Rites Of Passage In Native American Culture

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Rites of passage can be a large part of many cultures and vary all over the world. The rituals followed mark important times in an individual’s life in various different ways which they transcend from one status to another. The first culture’s ritual I’ve chosen to study is African tribal coming of age, being as rites of passage are extremely critical to them. Each rite of passage helps by placing someone in their title in the community and setting their social and or spiritual position. The second culture I chose to study is the coming of age ceremony of the Native American. Native American people would often involve many spiritual things to celebrate rites of passage. Performances include symbolic rituals, many of which had dancing included, …show more content…
This group has helped lead to the elimination of the unsanitary procedure and embraced by women in the tribe with high praise. The Native American Apache tribe holds a four-day long ritual called “The Sunrise Ceremony” the summer after a females first menstrual cycle. During this ceremony the girls are covered in a white pollen to resemble “Esdzanadehe” (white painted woman) who they recognize as the first woman to exist. The pollen paint is rumored to bring strength to bring strength and power to the girls for up to four days following the ritual such as healing wounded and making it rain.” The ceremony itself contains much dancing, singing, ritual, and history.” States Picone (writer of the article). The expensive ceremony is payed for by each family of the girls involved, as they must wear fine clothing and jewels. More recently it was made legal in the United States after many acts that allow the practices of the rituals. The Maasai tribe in Africa, in Kenya, gathers boys from the age of ten to twenty years old for what they call “The warrior passage”. The night before the ritual they sleep outside their freshly built houses and are woken the next morning to …show more content…
When a Native American boy turns fourteen years old, to become a man, he must go through a journey that is called “The Vision Quest”. Before the ritual begins he is placed in a sweat lodge to cleanse his impurities out and then washed in cold water. For three days he will then fast (go without food) in the wilderness with no human contact whatsoever until he has found his spiritual calling. It is said that “The boy must awaken his power animal and create a song to tell what animal they feel like” states Alchin (writer of the article). After the ceremony has come to a complete end, the tribe leaders speak with each boy to determine what their significance is to the tribe and they are then declared a man. The ceremonies practiced in Africa and Native America are engrained in their tribal history and have been embraced throughout generations with an enormous amount of importance. The similarities in the amount of time each ritual takes are almost uncanny with the lack of ability to communicate between the two groups of people, considering that they all last from three to four days. African tribes usually come together as a whole to help pay for the celebrations of adulthood whereas the Native

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