Essay On Rite Of Passage

Rites of Passage Cultures of different parts of the world show us the differences between our lifecycles. Learning the lifecycles can be somewhat of a challenge to understand them in an emic perspective without showing favoritism of our own culture and rite of passage. Assuming that the role of an outsider to view one’s own culture will help to overcome the ethnocentric that a person may have. In this paper, I will look at the rite of passage in aspect to my own culture in an etic perspective in order to expand the view of an outsider and I will look at the rite of passage in another culture from an emic perspective in order to become familiar with the rite of passage of a different culture. Mainly discussing the different rites of passage

In America, children at the age of 13 are supposed to go through puberty, in which the girls are learning about their body and the boys are learning how to control theirs. The aspect of going from a child to a teenager to an adult is somewhat confusing to some kids. Their parents are very tight lipped about what will be happening to them when they hit puberty and their bodies start changing in how it looks and how they feel. In other cultures, the rite of passage consists of a boy or girl at the age of 14 going thru ceremonies separately and finding themselves by the help of their elders. In the Okiek rite of passage, “The girls wear an elaborate costume which are now rented and sing songs that make reference to such modern objects and institutions as books, pens, soap, banks, and public transportation.” (Kratz, 1990) Rites of passages are defined as one who will go through many lifecycle changes and social status’. The change of a new status calls for a new set of roles by the person who is moving into a new phase of life. The changes in a ritual of status can benefit a person psychologically if they are learning a new role within their

However, in today’s world their normal is considered sadistic especially in the way that they act on their rite of passage for the men and women. In the rite of passage for the Nacirema the men and women are dealt with in different ways. The men’s rite of passage consists of “scraping and lacerating the surface of the face with a sharp instrument while the women’s rite of passage is performed only four times during each lunar month, but what they lack in frequency is made up in barbarity. As part of the ceremony, women bake their heads in ovens for an hour.” (Minor, 1956). With the other aspects of the Nacirema culture it seems to be quite similar to the American culture of today with being characterized as a highly regarded economy which has been evolved by a rich natural habitat. Like the people of today the Nacirema are also wanting to thrive by devoting themselves by having rich economic