I guess I have been catching way to many Taboo episodes on the National Geographic Chanel. Seems ever time I pick up that Tivo remote I automatically press 0-5-4-select. You see they, NGC, have been airing an awful lot of Coming of age documentaries. They are actually documentaries about African Tribes and in all cases include rituals to cross over to Adulthood.
The other night the NGC’s Taboo Series documented a young woman in the Karo tribe in Ethiopia. In Karo women are required to have a certain series of raised scars on their torsos to be eligible for marriage. This is the initiation into Womanhood for all female members of the tribe.
The cuts used to be made with bone, now with the influence of western culture straight razor blades are used to create the incision.
In another Ethiopian tribe, when a boy was ready to be a man, they would cut strategically placed marks all over his body to transform him into a crocodile. After the cuts were made they would place animal fat, dirt and ash into the wounds to have a unique raised. This step was one of many steps to Manhood. Some of these steps consisted of humiliation, sleep deprivation, pain, and sometimes even death.
If you contrast this with the path to Adulthood in the Mormon Coming of Age story you would find similarities as well as uniqueness.
Mormon Coming of Age
Age: 8 Years old
Boys & Girls: Baptized & Confirmed
Age: 12 Years Old
Boys: Young Mens Program – Deacon
Girls: Young Womans Program
Age: 14 Years Old
Boys: Ordained Teacher
Age: 16 Years Old
Boys: Ordained Priest
Age: 18 Years Old
Boys: Ordained Elder / Elders Quorum
Girls: Relief Society
Age: 19 – 25 Years Old
Boys: 2 Year Mission
Age: 21+ Years Old
Girls: 18 Month Mission
Age: 21+ Years Old
Boys & Girls: Temple Marriage
Before I became a Member I heard Anti Mormons state the current Missionary practices were inherently barbaric. Stating the lack of health care, non-existent dental care1, lack of money for food, the slight percentage of missionaries who succumbed to death, murder, rape and other unforeseen atrocities. They would claim it was harmful to their wellbeing and dangerous. In society we need initiation rites. If the critics took a look at the Adulthood initiation rituals of other countries they would quickly find the Church’s program are not pain based rites.
Other countries have Adulthood Initiation Rituals they abide by and so does the Church. Who’s rituals are superior to the others? None. They all accomplishing the same job. . . To take our young people over the threshold of Childhood into Adulthood.
Jamie Trwth
- One of our missionaries chipped his tooth and could not get it fixed until he returned home. [↩]
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