The Importance Of African Culture: Rites Of Passage

1179 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How is identity shaped by culture

Adolescence, the stage when people mature to adulthood and when their bodies reach their reproductive potential, is a crucial time for many cultures. Starting with puberty, it is the course when childhood ends and adulthood begins. For a time, African culture has been a source of different “rites of passage,” including the aforementioned adulthood rites. In Africa, the adolescence phase calls for quite a few rites of passage even now that its influence is fading in some regions of the world. Defined as the ceremonies marking important transitional periods in a person’s life, rites of passage play an essential role in every culture there is, particularly in Africa as it is a continent rich in history, tradition and culture. In contradiction to the Western culture, African societies use systematized adulthood rites as initiation for their people. Western societies use no systems in particular when it comes to educating and guiding their adolescents during one of the most important stages in their lives. Adulthood simply is achieved upon turning 18 for females or 21 for males, and in some cases, when …show more content…

Most of the time, initiates are taken out of the community and are taught all the skills necessary for adulthood including problem solving, rules and taboos of the society, social responsibility, and many others. They also have a public celebration for the new adults after they have completely done the rite of adulthood. The evolution of a person from being a child to being an adult is a major point in the African culture. The rites of passage is significant in the culture’s nation building and identity formation for the reason that the adolescence period is the time when a person becomes used to the standards and morals of their culture thus making them completely a part of the group. It is also done to make sure that the adolescents become responsible, productive and community-oriented

Show More
Related

  • Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa

    1707 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although the !Kung San of southern Africa differ greatly from the people in the west African nation of Mali, both areas share similar problems. Both suffer from diseases, illnesses, malnutrition, and having to adapt to the ever changing and advancing cultures around them. What I found to be the most significant problem that is shared between both areas is that the people suffered from a lack of education. In the book Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa by Katherine A. Dettwyler, there is a lack of education in proper nutritional practices, taking care of children and newborns, and basic medical knowledge and practices. The Dobe Ju/’hoansi have recently started putting in schools to help children receive an education to help them have better success with the surrounding peoples and culture, but there is a lack of attendance in these schools. There are also many education issues in proper sexual practices that would help stop the spread of HIV and AIDS, in a place in the world were theses illnesses are at surprisingly high levels.

    Read More

  • Toyin Falola's Memoir A Mouth Sweeter Than Salt Review

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    The opening of the novel places the reader not in Falola's shoes as a child, but rather as an adult scholar attempting to procure information from his own family. This proves easier said than done as Falola takes us through the process of obtaining specific dates in a society that deems them irrelevant. By examining the difficulty that Falola has in this seemingly simple task, the reader begins to understand the way in which time and space are intertwined and weighed in Africa. This concept of "connections between words, space, and rituals" encompasses the way that Africans perceive the world around them - as a series of interrelated events rather than specific instances in time (Falola 224). This approach also stems from the concept that the family unit, the village, and the elders come before the individual in all instances, making a detail such as a birthday unimportant when it comes to the welfare of the whole. Introducing the reader to the complexities of African conventions, Falola expands their minds and challenges them to view the forthcoming narrative with untainted eyes.

    Read More

  • When Cultures Collide: The Challenges of Raising African Children in a Foreign Country

    735 Words  | 2 Pages

    Work Cited Nwokeafor, Cosmas U. When Cultures Collide: The Challenges of Raising African Children in a Foreign Country

    Read More

  • African Art: A Cycle Of Life

    1411 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many African cultures see life as a cycle we are born, we grow and mature, enter adulthood, and one day we will eventually die but the cycle continues long after death. In Africa art is used as a way to express many things in their society, in this paper I will focus on different ways traditional African art are used to describe the cycle of one’s life. Since Africa is such a large continent it is important to keep in mind that every country and tribe has different rituals and views when it comes to the cycle of life. It is estimated to be well over a thousand different ethnic groups and cultures in Africa today. Thousands of cultures in Africa see the stages of life bound together in a continuous cycle; a cycle of birth, growth, maturity,

