting the boys one at a time put both their hands inside of the glove. This excruciating pain lasts for only 10 minutes and then the gloves come off, however they have do this process again 20 times in the span of several months or even years. If they cry, show any sign of pain or even give up half way, then they have failed their rite of passage and are not considered true men or ready for adulthood, (The Pain of Growing Up, 2013). Each sting from the ant releases a neuro toxin which attack the nerves, causing paralysis and agonizing pain, and once the gloves come off, the burning and stinging will become even more painful. You cannot be considered a true Indian, a true warrior until you have worn the gloves. The chief of one of the
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