Coming of Age: The Importance of Male Rites of Passage
by Brett & Kate McKay on November 9, 2008 from A Man's Life, On Manhood
ANSWER SHEET
SECTION 1 (Questions 1-1)
1)
The elders of the tribe stood in front of the hut and beckoned for the young man to come out and begin the festivities of the special day. The young man had barely slept the night before,anxiously anticipating the tests he would soon be called to endure. As he rose to meet the elder,he was aware of a great gnawing in his stomach; he had had nothing to eat for the last three days as he purged his body of impurities.
The ceremony soon began. The elders of the tribe pierced his chest, shoulder, and back muscles with large wooden splints. Ropes, which extended from the roof of the hut, were then attached to the splints, and the young man was winched up into the air, his whole body weight suspended from the ropes. Agonizing pain coursed through the young man's body, but he gritted his teeth and tried not to cry out.
While hanging in the air, more splints were hammered through his arms and legs. Skulls of his dead grandfather and other ancestors were placed on the ends of the splints. All the while, the young man cried aloud to the Great Spirit for courage to endure. Eventually, the young man
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