    Read More

  • Tradition and Ancestry in Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo

    2229 Words  | 5 Pages

    For the inhabitant of the Western industrialized world, the paradigm of progress dominates his or her conceptions of birth, death, time, and history. Tradition is part of a construction of history that shows the causal progression of events from the past to the present. Time is linear. An individual progresses forward in life, socially and materially advancing himself or herself as much as possible within one life-span. Old age denotes the approach of death--the end of individual progress and the barrier of human progress. Consumerism, materialism and scientific empiricism are the mechanisms of Western progress. They presuppose a separation between man and woman, his body, and his environment, and the ability of the ormer to control the latter three, assumptions which can ultimately wreak "havoc among cultures that are not organized around the pursuit of material abundance" (Diamond 138). According to anthropologist Dominique Zahan, tradition, for the African "is above all the collective experience of the com...

    Read More

  • Arnett's Theory Of Emerging Adulthood

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    J. J. Arnett argues his theory about a developmental stage individuals go through of 18-25 year olds as a new concept, (Arnett, 2000, pp. 469). He describes emerging adulthood as being a sustained period of time where this age group, as mentioned previously, explores their roles preceding being an adult. These movements can include events similarly by taking longer than previous years to get married and have children, moving back in with their parents at a point during this age span, exploring self-identities, not feeling like an adult and feelings of self-failure. James E. Cote, who is a previous colleague of Arnett argues the opposite about this concept being an unexperienced developmental stage Arnett calls, “Emerging Adulthood”. Cote states

    Read More

  • Rite Of Passage Essay Examples

    817 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rite of passage is defined per Wikipedia.com as, “a celebration of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another. It involves a significant change of status in society.” Such as when a student graduates high school and prepares to attend college, get married, or live away from home working to support themselves. Maturation is not signified by an arbitrary age. Nor is it gauged by whether one attends college or not. The stage where the adolescent lives on their own, is the beginning of the process. This is a time to make choices based on the knowledge accumulated up to this time. In America, when one reaches the age of eighteen they are considered an adult and can vote. Chronologically they are

    Read More

  • Emerging Adulthood: The Period Of Development

    1578 Words  | 4 Pages

    But is emerging adulthood a period that every young person experiences through their life, in every culture and exactly the same ages or are there any restrictions for young people to experience this emerging phase. Marriage was the significance that a person entered adulthood, it usually happened between the ages of 16-18 for females and 18-20 for males. This small window before marriage only allows for a period of adolescences but no emerging adulthood. So this means that emerging adulthood is not a universal phase but one that only is experienced by those people that delay taking any adult like responsibilities until past their teens. Because some countries are extremely industrialized the requirement of people to have a higher education is reinforced, many emerging adults remain in school until their early or mid twenties to obtain a gainful position. This allows them to explore relationships and different jobs before they consider taking on the responsibility to marry and procreate and support a child financially. Although marriage is mostly calculated by some, there are cultures such as the Mormon Church that have a short emerging period. Due to cultural beliefs, there is no premarital sex and usually aim to have large families, so the pressure is on the young people to wed early and procreate because this is what is expected of them from both their families; it’s the

    Read More

  • The Marriage Process Of The Mohawk's Marriage Ceremonies

    1674 Words  | 4 Pages

    The transformation into adulthood is an important aspect of starting the marriage process, called the rite of passage. According to life transformation notes, girls will start their transformation during their first moon time; this is known as a menstrual cycle (Brooks 4). Her mother and the other women of her clan conduct the ceremony recognizing her new ability to conceive. To conclude her transformation she must speak intelligently with the women of her clan, also known as aunties. She must pass this

    Read More

  • Rites of Passage Ceremonies

    2764 Words  | 6 Pages

    As children we wished to grow up and become an adult sooner so we can have more rights, but the way to adulthood varies with different cultures. Since different cultures have different ways of becoming an adult the meaning of being an adult is different. A person leaves childhood and enters adulthood in many ways there are cultural, religious, or social events. A common way in many cultures is by a rite of passage or ceremonies; a rite of passage is a ritual or event that shows that a person is now an adult. A rite of passage usually reflects certain things that are important in a culture such as values, and beliefs. Rites of passage can be described as specifications that need to be met and occur around the same time as things such as puberty, and marriage. Common types of these ceremonies are usually found in religion; some examples of these ceremonies include baptism, and a Bat Mitzvah. All of these things are considered rites of passage for a person to become an adult in their respective religions.

