Rites of Passage

With the landscape prepared by the First Peoples, embedded with the "gifts" (miyp and súumesh = "the bones") and Animal and Plant Peoples, and we the Human Peoples, in our baaéechichiwaau, perpetuating the health of the "the family," of landscape for all Peoples,
how we we go about acquiring the insights, skills, and powers to carry out these spiritual, social, ecological responsibilities?

The general context and role of rites of passage throughout life is at:  birth,    graduation,   military service,   birthdays,     special "gift," health,    loss of another,     death

Kinaalda: A Navajo Rite of Passage (56 min. Film allows viewers access to one of the oldest and most sacred of all Navajo ceremonies. It also illustrates the complexity of living in two worlds. Film by Lena Carr).

Reflective Write

Social science  . . . . . researchers . . . have shown that rites of passage are particularly pronounced in those societies whose foundations are built upon three key focuses:

1. the importance of social solidarity, and group cohesion and cooperation, be it in male or female associations - Ashammaléaxia;

2. the need for its members, in varying degrees to be sure, to realize cultural, social, ecological and, most importantly, spiritual transcendence - Snqhepiwes; and

3. a reliance on what can be called "traditional wisdom” and “Heart Knowledge," a knowledge based in the teachings of the elders and from the First Peoples, found at the beginning of time in the great creation narratives, and brought forth as you walk upon the earth and encounter its animals.  

As the Inuit people say, "all true wisdom is to be learned far from the dwellings of men, in the great solitudes." 

This is knowledge found in societies Margaret Mead calls, "postfigurative societies," look to the living perennial traditions as the guide.

We find rites of passage used among the Aranda of central Australian, who perform a series of circumcision, sub-incision and fire ordeals, to strengthen the cooperation among male hunting groups and gain access to the Alcheringa, the Dreamtime.   

We see it when a young Crow man goes to the mountains to fast for three days without food and water to acquire his baaxpée, his medicine.  

We see it when an Inuit is apprenticed to a powerful angokoq, a shaman, and becomes a healer.

We see rites of passage among the Kwakiutl of the Northwest Coast when a man emerges from the dark forests, alive, having overcome the Hamatsa, or cannibal spirit, his role as a leader now established in the eyes of others. 

And we see is as a Ashanti  young girl of west Africa is snatched from her mother's arms and taken to "bush school," to emerge a year later as an adult woman.

Correspondingly, rites of passage are much less important in those societies that emphasize – 1. the role of the "individual" as the most pivotal social unit, in contrast to the family, clan or some other association, 2. which are fundamentally secular in nature, and 3. which rely upon knowledge based exclusively upon empiricism and rationalism.

This is knowledge found in societies Margaret Mead calls, "prefigurative societies," look to one's peers and the future as the guide, where a premium is placed on "discovery" and "innovation."

As researched through the social sciences, there are thus at least three distinct functions rites of passage provide. Rites of passage serve not only to publicly acknowledge the transition from one educational, social or spiritual status to another, but more fundamentally, to facilitate within the individual and bring about such a transformation in the first place.  In so doing, the individual acquires knowledge, which can be religious, social, political and economic in nature.   Such knowledge can relate to the spiritual power of a shaman, or to a woman's role and status in her family. 

As such, rites of passage facilitate,

1. facilitates transformations of all types (social, educational, spiritual, health, etc.) within the individual,

2. in order for the acquisition of new knowledge, status, spiritual access, and/or identity, by the individual and for the community,

3. and that there is public acknowledgment of the transition.

Note the the nature of certain Oral Narratives, e.g., Burnt Face or event Four Smokes,        and Ritual Behaviors, e.g., Sundance or Vision Quest,       
                               . . . .   what is the relationship????

Story Texts: Still Images - Apsáalooke Fast,      Vision, and     Ashkísshe Sun Dance        Videos - Sun Dance Way and Vision Quest (20 min short version or 57 min. and 4 min., great overview of this key ceremony, as told by Tom Yellowtail),    A Rite of Passage (14 min., on a !Kung San boy's first hunt)

Four Distinct, yet Interwoven, Essential Stages:

Rites/Pilgrimage Diagram