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Initiation is arite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformation in which the initiate is 'reborn' into a new role. Examples of initiation ceremonies might include Christianbaptism orconfirmation, Jewishbar or bat mitzvah, acceptance into afraternal organization,secret society orreligious order, orgraduation from school orrecruit training. A person taking the initiation ceremony in traditional rites, such as those depicted in these pictures, is called aninitiate.
William Ian Miller notes the role of ritualhumiliation in comic ordering and testing.[1]
Mircea Eliade discussed initiation as a principal religious act by classical or traditional societies.[2] He defined initiation as "a basic change in existential condition", which liberates man from profane time and history. "Initiation recapitulates the sacred history of the world. And through this recapitulation, the whole world is sanctified anew... [the initiand] can perceive the world as a sacred work, a creation of the Gods."
Eliade differentiates between types of initiations in two ways: types and functions.
These can be broken into two types:
In the study of certain social forms of initiation, such as hazing in college fraternities and sororities, laboratory experiments in psychology suggest that severe initiations producecognitive dissonance.[3] Dissonance is then thought to produce feelings of strong groupattraction among initiates after the experience, because they want to justify the effort used.[4]
Rewards during initiations have important consequences in that initiates who feel more rewarded express stronger group identity.[5] As well as group attraction, initiations can also produceconformity among new members.[6] Psychology experiments have also shown that initiations increase feelings ofaffiliation.[7]
A spiritual initiation rite normally implies a shepherding process where those who are at a higher level guide the initiate through a process of greater exposure of knowledge. This may include the revelation of secrets, hence the term secret society for such organizations, usually reserved for those at the higher level of understanding. One famous historical example is theEleusinian Mysteries of ancient Greece, thought to go back to at least theMycenaean period or "Bronze Age".
In the context ofritual magic andesotericism, an initiation is considered to cause a fundamental process of change to begin within the person being initiated and its "evolution operates within both the material world and the spiritual world".[8] The person conducting the initiation (theinitiator), being in possession of a certain power or state of being, transfers this power or state to the person being initiated. Thus the concept of initiation is similar to that ofapostolic succession. The initiation process is often likened to a simultaneous death and rebirth, because as well as being a beginning it also implies an ending as existence on one level drops away in an ascension to the next.Initiation is a key component ofJudaism,Sufism andShiism,Vaishnavism,Sant Mat,Surat Shabd Yoga,Vajrayana Buddhism,Wicca, and similar religiousgnostic traditions. It denotes acceptance by theGuru and also implies that theChela (student or disciple) agrees to the requirements (such as living an ethical lifestyle, meditating, etc.)
One of the most recognized religious initiation rites isBaptism withinChristianity. Christian Baptism is seen as both part of the individual's faith and conversion as well as their initiation into the Church.[9]
In the modern version of theRoman religion, some of the communities use a form of the rite of Aries described in the bookIntroduction to Magic, byJulius Evola. This rite is also used by the Brotherhood of Myriam albeit with some minor differences. The rite symbolises the rebirth of the soul in spring in accordance with the cosmic and natural rhythms and corresponds to the Christian easter, which is claimed to be a derivate of the rite of Aries.[10]
In the bookPietas: An Introduction to Roman Traditionalism,[11] the author makes the claim that the Rite of Aries, corresponds to the ancientMinvervalia where the young Romans would go through their initiation and be introduced to the public cult.
Some communities on board a military vessel and also of military soldiers tend to form a closed 'family' which absorbs in members, who are often formally accepted, generally after a form of trial orhazing.
