Why are rites of passages important? What is the relationship of rites of passage to formal education?

Discuss Facing Mt Kenya, Sitting Quietly and the Sambia.

The rites of passage are an important marker in one’s life. Rites of passages are important because they usher in the new chapter in a person’s life. Mind you, no matter what, the person will always hit these markers in their life, from childhood to adulthood, from single to married, from conception to birth. These defining moments in person’s life will occur with or without the aid of these rites. But these ceremonies and rituals offer so much more than a celebration of the ever changing human life, it offers a time to learn and bond with those that have already traversed the threshold of a new beginning. That is what makes these rites of passage so important, at least in the articles that I read. This marker, going from childhood to adulthood, in a young person’s life isn’t being experienced alone. The youth isn’t isolated and left to grow up all by themselves. Instead their experience is shared with others like them that are going through the same changes, with others who have already undergone these changes, with family and friends and even neighbors. Their experiences are being shared with by the entire village, creating a strong bond between them (the initiates) and the community itself. In Facing Mt Kenya the biggest topic and hot button issue was the clitoridectomy. Clitoridectomy is the circumcision of a female. Now, I do not know all the details of a clitoridectomy. I don’t know if it has any detrimental lifelong effects (other than the difficulties that arise if the wound isn’t properly taken care of - mentioned in the article). But I do know that both the girls and boys from the Gikuyu tribe are circumcised. This custom is known as irua. This rite of passage is done to symbolize the youths’ movement from childhood to adulthood. I have read this article before and knew exactly what to expect. I stand firmly by my reactions of the first time I read the article. It is their custom, their belief, their religion. To ask them to stop this ceremony is to ask them to push aside all their belief systems and to render their way of living and their history obsolete. I understand the initiation of these girls is a little unnerving, but I am also aware of other tribes that have a much worse ritual of initiation; it can almost be considered torture. Those tribes are the ones whom the missionaries should first address with their concerns. Some methods used are crude and unseemly, such as the sewing of the vaginal lips together till the young woman is ready for marriage. Talk about a permanent chastity belt. In Sitting Quietly, the boys undergo the rites of passage separately from the girls. The boys attend a more formal institution for learning called the Poro Bush School. Now, the details of what occur in the school are shrouded in mystery because once they are done with their education there they are not allowed to speak of the going-ons in the Bush School. They are kept there for four years and are only visited by other males of the Kpelle tribe. It is a world of men, and the only woman to have access to this world is the head of the women’s Sande Society, a woman in the article named Noai. In this school the boys will learn to be men and will be trained by the men of the Kpelle tribe. They will learn the duties that must be carried out as an adult and how to relate to the opposite sex. The people of the article The Sambia have a similar approach in their rites of passage. They separate the boys from the girls. The boys are taken to a men’s house in the village and are kept there for about 10 years. This is where the boys will learn of the ritual secrets of the Sambian culture. One of these rituals is the filling of the male tingu, which is believed to be shriveled and dry from birth. The tingu is an internal organ that secretes sexual substance. For us, the scientifically savvy if not at least a little knowledgeable in anatomy, know that what they are talking about is the production of sperm and semen in the testes. But why would they think the tingu is shriveled and dry? And how do they make this assessment? Now, what the Sambia men do to rectify this ailment is a little unsettling. The boys, at first, are practically forced into fellatio relations with other older boys. For those not familiar with the term fellatio, it means oral stimulation of the penis. The Sambian culture believes that if the boys drink from the semen of older Sambia males that their tingu will fill and swell to the appropriate size needed to be considered a true man, and one that will bring forth an offspring. The Sambia are all about sexual reproduction. The effects of this rite of passage have been somewhat alarming and not at all what one would expect. The boys are brought up homosexually once they leave the homes of their mothers. Go through a period of bisexuality as young men, taking a wife and keeping a young boy on the side for fun. And finally come into heterosexuality as older men, only having relations with their wives. This custom is accepted by all and the males of this tribe move compliantly through the stages till they are left to live out their lives as a heterosexual. The relationship between the rites of passage and formal education lies in the purpose of both. During the rites of passage vital information, knowledge, and beliefs are being passed to the next generation. They are being prepared for the big changes their life will undergo. Formal education offers the same thing, preparation, but preparation for what? The American culture is all over the place. No matter how much we would like to be seen as one nation under God, the fact is that there are too many little discrepancies that tear the fabric of this nation. What we hoped to achieve with formal education in the United States was to offer a common base of knowledge to all. And by golly we’re trying. But with so many immigrants coming into this country, it’s getting increasingly more difficult to create a common base of knowledge. Official documents now come in three or four languages, communities are becoming more multicultural, and lifestyles are changing radically. For these small tribes, it is easy to teach the new generation of who they are, where they come from, and where they will go. But in a place pieced together from all sorts of cultural fabrics, how do we know what one specific tradition, custom, or ritual to instill in our future generations?