    Read More

  • Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...’s depictions of both traditional and modern beliefs in varying degrees illustrate the importance of both in contemporary Nigerian culture, as well as the greater Africa as a whole, and how both are intertwined and cannot exist without the other. In effect, she skillfully subverts stereotypes or single perceptions of Africa as backward and traditional, proving instead, the multifaceted culture of Africa. She further illustrates that neither traditional African nor western culture is necessarily detrimental. It is the stark contrast of the fundamental cultures that inevitably leads to clashes and disagreements. In the end, what holds African countries such as Nigeria together is their shared pride. Modern, western influences can bring positive changes to society, but new cultures cannot completely eradicate the foundational cultures to which a society is founded on.

    Read More

  • Emerging Adulthood Essay

    1015 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to Nelson, Badger and Bo (2004), non-Western culture tends to focus on practices that help the transition to adulthood instead of having the period of emerging adulthood. However, Asians usually leave home at a much older age compared to the Americans. With that said, Asians are slower in the transition towards adulthood by gaining independence and freedom much later in life. In addition to that, emerging adults of lower socioeconomic status reaches adulthood earlier than those who are from higher socioeconomic status (Settersten & Ray,

    Read More

  • Anthropological theory of "rites of passage"

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    As species we are all born human, yet the journey we take on the passage of life defines us as individuals. Our lives are an array of moments of secular and spiritual change. Regardless of their importance, in both contexts, these occurrences represent a transition from one stage of life to another. People formalized these important moments of physical or social change by ritualization, or also known as ‘rite of passage’. The rites of passage play an important role in society. They are an efficient tool in restoring and maintaining balance within the social environment. At the same time, through rituals, they lead the initiate to social transformation. Rites of passage characteristically give assurance of mastery of the new roles and often include instruction in the new roles.

    Read More

  • Oprah Winfrey

    1690 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...[R]ites of passage are not confined to culturally defined life-crises, but may accompany any change from one state to another, as when a whole tribe goes to war, or when it attests the passage from scarcity to plenty by performing a first-fruits or a harvest festival. Rites de passage, too, are not restricted, sociologically speaking, to movements between ascribes statuses. They also concern entry into a new achieved status, whether this be a political office or membership to a exclusive club or secret society...On the whole, initiation rites, whether into maturity or cult membership, best exemplify transition...(Tumer 235).

    Read More

  • Essay On Puberty Ceremony

    1342 Words  | 3 Pages

    Additionally, there is more to a puberty ceremony than just changing into an adult, because there is much that goes on in the four day ceremony. It is in our tradition that the meaning of this ceremony is similar to the change from adolescence to an adult. I interview Gj Gordy from the Good Shepard Mission in Fort Defiance, Arizona. She stated that, “Yes. There is a lot that goes in the kinaalda, there is no time to rest or be lazy. You always have to do something or prepare things for the next event because for the four days it is all about you so, if you mess up then you mess up your ceremony. That is why we have to get everything perfect and right so in life we won’t mess up and we’ll get it right the first time around” (Gordy. Interview). Many ceremonies events are all different for each girl. Some families have different evens that they want their child to do but, mostly all follow the same even. For example the first day the girl will get her hair combed, dress in nice clothing and jewelry, be molded if it’s her second ceremony, run in the morning and evening, start to grind corn and start to prepare for her alkaad (ceremony cake). The second day consist of running, corn grinding and continue her preparations. The third

    Read More

More about The Importance Of African Culture: Rites Of Passage

Open Document