In addition, there can be similarrites of passages associated with parts of naval and military life, which do not constitute true initiations as the participants are already and remain members of the same community. One such rite is associated withcrossing the equator on board a naval ship, but it can even be taken by passengers on board acruise liner, who are not and do not become members of anything but the so-called "equator crossing club". Another form, "Kissing the Royal Belly" or "Royal Baby", calls for initiates to kneel before a senior member of the crew, who wears a mock diaper. This "Baby" usually has a huge stomach covered with greasy materials ranging from cooking oil to mustard, shaving cream, eggs, and oysters. Junior sailors must lick the Baby's navel area, while the "baby" grabs and shakes their head to better smear the goo onto their faces.[12]
Gangs often require new members to commit crimes before accepting them as part of the gang.[13][14][15]New members may be physically beaten by fellow gang members to demonstrate their courage, also known as "beat-in" or "jump-in", which occasionally results in a fatality.[13][16] One study indicates that young people are more likely to be hurt in gang initiation than they are by refusing to join.[17] Female members may be required to have sex with male members as a form of initiation, also known as "sex in", though they may also be "jumped-in" like their male counterparts. One study shows that female members who were "sexed-in" as part of gang initiation were thereafter viewed with lower respect than those that were "jumped-in", even when promised they would become full-fledged members.[18] Another study found that sexed-in members face greater risks of sexual exploitation andabuse by fellow male members.[19]
Tribes often have initiations. The initiation done in theBapedi tribe of South Africa is normally regarded as a stage where a boy is to be taught manhood and a girl to be taught womanhood. In many African tribes, initiation involvescircumcision/genital mutilation of males and sometimescircumcision/genital mutilation of females as well. Initiation is considered necessary for the individual to be regarded as a full member of the tribe. Otherwise, the individual may not be allowed to participate in ceremonies or even in social rituals such as marriage. A man will not be allowed to marry or have any special relationship with a woman who did not go to an initiation, because she is not considered to be a woman.
Initiation may be thought of as an event which may help teens prepare themselves to be good husbands and wives. Where modernization is occurring, initiation is not taken so seriously as before, although there are still certain areas which still perform initiations.
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In some African tribes, boys take about 3–4 months participating in initiation rites and girls take about 1–2 months.
Australian Aboriginal tribes usually had long periods of time to help prepare adolescent boys, teaching them traditional lore before they were ready to attend large elaborate ceremonies at the time of initiation when they were finally recognized as full-fledged men in their society. Most tribes had circumcision andscarification as part of the male initiation rituals, while manyCentral Australian tribes also practicedsubincision.
A salient shared cultural feature of the Min peoples of theNew Guinea Highlands is initiation into a secret male religious cult.[20] For example, theUrapmin people used to practice a type of male initiation known inUrap asban.[21] These elaborate rituals were a central part of Urapmin social life.[22] Theban was a multistage process which involved beatings and manipulation of various objects.[21] At each stage, the initiate was offered revelations of secret knowledge (Urap:weng awem), but at the next stage these would be shown to be false (Urap:famoul).[21] These initiations were abandoned with the adoption of Christianity, and the Urap have expressed relief at no longer having to administer the beatings which were involved.[23]
TheSateré-Mawé people ofBrazil use intentionalbullet ant stings as part of their initiation rites to become warriors.[24]
Among the variousAustronesian peoples,head-hunting raids were strongly tied to the practice oftattooing. In head-hunting societies, tattoos were records of how many heads the warriors had taken in battle, and was part of the initiation rites into adulthood.[25]
TheSande society in West Africa initiates girls into adulthood by rituals includingfemale genital mutilation.[26]
Chinese boys, under theRites of Zhou, initiate their adulthood when they are 20 years old (加冠) and girls when they are 15 (及笄). Yili (儀禮), a text in the chapter of the rites(?) (士冠禮) describes various details of the ceremonies involved.
Nearing the late parts of the ceremony, the initiate gains an alias, or a "Courtesy name"; thereafter use of their personal name is strictly prohibited except before parents and rulers.
The humiliation of initiation rituals borrows from the world of comic ordering, the shaming rituals from tragic ordering. The initiation ritual conceives of humiliation as a test, a rite, prior to and indeed allowing for the attainment of honor as a group member of good standing.
Media related toInitiation at Wikimedia Commons
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