Essay about The Sambia Tribe Coming of Age Rituals

The Sambia Tribe Coming Of Age Ritual Children all over the world experience many different transitions from childhood to adulthood. The Sambia Tribe has a very strange coming of age ritual. This ritual was originated in Papua New Guinea, which is a country in Oceania. This is a ritual for male not female. It begins at the age of seven. There are six stages to this ritual. The ceremony lasts seven days. The first stage is when the boys are removed from their mothers and are put in a men’s cult. In the first stage a crowd of men take the boys in beside a river. A war leader picks out a sharp stick and sticks it deep inside the boy’s nostrils until he bleeds into a stream. Then an older man tells all the boys that they have to copulate†¦show more content†¦He has to place mint leaves in his nostrils and chew on a certain branch while having intercourse so he does not smell her genital odors. After this, he must bathe in mud and bleed his nose each time his wife menstruates. The man becomes upset with his wife because he is upset that he has to nose bleed each time she menstruates because she pollutes him and endangers his life. By this point the boy is now a man that has been isolated from women for 12 years, has practiced homosexual fellatio, and has heard the dangers of vaginal intercourse. His wife then has to be taught to practice fellatio before they attempt vaginal intercourse. She must ingest semen given to her by her husband to later be able to provide from her child while producing breast milk and strong bones. It is Estrada 3 believed that breast milk is transformed semen and therefore it is the men who indirectly nourish the baby. The sixth stage is when he has achieved masculinity by having a child, and preferable two. The man is then not allowed to have intercourse with the new mother and he must stay away from the child until it is breast fed for several years. He does not need to bleed from his nose anymore unless he has another wife. He must keep the male cult a secret he cannot tell anyone not even his wife and if he does he will be castrated and killed. The main thing the men are taughtShow MoreRelatedMasculinity in the Philippines12625 Words   |  51 Pagescopies of articles. Please contact the publisher for any further use of this work at philstudies@admu.edu.ph. http://www.philippinestudies.net Fri June 27 13:30:20 2008 Philippine Commonwealth and Cult of Masculinity Alfred W. McCoy In the imperial age, the military shaped society to suit its peculiar needs. Modem armies are complex, costly institutions that must ramify widely to mobilize the vast human and material resources their operations require. Since the armed forces demand the absolute obedience